Arizona: Mandarin in demand

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the ARIZONA DAILY STAR, Published: 07.09.2006

Mandarin in demand at local schools
By Jeff Commings

Ni hao.  Don't know what that means? By this time next year, a few hundred
Tucson students and hundreds of thousands more nationwide might, as
Mandarin Chinese makes a major entrance into the nation's schools,
including four in Tucson.  Quicker than you can say the above greeting
"hello," in the language spoken by more than a billion people worldwide
Mandarin Chinese has bumped some popular Romance languages off the cool
kids' table in the lunchroom.  Three schools in Tucson Unified School
District Palo Verde High Magnet School, University High School and Rincon
High School are prepping for their first year teaching the major Chinese
language. And students in seventh through ninth grades at BASIS charter
school in Tucson will learn the language. Also, the College Board just
added Mandarin as one of its four new foreign-language Advanced Placement
tests.

"It's the fastest-growing language right now," said Carolyn McGarvey,
director of BASIS Tucson, 3825 E. Second St. "I was just at an education
conference, and Mandarin was all they were talking about."  TUSD officials
talked to the high school principals in the district, trying to gauge the
interest in adding the class.  "We thought we were going to have to twist
some arms," said Kelly Langford, the district's senior academic officer.
"But every principal said they wanted it. They realized this is a language
our kids need to learn."  Langford said the world is getting smaller, and
as such, it's hard for students to find well-paying careers today that
don't require some type of foreign-language knowledge. He said most
business people travel to China, the world's most populous country,
without knowing a word of Mandarin, while most Chinese have a decent grasp
of the English language.

"We have it backwards here," he said.  Mandarin is the most-spoken
language worldwide, followed far behind by English, Hindu and Spanish.
Some say students can learn to speak the language quickly. But with about
80,000 characters that do not translate well into English and vice versa,
educators say American students might not be able to grasp many more than
250 of them.  "After two years, the goal is to be able to order food at a
Chinese restaurant," said Maria Hooker, TUSD's director of Pan-Asian
studies.  About 100 students at the three TUSD schools have signed up so
far to study Mandarin, but that number could increase when students
register for school next month, Hooker said.  Leilani Henry, an incoming
senior at Catalina Foothills High School, said a Mandarin Chinese class
would be popular at her school, where only French and Spanish are
available. She said she'd take the class because she's half-Chinese and
doesn't know how to speak the language.

"My grandmother can speak it, but she speaks really fast," said Henry, 17.
"I can't catch a single thing."  But for all the apparent student
interest, one major obstacle is finding qualified teachers. Langford said
TUSD is having trouble finding a candidate certified to teach the
language, a requirement of No Child Left Behind.  In a couple of years,
it's expected that some of the students, especially those at
high-achieving University High, will be ready to take the Advanced
Placement class, which will be equal to a second-year course in a
four-year university.  At BASIS, some students start preparing for AP
classes in seventh or eighth grade, and are required to take at least one
in high school. Almost 90 percent of them earn college credit.  So far,
2,396 of the 14,000 high schools nationwide that have at least one AP
course have expressed interest in the Mandarin class. The three other new
foreign languages to be introduced soon Italian, Japanese and Russian each
have fewer than 300 schools interested.

"We expected 300 schools (to ask for Mandarin)," said Tom Matts, director
of the College Board's world language initiative.  Though these are the
first public schools in Tucson to offer Mandarin instruction, the idea is
not new to Arizona.  The Tucson Chinese School teaches Mandarin to
children as young as 4, and many adults can be found learning the language
at various sites in town.  The International School of Tucson, a private
school at 1730 N. First Ave., finished its first year with preschoolers
learning Mandarin basics from a Chinese emigrant.  The BASIS school in
Scottsdale has taught Mandarin to middle school students for two years,
and so far, one-third of the students there are enrolled.  TUSD's Langford
said the district's and the community's support of adding Mandarin means a
policy requiring foreign-language instruction is not far away.

 "Every kid who wants to go to a Tier 1 university will need to take a
foreign language," he said. "Our vision is that every kid will be prepared
to go to a major university."  Only Catalina Foothills and Flowing Wells
require at least one year of foreign-language instruction in high schools.
In Sunnyside, that requirement will start in the fall for the Class of
2008.  For comparison, consider that British public schools now require
all students to study Mandarin.  But small steps could make a huge
difference, educators say.  "It is an interesting intellectual exercise,"
Block said. "We hope to have more schools join us in teaching Chinese
because if you're doing business around the world, you can get away with
English anywhere, except Asia."

jcommings at azstarnet.com.


  http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/137139