City College of San Francisco saves Cantonese courses with new certificate programs
SAN FRANCISCO – Officials at the City College of San Francisco announced the school would offer new Cantonese-language certificates, preserving one of the nation's few programs teaching the language.
Trustee Alan Wong, who spearheaded the effort to save the program, announced the certificate programs would be offered to students beginning in the 2023-24 school year. Students would have the opportunity to earn a nine-unit Conversational Cantonese Certificate of Achievement and a 17-unit Chinese (Cantonese) Certificate of Achievement.
"After a long fight, our movement to save the Cantonese program at City College has succeeded. I am ecstatic that City College of San Francisco will finally provide equity to the Cantonese speaking community," Wong said in a statement Thursday.
The new course offerings come a year after the program faced possible cancellation due to budget cuts. Earlier this year, the school's Board of Trustees approved a resolution by Wong to protect the Cantonese program.
According to Wong, Cantonese is the most commonly spoken language among San Francisco's Chinese population.
"Saving the Cantonese program is not only about protecting Chinese culture, language, and history. It is also about the very practical need to ensure that our large Cantonese community has access to public safety, healthcare, and social services," Wong explained.
Despite San Francisco's large Cantonese-speaking population, a report by The Associated Press in September noted how difficult it can be to find opportunities to learn Cantonese in the city.
While the language has nearly 85 million speakers worldwide, the report noted that the Chinese government's push for wider use of Mandarin and the country's changing migration patterns has led to a shift away from Cantonese that has reverberated across the globe.
Grace Yu, the school's lone Cantonese professor for the past six years, told the AP that there were four Cantonese instructors when she was hired in 1990.
"Vacancies were not replaced with Cantonese instructors. Instead, they hired Mandarin instructors," Yu said.
According to Wong, students who have already completed the coursework can apply to City College to receive the certificates.
City College is one of 18 institutions of higher learning in the U.S. that teach Cantonese.
