Joann Pittman

Joann Pittman

Joann Pittman is Vice President of Partnership and China Engagement and editor of ZGBriefs.

Prior to joining ChinaSource, Joann spent 28 years working in China, as an English teacher, language student, program director, and cross-cultural trainer for organizations and businesses engaged in China. She has also taught Chinese at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul (MN), and Chinese Culture and Communication at Wheaton College (IL) and Taylor University (IN).

Joann has a BA in Social Sciences from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul (MN), and an MA in teaching from the University of St. Thomas (MN).

She is the author of Survival Chinese Lessons and The Bells Are Not Silent: Stories of Church Bells in China.

Her personal blog, Outside-In can be found at joannpittman.com, where she writes on China, Minnesota, traveling, and issues related to "living well where you don't belong."

You can find her on Twitter @jkpittman.com and on Facebook at @authorjoannpittman.

She makes her home in New Brighton, Minnesota.

Latest

The Lenses of History

The latest edition of the ChinaSource Quarterly explores the awareness (or lack thereof) Chinese Christians have regarding the history of Christianity in China, and how history influences the church today. This was not the first time we devoted a Quarterly to the issue of history. In the 2002 spring edition of the ChinaSource Quarterly (known at the time as the ChinaSource journal), we explored the question of how history influences the present in China. 

A Call for Photos

As part of our on-going commemoration of the 20th anniversary of ChinaSource, we want to collect photos documenting the changes that have taken place in China. Whether you lived and worked there or were just visiting, we’d love to include your photos. 

Looking for 21st Century China

As ChinaSource celebrates 20 years of ministry, it is a time of reflection and giving thanks. We are privileged to have served the China-ministry community for as long as we have. With today’s post, we are beginning a series, called Looking Back that will take a closer look at those twenty years.

Putonghua: Uniting a Linguistically Fractured China

During my travels around China people often said to me “Your Chinese is better than mine.” When I adamantly denied even the remote possibility that their assertion may be true, they would clarify: “Your Putonghua is better than mine.”

9 Language-Learning Resources Online

Today there are almost unlimited resources for learning Chinese, and many of them are available online for free. Herewith is my list of nine recommended online resources. 

Stinky Tofu and Language Learning

Earlier in the summer, I had the chance to meet a family that was in the process of moving to China. Among other things they wanted to know about resources to help their young children learn Chinese.

What Does “Ju” Mean?

When I was living in China, newcomers, especially those who had been around for a few weeks or months and had started to pick up some new words and phrases, would often ask me, “what does ju (or some other word) mean?”

Matteo Ricci

Learning Chinese is a big task, but learning how to use the language to accomplish simple, everyday tasks is not. You may never, like Matteo Ricci, translate Chinese classics or write books in Chinese yourself. But even Ricci had to start with the basics, learning the sounds, the tones, and the simple vocabulary to accomplish the stuff of everyday life.