What kind of Chinese is taught at St. Edwards University?
Our Humanities department teaches Modern Standard Chinese, the official language of the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan. This dialect is also known as “putonghua” (a term used in the People’s Republic of China), “guoyu” (a term used in Taiwan), Beijing dialect, and Mandarin. It is different from Cantonese, Shanghai dialect, Taiwanese, and many other regional dialects, which can be considered mutually unintelligible, although the written language is virtually the same for all. Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world. A great deal of world trade is conducted in Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Taipei where Chinese is spoken.
