Larry Herzberg
Email: herz@calvin.edu
Location: Hiemenga Hall 458

Phone: (616) 526-6363

Qin Herzberg
Email: qherzber@calvin.edu
Location: Hiemenga Hall 402

Phone: (616) 526-8624

Chinese and Japanese Language Courses

Larry Herzberg spent thirteen years at four universities studying many different foreign languages intensively, including Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, and, most importantly, Chinese and Japanese. His love of literature led to a B.A. in English from Lawrence University (Appleton, Wisconsin). He began his study of the Chinese language at Vanderbilt University, where he studied Chinese intensively for five years. His Master's and Ph.D. work in Chinese were done at Indiana University, where he also served as a teaching assistant for such notable scholars as Li Oufan, now Chairman of the Chinese department at Harvard University, and Philip West, now Director of Mansfield Center for Asian Studies at the University of Montana. It was at Indiana University that Larry also began to study Japanese.

In 1980, Larry began the Chinese language program at Albion College and taught Chinese there until 1984. Since 1984 he has been a professor at Calvin College. Here he has taught first through fourth year Japanese and Chinese language courses, as well as numerous courses on Chinese and Japanese culture and society.

Larry has visited mainland China countless times between 1982 and the present, most recently with 12 of his students on a May/June "interim" trip.

Larry has been to Japan six times in recent years. The first time he spent the entire summer there, traveling all over the islands and staying in the homes of Japanese families from various walks of life. His last four visits have been on "interim" trips with groups of his Japanese language students. These trips have always included numerous homestay opportunities with Japanese families all across Japan. On his last trip during the summer of 2006, the group of 14 students did homestays with three different groups of Japanese families in three different areas of Japan.

Larry's wife, Qin Xue, is Chinese and a graduate of one of China's leading universities, Beijing Normal University, where she majored in Chinese literature. She and Larry met while she was doing graduate work in English literature at Calvin College. Qin works as a free-lance writer and journalist. She writes regular columns for several of China's most popular magazines, including Marriage and the Family and China Educator's Journal. She has also published articles in America's leading Chinese newspaper, The World Journal.

Larry and Qin have published a book with travel advice for China entitled "China Survival Guide: How to Avoid Travel Troubles and Mortifying Mishaps" (Stonebridge Press, 2007). It's the first-ever guidebook that deals with the daily, nitty-gritty hurdles a tourist faces when traveling around China, done with a lot of humor as well as invaluable travel tips.

Larry and Qin have also produced a 50-minute documentary film on China called "China Today: Issues that Trouble Americans", which will be available for schools at all levels as well as church groups when it is released in 2008 and distributed by the Calvin Video Network.
The film is based on several years of interviews with Chinese people from different walks of life, including college professors and other educators, free-thinking writers and intellectuals, marriage and family experts, and religious leaders, but also peasants and migrant workers and shop clerks. The film also features extensive video footage of daily life in China and seeks to answer the basic questions that have troubled our students over the years, such as "Will China become a democracy any time soon? How severe and cruel is the so-called "one-child policy"? How much religious freedom is there really in China, when there are so many "underground churches" and we hear about the persecution of church leaders?

In addition to his work as an Asian language teacher, Larry has been a full time violinist with the G.R. Symphony since 1980. Each year he performs around 130 concerts. Before he came to Michigan, Larry was the Assistant Concertmaster of the Nashville (Tennessee) Symphony. During his time in Nashville, he also played violin in the Nashville studios for many popular recordings, accompanying singers such as Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Kenny Rogers, the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, and, yes, even Elvis!

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Upper-level Chinese Language Courses

Qin Herzberg grew up in Beijing as Xue Qin. She received a degree from Beijing Normal University in Chinese language and literature. Qin came to Calvin College in 1987 to do graduate studies in education. It was at Calvin that she met Larry Herzberg. They are now partners for life, and partners as well in the teaching of Chinese at Calvin College.

Qin has been teaching private adult students from the business world as well as individual Calvin students for the past ten years or so. Several of the Calvin people who were her students are currently teaching English at universities in China. We are delighted that we now will have a native speaker with Qin's considerable teaching experience working for us as the teacher for advanced Chinese courses at Calvin.

Not only a teacher, but also a writer, Qin has published over a hundred articles for newspapers and magazines in both America and China. Her articles on various topics sometimes appear in America's leading Chinese newspaper, "The World Journal," published in New York. She has begun work on her memoirs of growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).

Qin loves to travel with her husband, Larry, to observe different cultures and enjoy the varied languages and cuisines of the world. She also loves animals, particularly cats, and more particularly her own two cats, Diego and Cashmere.

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Upper-level Japanese Language Courses

Yoshiko Tsuda was born in Osaka, Japan, and grew up in Shiga Prefecture, which is next to Kyoto, Japan's ancient capital. Her name, Yoshiko, means "good child" and her family name, Tsuda, means "rice field by the water." She received a degree in education from Shiga University, a national university that specializes in teacher training, and earned a certificate to teach in elementary, junior high, and high school. She also went to Michigan State University to take graduate level courses in adult education and TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) in 1988. It was during this time that she became a Christian and her life has been totally changed since then.

After teaching English to students and business people in Japan for over two years, as well as serving as an interpreter for different organizations, Yoshiko moved to the Grand Rapids area in 1991 and has worked both as a teacher and a interpreter/translator here since then. She has taught Japanese language at many different institutions, including high schools, universities, Japanese schools, and even a children's learning center, as well as providing private and more customized lessons in various settings. Besides doing a lot of business interpretation, she has also been very privileged to translate some wonderful Christian literature into Japanese to spread the good news of the Gospel in Japan.

Yoshiko has been blessed with two wonderful children. Her son, Eric, is eight years old, and his name in kanji represents "power of grace." Her daughter, Emily, is five years old, and her name means "place of graceful fruits." Being actively involved in her children's lives takes a lot of her time and energy, but she also enjoys "scrapbooking" photographs of her children in her "spare" time, and meeting new people, as well as enjoying fellowship with old friends.

She is very excited and feels honored to work with students at Calvin College. She looks forward to sharing and exploring the Japanese language and culture with the students here.

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