The herald., 1898-11-18
TEACHING CHINESE BY MACHINE
Instructor Is in,San Francisco and the
Pupils in PHILADELPHIA

fupllS IN EullaQelpnl8
San Francisco Chinese language is
about to be taught by machine. A success
full start has been made, and between the
teacher and the taught intervenes the full
width Of the North American continent.
The teacher is in San Francisco, the pupils
are in Philadelphia. The, Chinese words
and the explanations necessary are spoken
into the graphophone by the Rev. John f..
Gardner, formerly a missionary, but for
some years interpreter of Chinese at the Gus
tom house in San Francisco. The leader Of
the class in Philadelphia is the Rev. Mr..
Poole, who is concerned in missionary work
there. The maxims of Confucius, the re-
markable literary production known as the
"Poem of One Thousand Characters" and,
generally speaking, the Chinese classics of
the many centuries of China's existence, are
used in the teaching.
DR.. Gardner is not over 30 years old. In
| an interview he said
IL am teaching the Cantonese dialect,
which is the commercial dialect of China.
1t is spoken by 2O,0OO,OOO Chinese in tho
great province of Canton. 1t is the dialect
employed by the Chinese commercial colo
nies of the world, in the Philippines, at
Shanghai, at Tientsin, in the West Indies
in Central and South America, in the Ha-
waiian islands; in short, it is the commercial
Chinese language of the world. The regents
OF the University of California employed
me several months ago, foreseeing that the
commercial relations of the United States
with China are certain to be more extensive
in the future than they have been in the
past, to teach class of university students.
Recently the work has been extended, and
university extension course has been added,
the new class meeting in the Mark Hopkins
Institute OF Art, which is connected with
the university. Some knowledge of this,
together with the general appreciation of
the increasing value Of China commercially
to this country, may have led un to the
graphophonic class which DR.. Poole has es
tablished in Philadelphia.
Ihe Cantonese dialect is spoken by all the
Chinese laundrymen and other Chinese in
this country, the consular and diplomatic
officers and students probably being the
only exceptions. The Mandarin dialect has
been taught for several years in educational
institutions, at Yale, at the University of
California and elsewhere. This is called the
Mandarin diulect because it is the official
language of China, and is spoken by the
official and learned class. 1t is, however.
spoken also by the people of the northern
provinces of China. They are not the mer-
camille class.
Several months ago Mr.. Arthur Rodg-
ers, one of the regents of the University
OF California, successfully advocated the es-
tablishment of the college of commerce in
connection with the university, the pur-
pose OF which is principally TO give young
men and women such knowledge as will as
sist them to carry on business with foreign
countries Soon after the college had been
established received an invitation to
teach the students in Cantonese or COM
mercial Chinese. The collector of the port
kindly permitted me to visit Berkeley, the
home OF the university, several times Il
week. Young men and women became will
ling and ardent students of Cantonese. The
war with Spain having widened our COM
mercial horizon appreciabV, the existing
situation has inspired lawyers, merchants
and professional men with desire to learn
Cantonese. Representations to this effect
having been made to the regents of the
university, a university extension class has
followed. Thirty busy professional and
business men are now devoting their even
ings to the study of Cantonese. promise
them that within, year they will be suffi.
GENTLY well equipped to carry on business,
independently of an interpreter, with the
Chinese.
'Of course it is common knowledge that
all written Chinese is the same. Those who
learn to read and write Chinese will be able
to communicate directly with any one of
the hundreds of millions of Chinese in all
parts of the ancient kingdom. The Chinese
language is not SO difficult to learnras has
been supposed 1t is phonetic. There are
a, ,444 characters in it, These are separable