In schools across America language study has been expanded from the traditional romance languages (French, Spanish, Latin, maybe Italian) and German to now increasingly include Mandarin Chinese.
High Schoolers Prepare For Future, In Chinese
Old Lyme Scott Lunde is a goal-oriented high school student, one who already knows he wants a career in business engineering.
To prepare, the senior at Lyme-Old Lyme High School has signed up for a new class that at first might seem a bit off track for his career choice.
[via TheDay]
Teens picking up Chinese language
Kim Turley 16, right, uses a fly swatter to identify a written character during a Mandarin Chinese-language class at Agoura High School. Sean McSweeney, 14, waits his turn behind her. At top, the classroom’s walls are covered with a few of the more than 20,000 Chinese characters that make up the language.
[via Ventura County Star]
Increased Asian influences drive interest in Chinese language
Jade Qian pantomimes as she depicts the Chinese word for me. Start with an eyebrow, then arms out, this leg with toe pointed up, and a sword, she says, as the character takes shape on the classroom board. Another leg and another sword and finish with another eyebrow.
Thirteen teens intently follow Qians swift strokes. She pronounces the word it sounds like woe, but with a special falling-then-rising inflection and they repeat it.
[via The Daily News of Newburyport]
Students learn Chinese and Arabic
Bartow, Florida - The words are foreign, but ;students at Polk County’s Summerlin Military Academy know speaking Chinese will come in handy one day.
Major Steven Bollens is fluent in Chinese and teaches the language at Summerlin Academy. Bollens says learning the Chinese language and culture will be essential one day.
[via Tampa Bay’s 10]
China comes to ASU
The Institute, which will be on the Tempe campus, is a result of a new partnership between ASU and its sister school, the Sichuan University in Chengdu, China.
It will serve as a resource to educate students of the University and the Arizona community through a variety of programs, said Madeline Spring, an ASU Chinese professor and co-director of the Confucius Institute.
[via Web Devil]
Motivated young minds learn Chinese
Chinese not only uses an entirely different alphabet characters that are more akin to pictures than letters but also utilizes sounds and tones unfamiliar to English speakers. In fact, the Chinese word ma has four different meanings: mother, horse, to scold and hemp plant. And all are dependent upon the tone used when pronouncing the word.
But a group of motivated Mankato East and West High School students has accepted the challenge, becoming the first participants in the districts first-ever Chinese language class.
[via Mankato Free Press]
eTeacher Launches ChineseVoice.com-Live Online Mandarin Chinese
Ramat Gan, Israel (PRWEB) October 13, 2007 — Why Chinese? When Yariv Binnun, Co-CEO of eTeacher, was asked “why Chinese?” He said, “China is the fastest growing economy in the world today and is widely regarded as the potentially biggest global market in the twenty-first century. Speaking Mandarin can facilitate communication with Chinese business partners and promote smooth bilateral trade relations. China is booming, and citizens around the globe want a piece of the action. We are here to help them get it.”
This statement is even supported by the U.S. Department of Education that announced earlier this year that it hopes to have 5 percent of all elementary, secondary and college students enrolled in Mandarin studies by 2010.
[via PR Web (press release)]
Wichita schools teach Chinese, a first for the district
WICHITA, Kansas, Oct. 11, 2007 – When you were in school, what language did you learn? Perhaps Spanish or maybe French? Your kids may answer Chinese. For the first time ever, Wichita schools are offering Chinese as a language option.
Chinese is the most spoken language in the world, but it’s also one of the most difficult to learn. Chinese doesn’t use an alphabet; instead students have to memorize every single word and symbol to master the language.
[via KSN-TV]
McGraw-Hill Higher Education and China’s Leading Foreign Language
NEW YORK, Oct. 10 /PRNewswire/ — As China emerges as a global economic power, an unprecedented number of students worldwide are pursuing the study of Chinese language and culture. To meet much of that growing demand, McGraw-Hill Higher Education and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP) are expanding their efforts to provide more high quality teaching and learning materials to colleges and universities across North America.
