Abroad Perspective: The CET Podcast

Studying a foreign language takes you from a to b, but what’s in the middle? For Marian Stacey that space in the middle was discovering a world of ideas previously inaccessible to her. From a humble beginning in the CET JanTerm 2011 A-ban (first year) level, she pursued her Chinese studies all the way to a master’s in Chinese literature. In her words, it was going from “See spot run” to complicated texts rich with historical references. After completing her master’s at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, she now works on the marketing team for the textbook company Cheng & Tsui, which publishes the definitive textbook for Chinese language study: Integrated Chinese 中文听说读写. In our podcast, she describes how kismet*, yuan fen 缘分, (fate) brought her to use her Chinese skills to market the very book series that helped her build those skills. We reflect on the cultish reverence for textbook characters shared by learners of Chinese and Arabic and speculate on the insinuated romances between the characters.

Marian describes how learning Chinese changed the way she approaches communication—she no longer takes it for granted. She talks about her passion for translation because it allows people who would otherwise not have access to Chinese literature to learn about China. Similar to the integrated approach to language learning at Cheng and Tsui, Marian takes an integrated approach to translation, situating the author’s ideas in the historical context, philosophical context, and communicative context. She also shares how a cultural misunderstanding serendipitously put her in the right place at the right time and unexpectedly created one of her most memorable moments in China.

Join us for our first episode recorded “on location” at the Career Integration Conference in Boston!

Marian Stacey is an alumna of the Intensive Chinese Language in Beijing Janterm and Spring 2011 program. She studied at Clark College and the Hopkins Nanjing Center, and completed her master’s in Chinese literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She currently works for the Boston-based textbook company, Cheng and Tsui.

NB- We referred to hilarious textbook memes on social media for both Integrated Chinese and the popular Arabic textbook Al-Kitab. You’ll find tons if you search the internet but here are a few of them:

Integrated Chinese on Tumblr

Blog dedicated to an Al Kitab character

*fun side note- kismet, meaning fate or destiny, comes to English through Turkish but is originally derived from Arabic qisma meaning “lot” or “portion”. We didn’t realize this during the interview, but Marian was speaking Arabic without knowing it!

We would love to hear from you! Please send your questions and comments to [email protected]

Ask any language student, and they will tell you that nothing beats studying a language intensively in-country! In this episode, meet John Ambrose, the CET Jordan alum who loved his first semester studying intensive Arabic at CET so much that he came back again for a full academic year! John, who graduated from the School of International Service at American University, talks to us about his experience studying Arabic, how his first experience studying in Jordan was different than the second time around, and the (non-sanctioned!) fun he had along the way. Jon also shares how all those experiences have gotten him to where he is now as a newly minted management analyst at the State Department. Want to know what it’s like going from language buff to young professional taking his first steps towards a career in government service? This podcast is for you!

John Ambrose is a management analyst working with the US Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs. He is a graduate of American University’s School of International Studies, where he majored in International Studies, and was a 2013 recipient of the David L. Boren Scholarship for Arabic language. John studied abroad with CET Jordan in 2011 and again from 2013-2014.

We would love to hear from you! Please send your questions and comments to [email protected]

By the time he started his Classical Chinese classes at George Washington University, Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga had baseball victories over the Fudan high school team and Chinese terminology for the Korean nuclear crisis under his belt! He describes how his early interest in Chinese language, culture, politics and people led him to study abroad on four programs back to back and then pursue a master’s degree with Peking University and the London School of Economics. Add to all this international internships with reputable think tanks and a handful of publications and he was set up to easily find a great job when he came back to DC, right? Wrong. Looking back, Nathan shares why he struggled to find a position in foreign policy and analyzes the short-term and long-term benefits of building professional skills abroad versus networking locally. He poses a series of important questions for recent grads trying to discern what to do next and how to do it.

Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga is a Project Associate and China specialist at the RAND Corporation. His recent research focus is Chinese foreign policy, China-North Korea relations, China’s One Belt One Road, and Chinese bureaucratic politics. Prior to joining RAND, Nathan was the Editor of China Brief at The Jamestown Foundation, a biweekly publication focusing on strategic China-related issues utilizing indigenous language sources. He has also spent time with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the Center for International and Strategic Studies at Peking University (CISS) under Wang Jisi and Zhu Feng, and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).

