[lg policy] Israel: It's all Chinese to kids today

Tue Nov 3 14:55:21 UTC 2009

It's all Chinese to kids today

By Tamar Rotem

When the bell rang and the lesson in Chinese at the Hillel School in
Ramat Gan ended, not one of the pupils collected their things and
rushed to leave the room, as would be expected. The seven children in
the class opted instead to remain and sing a Chinese love song for a
visitor. Then the six boys formed a circle around the one girl in the
classroom and began to serenade. This is the second year that the
children in the seventh-grade gifted class have been learning to speak
Chinese. Unlike most Western languages, Chinese is a tonal language.
"The different tones change the significance of the word," explains
Amit Nelkin, one of the students. "It's quite confusing and you have
to make sure to express the words properly, much more than in other
languages."  Advertisement

It seems that the difficulty with the language and its difference from
other languages contributes to the attraction for him. Last year
Nelkin did not hesitate when he was given the choice of learning
French or Chinese (in addition to English and Arabic). Chinese is
special and interesting, he said of his choice, and the information
about Chinese culture makes the lessons fascinating. About half the
children in his class chose Chinese and they are continuing this year
with two hours a week of the language. They are not alone. Studying
Chinese as an enrichment program, or as an alternative to another
foreign language, appears to be the next craze in education. In
addition to the Hillel school, the Nitzanim elementary school in Tel
Aviv, for example, and the Blich and Ohel-Shem high schools in Ramat
Gan, as well as the Hebrew University High School in Jerusalem and
others now offer Chinese lessons.

The funding for the lessons in Tel Aviv schools comes from the
Confucius Institute at Tel Aviv University, and the Ramat Gan
municipality for the schools in that city. In Jerusalem it is the
parents who pay for the classes. The Confucius Institute serves to
enhance the teaching of the Chinese language and culture. It has
hundreds of branches in different parts of the world and the Israeli
branch was opened three years ago.  Among other things, it offers
grants to students of East Asian Studies and trains teachers of
Chinese language and culture. Oded Yvette, a teacher at the institute,
says that "the institute is an expression of the concept that is
beginning to become established in the minds of the Chinese leadership
and elites that the geopolitical reality in the world has changed.
China was a superpower in the ancient world and its return to the
front row of the countries of the world is seen by them as the
correction of a distortion."  Yvette says this is the reason why China
welcomes the interest in its language by both children and adults.

The language of money

However, often times an attraction to Chinese culture or language is
not the source of students' interest. "It is worthwhile to study
Chinese because China will soon conquer the world with its economy,"
Nelkin says.  Tal Pascal, his friend, adds that his father told him
that if he wants to be a businessman in the future, and he has
contacts with the Chinese, knowing their language will help him.
Their teacher, Anna Meshulam, who also teaches at the Hebrew
University high school and at Havat Hanoar Hazioni in Jerusalem, says
that her experience shows that most girls choose French "because it is
seen as a romantic language" while the boys choose Chinese for
practical reasons - they hope to succeed in the business world.

Tal Ron, the principal of the Hillel school also explains that the
idea behind the lessons is to expose the children to a different
culture. The choice of Chinese stems from "the far-sighted view that
China is a very significant rising power. If someone has a more
intimate familiarity with the language, it will open up for him
horizons in the future and give him an advantage in a competitive
world." Nevertheless not everyone agrees that this is important. A
short while ago, parents of pupils at a Tel Aviv high school got angry
that their children were spending so much time on Chinese symbols.
What about Bible studies, what about English, they complained.

In Israel, Mandarin is taught. It is the language used by the Chinese
media and the one taught in schools there, and is the means of
communication with foreigners. "These studies are merely a taste,"
says Dr. Lihi Yariv-Laor of the East Asian Studies department at
Hebrew University. "If people think that by studying the language they
will become directors of businesses and succeed in China, they are
mistaken. Only someone with entrepreneurship can succeed there."
Yariv-Laor believes there is value in getting acquainted with such a
different culture. In China, she says, language is a large part of the
country's culture.  "One has to be taught when to use certain
expressions. For example, one has to show modesty in response to
compliments and must not accept them like in Western culture," she
says. "We could have studied the Arabs, which are closer to us, but it
is easier to study those who are different."

The fact that interest in the language is being driven by financial
considerations does not bother her. "Perhaps parents think about
making a living in the future but unintentionally it can be for its
own sake. The language does not distinguish between male and female.
Children learn they can express everything but through different means
from those they are used to."  Chinese writing is 3,500 years old, but
does not have an alphabet - rather a collection of signs that
represent words, she says. This opens up an entire world of concepts
that are different from what [students] know," she says.

Great leap forward?

The Education Ministry does not have an organized plan for the study
of Chinese language. In 1996, Yariv-Laor and Prof. Gideon Shelach,
also of the Hebrew University, were asked to develop a curriculum for
the teaching of Chinese, but it was never implemented.

"The curriculum included a taste of the language, history and
literature. We used films and translated literature and we recommended
the study of culture with the language instead of merely learning the
signs by heart," Yariv-Laor says.

The curriculum was part of a change of spirit that prevailed in 1996
when Israel changed its linguistic policy, at least in theory. The
accepted wisdom was that Hebrew was no longer in danger and the basic
principles were laid for an official policy that welcomed cultural
openness in the schools toward the languages of new immigrants, such
as Russian, and toward languages such and Spanish and Chinese.

Prof. Ilana Shohami, a Tel Aviv University expert in language policy,
believes that since then there has been a regression and a return to
the nationalistic Hebrew-centric approach that typified the country in
its first decades.

She places the blame for the backward trend toward avoiding new
languages on the poor results that Israeli pupils achieve on the
international PISA language competency tests. Today, she says, all
efforts focus on succeeding in these tests. The trend to study
Chinese, which is contrary to the official policy, is grassroots; it
comes from the parents and the schools themselves, she says.

Shohami sees the strong emphasis on learning English in Israel as an
expression of narrow-mindedness. But she may draw a great deal of
encouragement from the fact that children today develop independent
views.

"French is the language of the past, English the language of the
present, and Chinese the language of the future," say the pupils at
the Hillel School.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1125541.html
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