February 7, 2008

Dear colleagues,

New Year’s greetings from the steering committee of Chinese Language Teachers Association of Southern California!

As you no doubt know, learning Chinese in the past decade has become more and more popular. Correspondingly, the demand for Chinese language teachers and for quality language instruction is also increasing. In response to these demands, we are seeking to establish a Chinese Language Teachers’ Association of Southern California – CLTA-SC , an academic organization like many of its kind all over the country. We would like to seek your participation and support.

CLTA-SC will sponsor meetings where we can exchange ideas and share our valuable experiences; CLTA-SC also aims to host students’ activities and cultural events. A steering committee has been formed and we are working to accomplish the following tasks:

• Draft By-Laws and Mission Statement;
• Create a bank account for CLTA-SC;
• Create a web site http://clta-sc.org;
• Plan the first event in March 2008

In Southern California alone, we have hundreds of Chinese instructors at all levels of education. Together, we can respond to the growing enthusiasm of our students and accomplish the valuable educational goal of teaching the younger generation about Chinese language and culture.

If you endorse our proposal and wish to become a member of this association, please visit our web site http://clta-sc.org. The membership due is $25 per fiscal year. Please register online, print the registration form and mail it along with your check.

We are in the process of establishing an email list for future announcements. If you know other colleagues who may be interested in joining this association, please encourage them to do so or contact us at info@clta-sc.org with their contact information. We very much appreciate your help and participation.

Tianwei Xie, Chair, Steering Committee, CLTA-SC (CSU Long Beach)
Cathy Wei, Vice Chair, Steering Committee, CLTA-SC (Pasadena City College)