About

The next wave of language education

In the 21st century, knowing Chinese is an increasingly critical skill. Indiana University’s Chinese Flagship Program is designed to allow you to major in any of IU's fields of study while gaining professional proficiency in Chinese.

The Chinese Flagship Program is an innovative, federally funded program that helps students cultivate Superior level proficiency in Chinese. The program culminates in a year-long capstone experience in Taiwan, where you study abroad and complete an internship in your field.

Flagship students:

  • Reach professional proficiency in Mandarin Chinese
  • Pursue a diverse range of majors, from business to science to humanities
  • Study abroad for a full year in Taiwan while completing an internship
  • Intern with international organizations in Taiwan
  • Work in diverse fields after graduation, such as business, government, education, arts, and the nonprofit sector
  • Develop personal and professional networks
  • Receive scholarships for intensive language study and study abroad, both in the summer and during the Capstone year
  • Benefit from one-on-one individualized tutorials in Chinese
  • Become global professionals

Part of the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies

The Chinese Flagship is part of the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies (HLS) in the College of Arts and Sciences. Chinese language classes are held in IU’s impressive new Global and International Studies Building, which offers a wealth of resources and leading technology for our students.

The Chinese Flagship experience

Description of the video:

0:06 wellactually was brought in my horizons
0:08 because it's allowed me to really see
0:10 how much of an impact China's gonna have
0:13 in the 21st century not only for people
0:16 that are going into business but also
0:17 people that are interested in diplomacy
0:19 China as a country and Chinese as a
0:23 languages or just becoming more and more
0:24 relevant every day by studying Chinese
0:27 that's allowed me to see just how
0:28 relevant it is in regards to my personal
0:31 studies a lot of people are saying
0:32 Chinese now but not everyone is studying
0:34 Chinese at the level that flagship
0:36 teaches so because we're in the flagship
0:39 we were kind of elite in a way there are
0:42 a lot of people that want those skills
0:43 working government working international
0:45 business working in nonprofits all these
0:48 people want Westerners who are fluent in
0:50 Chinese by being in the flagship after
0:52 graduation is just gonna be really easy
0:54 to get any job flagship is a program
0:59 that's sponsored by the federal
1:00 government so there's a lot of
1:02 opportunities to get scholarships to do
1:03 study abroad and to study study the
1:06 language on a really deep kind of level
1:08 it's a four-year program but it pairs
1:10 really well with any major that you
1:11 might pick here at IU and it's you know
1:13 it's a great opportunity to add another
1:15 skill to you know your professional
1:17 portfolio before you graduate by doing
1:19 flagship I believe that I'm really
1:21 differentiated myself when it comes to
1:24 career prospects afterwards
1:27 I love my Chinese teachers the way I
1:29 could connect with them and the way
1:30 they're so passion about teaching me
1:32 their language and culture is really
1:34 inspiring and I really appreciate them
1:37 what's neat about the flagship is that
1:40 it's very intimate and so when I mean
1:44 intimate is that instead of just going
1:45 to a classroom and you know doing random
1:48 drills with your teacher in their
1:49 classmates the program is very catered
1:51 to what you want to do since I'm a
1:54 biochemistry major I'll learn Chinese
1:56 but also learn vocabulary in terms in my
1:59 field so right now I'm learning like the
2:01 periodic table in Chinese so it's very
2:03 catered to what I want to do with my
2:05 major so I get to communicate with
2:10 international students has really really
2:12 given me very different perspectives
2:15 during my capstone year I had a study
2:17 for a semester at Nanjing University I
2:19 took I wrote them two direct courses
2:21 there and that fit with my International
2:24 Studies major and then I'm currently
2:25 doing a internship a full-time
2:28 internship in general I feel like
2:30 Chinese people are really curious about
2:31 either American culture or other
2:34 cultures so every day at work I go to
2:38 lunch with my co-workers and they are
2:40 always asking me questions about
2:42 politics society culture every day I
2:45 feel like I'm in freakin president being
2:50 from a small town in Indiana when I
2:51 first came to Beijing for the first time
2:53 it was quite overwhelming walking down
2:56 the street in Shanghai is an experience
2:59 unlike any other place I've been in the
3:01 world it's just crazy to know that 25
3:05 million people live in this one
3:06 condensed area honestly I feel like
3:08 flagship is a network
3:10 not only a professional network also a
3:13 group of friends when I first came to IU
3:15 it was such a big school and so when I
3:18 did keep into flagship I definitely got
3:22 that sense of like smaller community
3:24 within the bigger IU community my
3:26 flagship classmates aren't just people
3:29 I'm in class with but they're my friends
3:31 they're my family they're people that by
3:34 the end of the day we're all in it
3:35 together and in the bond that we've
3:37 developed is this really strong flagship
3:41 students are definitely between the
3:43 table everyone's here with a purpose
3:46 they're kind they're empathetic they're
3:48 interesting their interest is there any
3:50 there everything global citizens need to
3:52 be in the 21st century I am so happy I
3:57 joined the flagship the support and the
4:00 help of God it's been amazing after
4:03 living in China and being a student in
4:06 the flagship program I can identify more
4:08 as a global citizen first I think the
4:11 bonds and friendships that I've
4:13 established between the flagship program
4:15 I see them to lasting
4:17 or a really long time I would not do
4:20 college any differently