Pay special attention to the social implications of these systems. To avoid exoticism, teachers can highlight similarities in the responses to underlying human concerns. Introduce the Chinese Language. While Chinese may never be as popular as Indo-European languages in secondary schools, it is being introduced in a growing number of school districts. Although spoken Chinese presents difficulties for non-specialist teachers, ideographic characters can be introduced at all levels.
Many survey works on China include diagrams tracing the evolution of specific characters.
Teachers might introduce common radicals and then challenge students to guess possible meanings of more complex characters containing them. Chinese calligraphers could be invited to demonstrate the aesthetic qualities of the Chinese writing system. Avoid Common Pitfalls. When discussing China, use an objective tone. The United States or Western nations in general should not be presented as the ideal to which all other nations should aspire.