Asian Language Instruction

If you are interested in learning more about Korean culture and learn Korean, there is a small museum, library, exhibits and resource center right down the street from our class on Wilshire Boulevard.

Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles

The Korean Language Classes cost $30 which has been heavily subsidized by the Korean Government.
It is a ten week course with 6 levels to choose from.
It meets one night a week.
Also, if you visit during regular hours and tell them your teacher, they will hook you up materials and usually it is free, so check it.


lc

Thank you for all of the information about language studies. This will help considerably. I have contacted them about getting beginning phrases and words to teach to all of my humanities and, possibly, dance students. There are a number of Korean students have speak very little English at our school. This could be fun for all of them and the other students.

Does anyone have any suggestions of institutions where Japanese is taught? I would consider affordability and convenient access as two factors. Any ideas?

I recently read that Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken language in the world. As our world is getting smaller it seems that language is one of the most important things that we can learn. It also seems that in every metropolitan area there are at least two languages that you need to learn in order to be successful. It is good to know that these skills are being taught to young children.
dsenteno

It's too bad that LAUSD doesn't have Japanese or Chinese classes for teachers to take. There are classes where we can learn Spanish, but to have the opportunity to learn other languages would be wonderful. Then who knows...maybe have clubs where kids can learn a different language w/out the pressures of grades, standards, and other pressures that traditional classes have.

Hey Arthur here are some quick references:
You can even learn online, how about that?


Japan Foundation Los Angeles Office and Language Center
http://www.jflalc.org/

Japanese Consulate
http://www.la.us.emb-japan.go.jp/e_web2003/e_home.htmJapanese-Online.com ::: Online Japanese Language & Culture ...
Free Japanese Language Lessons and Translated Math Story Problems from Japan's Jr. High Math Placement Tests.
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LEARN JAPANESE.
This page is showing sentences: greeting,Introducing,asking,etc...Also please check the Learn Basic Japanese and Learn Basic Kanji page to compare. ...
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The URL for this website has changed. You will be automatically redirected in 10 seconds. Please update your bookmarks after being redirected. Thank you. ...
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Learn interesting Japanese while having fun. Grammar, kanji, culture and a little bit of everything Japanese for free.
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A free, easy way to learn Japanese online. Covers sentence structure and has lots of vocabulary.
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Exercises, tips and lessons to help you learn to speak and write Japanese. Practice phonetics, calligraphy and grammar, and download dictionaries.
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I know Torrance Parks/Rec offer a night class for adults and I believe Southbay adult school does as well. These classes are really reasonable for someone who wants to get their feet wet at a new language.

I think having clubs where students can learn and practice language sounds like a fabulous idea. They probably would get further if they also had a class to help pull everything together. One of the best experiences I had learning Spanish was in a conversation class. I highly recommend this particular set up for anyone thinking about teaching any language in a relax conversation style. Half of the converstaional Spanish class students were already fluent. The rest of us were given some vocabulary to learn and then we were to discuss with our partners. We changed partners frequently and were not allowed to utter one single word in English during the conversation times. Because we were all paired with students who were already fluent, they were able to guess our meanings better and guide us to the proper verbal expression of that idea. I learned more in that class than in any other that I have ever experienced. But I needed to have had a couple of semesters of basic Spanish first.

Thanks for the information and photos. My daughterr teaches at Brockton Avenue Elementary near Uni and they are looking for way to establish unique learning environments for their primary grades. This sound like a well thought out program that can be replicated wherever instructors are available. I will pass this on. The same concept could be empolyed in a variety of curricular "specialty" areas: Music, Dance, Theater, Art.
It seems like one of the key strategies the Palos Verdes people are using is creating a "need" in the elementary years so that when students reach high school there will be a population of Chinese language learners demanding classes.

Is there anthing similar to this at UCLA which is near both Uni and Brockton? There could also be a link with Emerson Middle School near UCLA.

Max (my son and a fifth grade LAUSD teacher) is taking a Korean class offered by the district at Wilton Place Elementary. The class is free and he'll get 3 salary points. And I'm fairly sure there are Cantonese classes offered too.

Here: http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/lausd/offices/instruct/mpttp/#LANGUAGE

It says here that if they get enough students, they'll teach Vietnamese, Armenian or Tagalog.

I agree about the classes for teachers. Hopefully in the future this will expand because it will be informative and useful.

