Now Accepting Applications!

The Mandarin Chinese Summer Language Program is now accepting applications for the third cohort. Download the application form from the CSU Consortium for the Strategic Language Initiative (SLI) Program main web site. The deadline for submitting applications has been extended to April 25, 2009.

SLI students from 2007-2008 cohort win 1st and 2nd place at the annual Chinese language competition in Los Angeles:

Images from previous two years:

Announcement for the program aired on channel LA18 (in Mandarin):

Summer Immersion Language Program

The Intensive Immersion Language Program of the Southern Consortium of California State Universities offers a unique opportunity to jump-start your CV with professional language capacity currently much in demand.

California State University Long Beach will offer the Mandarin Chinese program. This extremely rigorous academic experience requires students to commit to six-weeks of intensive language study in summer 2009, a similarly intensive study-abroad program in China in the summer of 2010, and to follow-up guided study courses during the intervening semesters. During the summer programs students should plan to dedicate themselves completely to the study of the target language; they must commit to speaking only Mandarin.

Students accepted to this rigorous program will complete six units of professional language education in each summer session and three units, conducted predominately in Chinese, of directed studies related to their majors during each of the intervening semesters. They should expect to advance abundantly in their pursuit of language fluency. To be successful students should be ready to dedicate themselves to the advancement of language proficiency each day in class, and also by actively participating in extracurricular language activities and in group or independent language study.

The Mandarin program will admit only 18 students. These individuals will have completed two years of university level Mandarin language instruction (or equivalent), met the admissions criteria, done exceptionally well on the required interview, and demonstrated their capacity for study and personal growth. Admission will automatically make them eligible for this complete educational package, including tuition, books, individual and small group tutoring, room and board for the study abroad program in China, excursions, and extra-cirricular language activities.

Contact Information

If you require additional information not available on this website please contact one of the program coordinators.

Dr. Tim Xie
Department of Asian and Asian American Studies
California State University, Long Beach
Email: txie@csulb.edu
Telephone: (562) 985-5278

Dr. Jack Jinghui Liu
Department of Modern Languages & Literatures
California State University, Fullerton
Email: jinghuiliu@fullerton.edu
Telephone: (714) 278-2183

Prof. Jeff Winters
Department of Asian and Asian American Studies
California State University, Long Beach
Email: jwinter2@csulb.edu
Telephone: (562) 985-9333