“Enrollment in Chinese studies continues to grow at a rapid pace and around the world, and there are an estimated 30 million people who are learning Chinese as a second language,” said Simon Allen, senior vice president, McGraw-Hill Education (International). “McGraw-Hill Higher Education is excited to expand its relationship with FLTRP to produce the highest quality content to meet this quickly growing need in the marketplace.”
[via CNNMoney.com]
Chinese Language Class
A Lancaster County school uses technology to tap into a new language.
On Wednesday students at Conestoga Valley High School spent their first morning learning Chinese.
[via CBS 21]
Mandarin Chinese class offered at Vestal High School
VESTAL — Amy Eiche didn’t have to be convinced about the importance of studying Mandarin Chinese.
The United States is so involved with China economically that it makes sense to study the language, said the 17-year-old senior at Vestal High School.
[via Press & Sun-Bulletin]
Mandarin classes blossom
TAMPA - When Helen Mann visited relatives in China last year, she felt lost amid the sea of Mandarin speakers.
So she made a vow to herself: “The next time I go to China, I want to surprise my family and speak to them in Mandarin,” said Mann, a 54-year-old registered nurse.
[via St. Petersburg Times]
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Foreign executives now expected to learn Chinese
At 8pm on a Tuesday, currency expert Michael Image sits in a 3m-by-3m room near Hong Kong’s bustling bar district, gnawing on a pen and discussing financial terms — in Chinese.
“Say `tong ji’ (p),” chimes language teacher Elena Jiang, crisply pronouncing the term for “statistics” as she draws two characters on the white board: one shaped like a winged pagoda atop a tree, the other an embellished Christian cross.
[via Taipei Times]
Elementary Students Learn Mandarin Chinese
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — Ni hao. That’s how first-grade students are saying “Hello” to each other at Pine Grove Elementary School In Parker.
The Douglas County School District recently began phasing in and rolling out it’s World Language program at the elementary level. Eventually students all forty plus elementary schools will have the chance to learn a foreign language, according the District officials.
[via TheDenverChannel.com]
Young Chinese language learners sprouting up
OAKLAND - As two women roll balls of dough into round, flat circles, Shudan Wang, the head teacher, takes one in the palm of her hand and holds it up. Then she spoons a dollup of stuffing in the center and folds the dough around it.
“Zhe shi shen me? (What is this)” she asks the young children seated before her.
[via Contra Costa Times]
There is even interest in Jakarta, Indonesia which has a minority Chinese population which has been ostracized in the past.
China to establish language, cultural center
BOGOR, Indonesia (AP): The United States and Australia, the only industrialized countries to not sign onto the Kyoto climate change treaty, are willing to join negotiations for a successor agreement in coming years, a U.N. official said Thursday.
Yvo de Boer, a leading U.N. climate official, said participants at informal talks in Indonesia this week agreed that economically developed nations must take the lead in adopting measures to halt the earth’s rising temperature.
[via Jakarta Post]
Meanwhile Chinese continue to want to learn English.
‘English village’ opens in Taiwan
Every day, 120 students travel by school bus to the Happy English Village in Taoyuan county - about an hour from the capital, Taipei, for English immersion classes.
The “village” is actually attached to one of the county’s elementary schools.
[via BBC News]
China keen to learn English from India
BEIJING: The Chinese have for long marvelled at the Indian ability with English. Now, a large number of them are taking concrete measures to pick up tips on learning English from India. This is best demonstrated by the success of Orient Longman in selling book titles on learning English to Chinese publishers in the past few days.
“Almost all the titles we sold are about learning English. The Chinese respect Indians for their ability with English and information technology,” Raj Mani, senior vice president with Orient Longman Private Ltd., said at the book fair after selling publication rights to 44 book titles to Chinese publishers. The local publishers will now come out with local editions of books on learning English for use in schools across the country.
[via Times of India]