I think this sounds like a great way for teachers to expand their knowledge. If more classes were offered for points maybe it would be an incentive for us to take on some new languages. I personally find it difficult with all the other things we have to do in order to keep up our credential. CLAD, CLEAR, CSET, etc. I propose the state require us to learn new skills instead of jumping through hoops.

If AP Asian language courses are not available at specific school-sites, we as educators should come up with better ways to teach languages to our students. Through on-line coursework, and perhaps regional language labs and tutoring centers, resources could help to better prepare our students for the world. I know that many ethnic Asian-American groups offer language courses for their children and community, but for the majority of kids in L.A., Spanish is the only reality. I remember when churches, often because of their international missionary work, often held language courses for parishioners. It is obvious that Asian language instructors are a few with proper credentialing. But it is not for the lack of people with necessary language skills in L.A.. Exposure at an early age I think is the key. Younger students are sponges so I could see why immersion programs work for various languages. But how do we get students to keep practicing their newly acquired language skills beyond family and ethnic community???

I remember reading about Mr. Maximilian Berlitz's son's obits and his life when he was young. The same Berlitz that started the language programs and books. Both of his parents, when he was young, spoke different languages to them. His family's housekeeper, driver, gardener all spoke different languages as well. Yes he had an upper class lifestyle... But he was quoted as saying how he accepted the various languages as the reality of his world. He did not know any another way, so his young mind picked up many languages as a way to community to the people in his world. That is one thing I wish I had more time and appreciation for now: the skills to use multiple languages. I know the 3 years of French I learned in LAUSD is fading, not because of the instruction I received, but because of the lack of use in my life... But I am always thankful for my teachers to giving the ability to read French... I did help me in a museum in Japan, when the signs were only in Japanese Kanji and French. The irony was that I understood more in French than I did in my birthright language Japanese... If there was an AP Japanese at NHHS back then, or my mom made me go to Japanese school at Little Tokyo like some of my friends???...

From an article in Newsweek: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7693591/site/newsweek/

1. The most recent data show that only 24,000 students in grades 7 to 12 study Chinese, a language spoken by 1.3 billion people worldwide. (More than 1 million students learn French, a language spoken by 75 million people.)

2. In U.S. homes, Chinese has eclipsed French, German and Italian to become the third most commonly spoken language, after English and Spanish.

I teach in the Bilingual Business and Finance Academy at Venice High School. While over 85% of the students are of Hispanic origin and study Spanish at school, the academy focuses on business and finance, two areas in which the U.S. has growing relations with China. How many of my students study Mandarin? That would be zero. Several take Italian (because they say it will be easy because it's a lot like Spanish). Some take French, but as can be seen above, a comparatively small percent of the world's population speaks French. And just a few who couldn't fit any other language into their schedules (last semester it was two eleventh grade students) study Japanese. It seems like now is the time for my academy to step up and start advising these students with international business aspirations to study Chinese. What a great way of directing them toward more global opportunities, and a great way to add to the number of students in our school's Mandarin program. I believe, sadly, that last semester there were only between 8-13 students enrolled. It's going to have to start with us teachers to get kids motivated and truly able to understand the importance of studying Mandarin. We can't hold our kids back any longer--we need to give them all the tools the need to get ahead in the world! They need to be more connected in order to become leaders.

[Edit by="juliedavis on Jul 31, 2:11:34 PM"][/Edit]

http://www.askasia.org/chinese/handbook.htm

There is great information on starting Chinese Language programs at your schools at Ask Asia's site above.

There are also several articles about why it is so important for students to start studying Chinese in greater numbers. http://www.askasia.org/chinese/news.htm

From the website:

Why Chinese?

The rise of China presents new economic, political and social realities that demand greater U.S. engagement at every level. As the foundation of that engagement, we urgently need to raise the number of Americans who can demonstrate a functional proficiency in Chinese.

China ’s tremendous economic growth creates new opportunities and challenges for U.S. businesses. Between 1978 and 2002, China's annual GDP growth reached 9.4%, three times the world's average, and in recent years (2001-2004) China accounted for one third of global economic growth.

China is an immense market for American goods and services, and a vital supplier to American manufacturers and consumers. U.S. trade with China exceeded $245 billion in 2004 (second only to trade with Canada and Mexico).

