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Bodhi Tree Center:
A Buddhist Center,
Mandarin Chinese, Asian Languages School, Chinese Cultural Center
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Bodhi Tree Center:
A Buddhist Center,
Mandarin Chinese, Asian Languages School, Chinese Cultural Center
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Asian Language Instruction • Asian Cultural Classes and Events • Translations and Interpretations • Community Good Works • Buddhist Classes and Events |
The Bodhi Tree Center opened its doors to serve the greater Portland metropolitan community in September 2003. In 2005, we incorporated as a non-profit organization. We do not discriminate in any way, mean, or form, whatsoever.
We specialize in Asian language instruction for children and adults. We offer classes year-round in the following Asian languages: Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai, Laotian, Tibetan, Nepali, Sanskrit.
All our teachers are native speakers of the languages they teach. Our class sizes are kept small to ensure that students are getting the best instruction possible. In addition to the more popular languages that we offer, we take pride in being able to offer classes in languages that are not offered elsewhere in town, such as Laotian, Modern Tibetan and Nepali, and Classical Sanskrit.
Our first Asian language class offered was a Japanese language class for adults. Later we offered classes in Mandarin Chinese for adults, and then children. Not long after that we added a class in Thai language for adults, and then children. Today, we offer classes in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian, Cantonese, Cambodian, Tibetan, Nepali and Sanskrit.
Our language classes are offered year-round. We regularly offer various levels of beginner group classes, and sometimes intermediate or advanced classes. Private one-on-one tutoring and private group classes (for families or businesses) are also available.
The average profile of students of our adult classes is degreed professionals. Our students include pharmacists, linguists and Ph.D.s; public school teachers, principals, and administrators; librarians, financial advisors, entrepreneurs and businsess people, computer software developers, electronic engineers and IT directors; parents of adopted children from Chinese speaking countries, students.
Our philosophy for teaching is to make the classes fun (as well as instructive). If students enjoy themselves during class time and look forward to each lesson, they will find studying easier and they will make progress quickly. That goes for children as well as adults.
China has a long, rich, and fascinating history and culture. To enrich people's exposure to and experience of Chinese culture we have offered, and expect to offer, regular classes in Chinese Brush Painting and also Chinese Calligraphy.
As the occasion arises, we also offer poetry readings (such as on Tang Dynasty poetry), musical performances (such as on the erhu or gaohu) presentations and lectures on Asian culture or history by knowledge experts.
We plan to add more Chinese cultural offerings, events and classes, such as Chinese vegetarian cooking classes, lectures on Chinese history and culture by distinguished professors or knowledgeable others, Chinese tea tasting events, to name a few.
We translate and interpret between English and Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian, Cambodian, Tibetan, Nepali, Sanskrit, Mien, Taiwanes or Hokkien. Our translators translate generally into the language of their mother tongue. For more information, see Translation Services.
We also sponsor non-sectarian, non-denominational Good Works Activities. These activities are geared toward anyone who wishes to help give back to the community some of the good that we all derive from it. Activities vary. For instance, we have joined together to feed the homeless (usually at Christmas or Thanksgiving, since 1997); prepareed and packed food for the elderly, poor, and less fortunate than ourselves. We have met to clean up a school and a neighborhood, and on another occasion we gathered together on site to help a struggling organic farmer keep up on the farm.
Several local Buddhist groups regularly hold meetings, classes and events, at the center. Such events and classes include meditation sits, Dharma talks (by local, resident, or visiting masters), sutra readings, practice groups, and ceremonies. If it is core, straight up, right-on, orthodox Buddhism, we are all for it.
In fact, prior to opening our doors (in 2003), a core group of people had been meeting regularly since 1997 in a downtown Chinese restaurant. Dharma lectures and meditation sits were presided over by Heng Shou Shr, a fully-ordained translator Buddhist monk in the Chinese Buddhist tradition of Master Hsuan Hua. For more information about Heng Shou Shr, see his Kalavinka World. For more information about the tradition of Master Hua, see the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association or visit the Gold Summit Monastery in Seattle.
We have a small, modest library of Buddhist books in English and Chinese. Some of these books are free, others are available for borrowing, and yet others are available for reference only. Books in our library include the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Shurangama Sutra, the Lotus Sutra, the Brahma Net Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, the Heart Sutra, the Path of Purification. "If ... people were to study the sutras the way students study in school, it would be easy for them to memorize the three treasuries and twelve divisions of the canon...." -- Master Hsuan Hua. Talks on Dharma Volume Two.
