Classes in Chinese Grow as the Language Rides a Wave of Popularity

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the NYTimes, October 15, 2005

Classes in Chinese Grow as the Language Rides a Wave of Popularity

By GRETCHEN RUETHLING CHICAGO, Oct. 14 - The future of foreign language
study in the United States might be glimpsed here at Louisa May Alcott
Elementary School, in a classroom where lanterns with cherry blossoms and
pandas dangle overhead, and a paper dragon, an American flag and a Chinese
flag hang from the wall. One recent morning, a class of third graders
bowed to one another and introduced themselves in Chinese, and a class of
fourth graders practiced writing numbers in Chinese characters on marker
boards. Chinese classes began at Alcott in February, but more students are
already choosing it over Spanish.

"Chinese is our new baby," said David J. Domovic, the principal at Alcott,
on the North Side, one of 20 public schools in the city offering
instruction in Mandarin. "Everybody just wants in." With encouragement
from the Chinese and American governments, schools across the United
States are expanding their language offerings to include Chinese, the
world's most spoken tongue, not to mention one of its most difficult to
learn.

Last month, the Defense Department gave a $700,000 grant to public schools
in Portland, Ore., to double the number of students studying Chinese in an
immersion program. In May, Senators Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of
Connecticut, and Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, introduced a
bill to spend $1.3 billon over five years on Chinese language programs in
schools and on cultural exchanges to improve ties between the United
States and China. The bill has been referred to the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee. After 2,400 schools expressed interest, Advanced
Placement Chinese classes will be offered in high schools around the
country starting next year.  Beijing is paying for half the $1.35 million
to develop the classes, including Chinese teachers' scholarships and
developing curriculums and examinations, said Trevor Packer, executive
director of the Advanced Placement Program at the College Board.

"Many Americans are beginning to realize the importance of speaking
Chinese," Zhu Hongqing, consul at the Chinese Education Consulate here,
said. "We need to provide as much powerful support as we can." The number
of Chinese language programs around the country, from elementary school
through adult programs, has tripled in 10 years, said Scott McGinnis, an
academic adviser at the Defense Language Institute in Washington.

"Chinese is strategic in a way that a lot of other languages aren't,"
because of China's growth as an economic and military force, Mr. McGinnis
said. "Whatever tensions lie between us, there is a historical
longstanding mutual fascination with each other," he said. "Planning to be
ready to engage with them rather than only thinking of them in terms of a
challenge or a competitor is the smart thing to do." Up to 50,000 students
are studying Chinese in elementary and secondary schools in the United
States, experts estimate. Many are in cities like New York and San
Francisco that have large numbers of Chinese-American students, and many
take lessons after school or on weekends.

The Chicago program stands out because it is entirely in public schools
during the regular school day and primarily serves students who are not of
Chinese descent. Mayor Richard M. Daley, a vocal supporter of the program,
said proficiency in Chinese would be critical in understanding the
competition. "I think there will be two languages in this world," Mr.
Daley said.  "There will be Chinese and English."

>>From an all-black elementary school on the West Side to a nearly
all-Hispanic elementary school on the South Side to more diverse schools
throughout the city, some 3,000 students from kindergarten through high
school are learning Chinese. The Chinese Education Ministry has called the
program a model for teaching students who are not of Chinese descent. The
ministry donated 3,000 textbooks to the school system last year. The
program has expanded from three schools in 1999 to 20 this year and is
scheduled to add five by the end of the school year.

"They have a great international experience right in their own classroom,"
said Robert Davis, manager of the district's Chicago Chinese Connections
Program, which seeks to develop skills to help students compete in the
world marketplace. "We want them to meet on an equal playing field." Some
parents here worry at first about how relevant the Chinese classes are and
whether they will be too difficult. The Foreign Service Institute, which
trains American diplomats, ranks Chinese as one of the four most
time-intensive languages to learn. An average English speaker takes 1,320
hours to become proficient in Chinese, compared with 480 hours in French,
Spanish or Italian, the institute says.

Sevtap Guldur, 31, said she and her daughter Sahire, a fourth grader at
Alcott, looked over the unfamiliar Chinese characters before deciding
whether to take the class. "If you're ready to learn that, go for it," Ms.
Guldur said she told her daughter. Sahire, who is fluent in Turkish, said
it was her favorite class. At Alcott, 160 students from kindergarten to
fifth grade are studying Spanish, compared with 242 taking Chinese,
although not without occasional frustration.

"Do we have to do it in Chinese?" a third grader asked during a recent
exercise, perhaps missing the point of the class. Raul Freire, 9, a fourth
grader fluent in Spanish, said he taught words to his mother so she could
better communicate with Chinese-speaking customers at the bank where she
works. "Mostly everybody in the school wants to take Chinese," Raul said.
"I think about being a traveler when I grow up, so I have to learn as many
languages as I can." Adriana Freire, 33, Raul's mother, who is from
Ecuador, said the skills would help her son be a better competitor in the
job market. "I never thought that he was going to be able to do something
like that," Ms.  Freire said.

Most of the 10 elementary and 10 high schools in the program here offer
the language four times a week for 40 minutes a day. Each school decides
how to fit the class in the school day, with some taking time from classes
like physical education, music and art to make room. Chicago has a waiting
list of schools that want to offer Chinese. The main obstacle is a lack of
teachers certified by an American college, a requirement of the No Child
Left Behind law, Mr. Davis said.

"It's hard when we can't hire a teacher that is qualified because of that
missing certification," he said. The shortage of teachers is common
throughout the United States, said Michael Levine, executive director of
education at the Asia Society in New York. Six states have signed or plan
to sign agreements with the Chinese government to import teachers from
China and send teachers from the United States to China for training, Mr.
Levine said. "Eventually," he said, "we're going to have to homegrow our
own."



Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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