China ’s political importance in the Asia-Pacific region is broadly acknowledged and, particularly since 9/11, its help has been sought on difficult issues like North Korea and terrorism. Collaboration with China is increasingly deemed essential for solving a range of global issues, from nuclear proliferation to the environment, from currency exchange to trade laws.

As the most enduring world civilization, China has a major international cultural presence, in literature and cuisine, in music and film, dance and art, religion and philosophy, drawing on its tremendous heritage to enrich our present.

An official language of the United Nations, Chinese is the most widely spoken first language in the world, extending beyond the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan to Indonesia , Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, to the Philippines, and to Mongolia.

Chinese will top English as the most-used language on the Internet by 2007, according to forecasts by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

In the United States the Asian and Pacific Islander population is projected to grow 213 percent, from 10.7 million to 33.4 million, in the next 50 years, a substantial demographic shift. Their share of the nation’s population will double, from 3.8 percent to 8 percent.

I know that CSUN and CSULA both have great Japanese language and linguistic classes. CSUN's professors I know are Dr. Hirota and Dr. Snyder and CSULA's Japanese department has Dr. Kato. Dr. Kato is kind of a strict instructor, but when my son took the class several years ago, he learned a great deal in how to write some kanji and read simple Japanese. It was a 3 unit summer class, but I was amazed how much one can learn foreign language in such a short time, especially Japanese language. The program includes: get acquainted with Japanese university visitors (exchange students from Japan), field trip to Japanese cultural institution and so on. The program seems quite rigolous, but it's also designed to have a lot of fun with it too. CSUN's professors are also wonderful ones. Dr. Snyder is a caucasian linguistic instructor, but speaks fluent and proper Japanese, more so than some "Japanese in America."

Many community colleges now offer Japanese course, such as Glendale College and Pasadena City College.

There is an institution called "Kyodo System" which originally established for Japanese children in U.S to keep up with their language and with elementary, middle and high school core subjects. But they now offer adult classes for Japanese language that receive some kind of government fund and programs. There are several of them (schools). I know there is one in Passadena, San Fernando Valley, L.A (downtown), and Orange Hills (?). It is a Saturday school and I know that the tuition is very reasonable (affordability and convenient access factors are fulfilled). They also train government trainee for jobs in Japan too. I don't know much about the details, but here is a website if you are interested.

www.kyodosystem.org/english

If anyone is interested in teaching English in Japan for a year or two, there is a wonderful program called "JET." All you need is a Bachelor's degree and you can apply. My nieces have done it and they both got hooked on it. I mean, they had so much fun and experiences that they stayed (one is still there) more than two years. They pay you enough to live there. Something like $3,000 equivalant per month and health/accident insurance. According to my nieces, they treat you very well. One who came back a couple of years ago had saved up enough money that when she came back, she went to South America for 6 weeks and came back to the states and bought a used car. They have traveled to China, Hong-Kong, India and Thailand while they worked in Japan. They also experienced hot springs vacation, snowboarding, and party, party and parties. The only thing is that you cannot pick a certain city. You have to leave it to them. So, sometimes, you have to travel to major cities to party. :-| :-| :~

I would have definitely done that if I was a single.

http://www.jetprogramme.org/

Good Luck!!

About a month ago, I was perusing iTunes podcasts page. I was looking for class lectures about the Renaissance when I saw a plethora of podcasts on languages...Italian, French, Spanish, etc. Then I saw Chinese and Japanese. I think this is pretty cool. I clicked on a Japanese podcast (introduction to Japanese--mainly for tourists) because I wanted to understand some Japanese broadcasting, and of course to watch anime. I learned some key phrases instead; restaurant phrases, how to greet people, etc. It was very hard for me to just listen and try to memorize. I read a brief summary of the podcast and found out that the CIA or some government organization labeled Japanese as one of the hardest languages to learn. Where am I going with this...er

