Evening star., 1926-09-26
HILLTOP HAS EASY
COURSE IN CHINESE
Characters Reduced to Only
1000 Instead of 5000.
Dr.. Young in Charge.

An alphabet reduced scientifically
. to only 900 toneue-twisters. Com
pare memorizing that number of let
fers to the simple task of learning
the A + C's Of English. and one has
q fair idea of the intellectual hurdles
that await the score Of studeRts who
. will comprise the class in Ca:nese at
. the Georgetown University School of
Foreign Service this FAN.
Appointment Of DR.. G. Quangson
Young. third secretary Of the Chinese
legation, as head Of the Chinese de-
partment at the GEORGETOWN school,
was announced yesterday. He sue.
ceeds in that capacity DR.. kwang- Lai
Low, secretary of the legation, who in
troduced Chinese into the Georgetown
curriculum and who recently was or
dered transferred from Washington.
Chinese is manifestly difficult to
learn, Georgetown officials admit, but
1t is not baffling to the diligent stu
dent. DR.. Young has worked out a
systematic method that Is said to be
no more difficult to master than some
Of the other Oriental or the European
Languages. One of the greatest diff
culties in connection with the Chinese
language is the lack of systematic
alphabet. which has been overcome tc
some extent by the preparation of a
group of characters totaling about
5000. Modern educators, however,
have succeeded in reducing this bulky
number down to 1000 characters
necessary for the ordinary use OF the
language.
China, with it's vast population. has
numerous dialects. The one most i'm
portant and considered AS the stand
ard IL the Mandarin language. This
will be the dialect taught at George
town beginning October ].
Educated In America.
DR.. Young is an American-trained
student, and has had an interesting
and varied career He took his under
graduate work in Peking and came
to the United States in 1920. At the
University of Minnesota he took post
graduate work and later spent three
years at Princeton University, where
he received his degree Of doctor OF
philosophy in 1924, majoring in in
ternational law and American COnstl.
tutional law.
During 1921 DIR. Young was an
attache to the Chinese legation to the
! Washington Limitation of ArmamentS
! Conference and later his country sent
him to Geneva to the Internationa
Opium Conference, as secretary anG
expert to the Chinese delegation. Since
1924 Dr. Young has been connected
with the legation in Washington anG
now holds the post of third secretary
Students at Georgetown are not
without experience in many of the
more difficult foreign languages.
Serge y. Petrenko. formerly OF the
Artillery College OF Grand Duke Con-
stantine, Petrograd. has been Yer.
successful in conducting classes In
Russian. As a result number OF
Georgetown students have been able
to obtain responsible positions IN
Russia, where a commercial knowl-
edge of the language is necessary.
In connection with the Chinese
course it is proposed to cover not
only a reading and writing knowl-
edge of the language, but some ap-
preciation of Chinese culture. There
will be series Of six ,ectures OF
Chinese history. civilization. eco
nomics, political and educational con
ditions and Chinas position rs
potential buyer in the American
market.
Georgetown medical and dental
departments will open tomorrow, fol-
lowed by the foreign service school
October l. By then the entire uni
versity will be in operation.
Despite the fact that two years
college work is required for admis