作为外语,中文被列入美国高等院校的教学大纲已有相当长的历史了。然而,究竟始于何人何时,却鲜为人知。最近,根据笔者的考查,发现第一位受聘于美国高校、正式开课教中国语言的,不是语言大师赵元任,也不是某个在中国传教归来的洋传教士,而是 As a foreign language, Chinese has been included in the syllabus of higher education institutions in the United States for a long time. However, when exactly who started, but little known. Recently, according to the examination of the author, I found that the first person who was employed in a U.S. university and officially started teaching Chinese was not a linguist Zhao Yuan Ren nor a foreign missionary who returned in China