Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1900 — TEACHING CHINESE. [ARTICLE]

TEACHING CHINESE.

Scheme to Instruct Young Englishmen in the Language. Considering the magnitude of British interests in China, it is curious that so little effort has hitherto been made to provide facilities for the teaching of Chinese in Great Britain. It is true that professorships of Chinese are to be found at Oxford, at 'Cambridge and at King’s college, ■SLondon, but to those who know anything of the way the people of Great do business in China it is Jelear that for a long time past other •and more vigorous measures have been urgently needed to enable our merchants to hold their legitimate •place in the commercial development ■of the far east. From a memorandum issued by R. S. Gundry, the energetic honorable secretary of the China ■association, it seems that the credit of an importanbproposal for meeting ■the need referred to is mainly due to Mr. Harrison, the president of the Blackburn chamber of commerce. It was the Blackburn chamber, it Will be remembered, which organized two years ago a commercial expedition to China, and its members were evidently struck with the disadvantage at which Englishmen stand in China owing to their general ignorance of Chinese. It is astonishing how few British residents in China can lay claim to know Chinese fairly well, and how very few have a scholastic knowledge of the language. In the treaty ports English is so completely the principal linguistic medium that there is perhaps little or no inducement for our countrymen to master the other tongue. At every turn there are plenty of natives who speak and write English perfectly, and are thoroughly qualified to act as interpreters.

In the interior things are very different, and it is there that the missionaries have been the pioneers, not only in mastering Chinese themselves, but in teaching English to the natives. I had a curious instance of this brought under my notice last year while traveling near Pei-tai-ho, a picturesque little seaside resort on the northern shore of the Gulf of Pechili, The station master approached a, member cf our party and inquired if he was connected with a large in-, dustrial enterprise then on foot—with the Peking syndicate, in fact. The Englishman disclaimed any close connection with it, whereon the Chinaman produced a letter from a friend of his in Shansi, suggesting to the station master, who was a good English scholar, that he should apply for a berth in connection with the undertaking. The letter, though written by one Chinaman to another, end coming from a remote province in the interior, hundreds of miles away, was written wholly in English. It turned out that both the correspondents had learned English in the Chinese government schools. Of course, there are plenty of Chinamen who are competent to teach our countrj’nxn the native language, but it will he readily understood that when ,cnee the British get settled in a treaty pert the temptation to plunge into actual business, using an interpreter where needful, is very strong, end little leisure remains fcr mastering the Chinese characters end vocabulary. Moreover, the British reluctance to karn a foreign tongue is co new thing. It is not surprising, therefore, to find Ifce China association persuaded that, es we are on the l eve of great changci’in China, steps I shontri be taken to instruct young | Englishmen in Chinese before they I arrive in the country where they proi pose to make their living. association points out , that the Deed of being able to com- ‘ municate freely with the natives will be greater in proportion as access to I I he interior is facilitated and places of ' contact are multiplied. As inland I navigation, mining, railway extension and other works are set on foot, engineers and clerks will certainly be required, and if the people of this country are to hold their own in competition With Belgians, Germans, Russians or Danes it is essential that the British should have some previous acquaintance with the Chinaman. Even though the education may have to be completed in China, the young man who starts with a basis or even the rudiments of knowledge and with an insight into the principles and methods of acquit ng Chinese, to which Mr. Harrison and Mr. Gundry refer, standsabetterehame than those who have avoided all study of the ’»>.- guage till they ' r e arrive lon j spot. A striking ex* pl of the m < wrought on Br . m< e it! i estsbymoreo’ • r >.» <« ence on inter] ' > the developm system, an ir

sto Anglo-Chinese business. The com-pradore—-a Portuguese word signifying buyer—is the native.official or servant who in the days of the early European trading settlers used to be intrusted with the job of purchasing produce and goods for export direct from the native growers or merchants. In process of rimetjiecompradorehas come to excellent use of his linguistic and business opportunities—as being often the only person able to talk Chinese and empowered to deal with natives—that nowadays the compradore of a British bank or firm often makes more than the firm Itself. This is pointedly commented on by F. Bourne, of the consular service, in. his excellent report to Lord Salisbury on the trade of central and southern China, issued last year. Mr. Bourne also laid stress on the want of some recognized agency for teaching Chinese, to which Mr. Harrison and Mr. Gundry are now inviting attention. In Mr. Gundry’a memorandum it is stated that, though an official decision has not been arrived at, the University of London is favorably disposed and inclined to grant the necessary accommodation for the teaching of Chinese. ‘ This attitude on the part of the university is both enlightened and gratifying, and there is little doubt that the necessary financial support will be forthcoming to enable Chinese teachers to be engaged as assistants to English professors.—London Post.