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CHAPTERXLIIITRAINING SCHOOLS FOR MISSIONARIESTHE UNIVERSITY OF NANKING DEPARTMENTOF MISSIONARY TRAINING^ lieW. B. PettusuaTraining Staff<mecommonly used for this department is The Nanking Language School.It is the first of the language schools in China to secure theservices of a professionally trained director who has specialized in linguistics and phonetics. Mr. Keen, the dean ofthe department, is in every way well qualified for his work.This school has also advanced further than any of theother language schools in China in the training and efficiencyof the Chinese teachers. The head teacher, Mr. Gia Fuhtang,and his assistant, Mr. Wang Yao-ting, are past mastersin the conduct of the classes ;and in leading the normalclasses where the Chinese group and personal teachers aredaily trained for their work they are unsurpassed. The chiefasset of a language school is its teachers, and in this respectas well as in the excellent lessons which have been preparedand are now used the school is second to none.During the 1915-16 session which beganOctober 15 andEnrolmentwhich closed June 15, fiftystudents have been enrolled. All of thesehave been first-year students, as the school does not, atpresent, offer work for the second year. Lessons for thesecond year are being prepared and will be issued within afew months, for students who have studied in the school touse in further study of the language taught. The languageis Nankingese Mandarin and the students are to work inChekiang, Kiangsu, Anhwei, Hupeh, and Hunan provinces.Some will have to make changes to the dialect of the placevvhere they are to work, but the advantages they have gainedin learning the language correctly and in learning how tostudy a language will more than compensate them for thetime that will be needed in making the change.