UTEP MBA Students Develop Mandarin Skills, Prepare for Global Market
As part of their Graduate Business Education, full-time students in UTEP’s Masters of Business Administration program recently started classes in Mandarin Chinese. The courses, which started in the fall of 2011, are offered through a partnership with the Confucius Institute. The mission of the Confucius Institute is to increase awareness and understanding of Chinese language and culture throughout the world through education, performance, seminars and outreach.
Laura Uribarri, Associate Dean for MBA programs, explains the decision to start offering the courses:
“Language skills are absolutely essential in a global business market. With so many of our students already fluent in Spanish, we wanted to give them an additional edge. China is the second largest trading partner with the US, and the second largest economy in the world, so Mandarin Chinese was an obvious choice. “
Professor Laoshi (Jing) Yang leads the students through a Mandarin Chinese workshop designed to build their conversational Chinese skills to help them get an edge in the international market. Professor Yang has been a university professor for 16 years in China and is a native of Luoyang, an ancient capital of the Henan Province in northern China. MBA Students in the class will spend 8 hours a week for 5 weeks.