We would love to hear from you! Please send your questions and comments to [email protected]

Can you love language learning so much that you make it your career path? Yes! In this episode, we speak with CET Beijing alumna Liz Carter, who didn’t plan on becoming a translator, but kept learning and immersing in Mandarin so much after CET that translation (and editing and writing) eventually became her path. Liz talks about her first graduate school experience in China and her upcoming PhD program in linguistics, but she also discusses what it takes to become a translator outside of academics. Language learning is a life-long process, and opportunities can arise everywhere—from peers, from the (sometimes odd) jobs you find yourself accepting, or even from a night of karaoke. Liz also explains the importance and cyclical nature of the four stages of competence in language learning… and how important it is to not become complacent when you reach the end of a cycle.

Liz Carter was a CET Intensive Chinese Language in Beijing student in Spring and Summer 2006. She is a Chinese translator and the author of Let 100 Voices Speak: How the Internet is Transforming China and Changing Everything, published by I.B. Tauris in 2015. She was formerly an Assistant Editor at Tea Leaf Nation, now a part of the Foreign Policy Group, and a translator for China Digital Times, where she helped co-author their e-book, The Grass-mud Horse Lexicon: Classical Netizen Language. She lived for several years in Beijing, where she authored and translated a number of textbooks for China’s Foreign Languages Press.

NB- Liz referred to research on emergent grammar. Click this link for the full article.

We would love to hear from you! Please send your questions and comments to [email protected]

Not sure what you’re going to do with your language skills? Neither was Morgan. But as he studied Arabic, he remained open to many prospects, tried new things, discovered learning opportunities in unlikely places, and remained patient… especially through the twists and turns of his first years out of college.

In our pilot alumni interview, we speak with CET Jordan alumnus Morgan Byrne-Diakun who shares his advice for students.

Morgan maintains that the most essential language skills for a professional context are: understanding humor, knowing how to spin, and being persuasive. While it’s not always comfortable, verbal conflict can drive the language learning process, he explains. He also shares two of his favorite study abroad memories where he discovered the importance of cultural competence and non-verbal communication in Arabic.

When we ask him what he keeps in his arsenal alongside advanced Arabic proficiency, he says that solid English writing skills and a sense of humor are two indispensable skills, adding how much he values his liberal arts education for setting him up for success in a variety of positions – which is a good thing, as we discuss how the nature of careers is shifting and transitioning to positions in different fields is becoming increasingly common.

Morgan Byrne-Diakun was a CET Jordan student in summer 2011. He discovered a passion for language acquisition when he began studying Arabic at the University of Virginia in 2008, where he subsequently earned his B.A. in Middle Eastern Languages and Foreign Affairs. After graduating, Morgan worked with CET as a Resident Assistant in Jordan and Tunisia. Since returning to the United States, he has worked in higher education research and as a government contractor for the defense community. He is currently pursuing an M.A. in Security Studies at the Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

NB – We mentioned that Morgan finished the CET program in the “advanced spectrum”. We are referring to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language’s proficiency guidelines.

We would love to hear from you! Please send your questions and comments to [email protected].

Welcome to the new CET podcast Abroad Perspective with your hosts Jason Wang and Allegra O’Donoghue!

We manage intensive language programs for Chinese and Arabic at CET and a couple of years ago were given the opportunity to address the lack of career integration for language students in study abroad. So what is career integration, exactly?

In our context, it’s about integrating the study abroad experience into career and life planning as a student. A major focus of career integration is developing and articulating skills. Unfortunately, language students are often left out of this conversation since it’s pretty obvious that language students are developing an easily articulated hard skill in Arabic, Chinese, etc. The assumption is these students are all set, but that’s just not true.  To read more on this topic, check out an article we wrote on page 99 of the Career Integration Conference journal Reviewing the Impact of Experience Abroad on Employment. 

We are continually looking for ways to counter what we refer to as an overly simplistic narrative that language skills = job. We have launched this podcast as a forum for bringing more voices to the conversation and giving program alumni a platform to share their experiences and paint a more realistic picture for the newer generation of study abroad students.

Whether you are a proactive first year college student thinking about study abroad and where it can take you, or someone recently returned from a term abroad, and are thinking “what’s next?”, or you’ve recently graduated, and are navigating your way through the work world, we hope you’ll listen!

We would love to hear from you! Please send your questions and comments to [email protected]