Anyway, you can visit iTunes podcasts to learn some languages! :-D

There are a lot of very good classes in various places for Japanese and Korean, and presumably Cantonese or Mandarin, although I am not familiar with them. While courses are very important, I picked up most of my Korean from simply spending time with Koreans while I lived there. One thing that courses often do not teach you is when and how to use certain phrases. For example, there are several ways to say the simplest introductory phrases in Korean, yet if you choose the wrong one at the wrong time you risk coming across as disrespectful, rude, or plain dumb. Also, I saw many English-Korean phrase books with examples of "Korean conversation" and, frankly, they were plain wrong. In one example, as two recent aquaintances take leave of one another, one says, "Tashi popeshida" (phonetic spelling- please excuse) to the other. Simply translated this means "I'll see you again my friend." In our culture that is no big deal, but if you were to say that to a Korean, they would most likely think you are very forward. Also, these guides do not tell you when it is appropriate to look directly at someone, and when it is considered polite and proper not to do so- very, very important! Do they explain how to address a group (there is a method)? No. That is the biggest shortcoming of many academic courses and other related study materials. I used to travel around Seoul with my friend Han, and I would practice the newest phrases and things I had learned. While I would eventually be able to speak well enough to be understood, he would often shake his head in dismay at my 'ignorance'. The problem was that the unwritten rules eluded me for some time. You actually need to see it done properly. Most people would cut me a lot of slack, as I was a foreigner, but not always. I was once chased down the street by a very irate old man who was incensed at me because I made a glaring error in speaking order....It shocked me. When it was explained to me what I did, I was very embarassed.
I met many foreigners who spoke excellent Korean, and they concurred that it was best to simply immerse yourself completely and not dwell on the books so much. Food for thought.

This is in response to whereyou might be able to learn Japanese. For a cost freindly education, you may want to go to a Japanese thnice enclave like Torrance or Gardena and check too see what kind of cultural centers they have. Normally cultural centers are run by volunteers where the sole purpose is to maintain the culture. Often times they offer the language classes for free or for a very fair price. I used to teach for Berlitz which charges about 500 a session to learn a foreign language. In my case I work at the croatian cultural center. You can learn croatian in beverly hill berlitz location and pay 500, or you can take it at out center 150 hours for fifty dollars, quite teh deal. And dont be mistaken and assume that just because Berlitz costs more it offers better trained people. Debatedly maybe to a point, but in my opinion not enough to justify the cost. Also in response to offering other language other than Spanish, again check out ethnic enclaves. I am pretty sure that Narboone HIgh School in LASUD offers Chinese or Japanese. Languages other than Spanish and French are often offerd depending on the community. In San Pedro they offer Croatian and Italian to serve those residents.

I'm originally from the SF Bay Area and it perplexes me on the dearth of Asian (and most other) language courses offered in the So. Cal. public school system including LAUSD where I am now. I used to teach in SFUSD and the high school I taught at offered Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Tagalog as course you can take instead of the "regular" French and Spanish you would find in LA. These are public schools in SF. I grew up in Oakland and the public high school I went to offered Chinese as an option. This was many many years ago. (I will not disclose my age) I think LAUSD needs to do more to start offering new course subjects. AP or not.

Unforturnately, LAUSD cannot be everything to everyone without sufficient funds. SFUSD has a high Asian student population so one will see more offerings and choices in Asian languages. Much is driven by the ecology of population. Of course, there are numerous local afterschool programs that offer language programs--for a price.

Kevin,

I just read a short article in NEAToday about how Chinese language courses are becoming more and more popular, considering the growing importance of China. It said that the College Board gave its first AP exam in Chinese last year. I bet it's only offered in districts with more money or districts with large Chinese populations, which is too bad. It continues to amaze me how limited Americans are in their language abilities.

On a side note, LAUSD offers language classes for teachers in Korean and Cantonese, if anybody is interested.

Judi,

I agree that money can be an issue, but if the students are already taking a foreign language class, why not offer a different language instead. In other words, instead of offering 20 sections of French, have just 15 sections of French and 5 of Chinese. This would not be a budget item other than books. Albeit, it may be a difficult to find a Chinese language teacher who also could teach french and spanish, but I dont see why that really should be a problem. The Korean teacher where I taught in SF also taught German. The Chinese teacher also taught French. I teach chemistry, but also have taught physics. What's the difference?

Kevin

Judi,

Can you also tell me how i can take LAUSD classes in Cantonese and/or Korean? Is there a website with this information? Thanks.

Language Classes

The classes start January 7, but I'm sure you could call the number and ask if there are still spots available.

Thanks. I'll call around and find out.

There is an institution in Studio City called Osaka Sangyo University of Los Angeles (OSULA). It offers high school-level Japanese language classes with the credits transferable to a student's home high school. In addition, there is a two-week summer program where students fly to Osaka, stay with Japanese families and attend various progams. Both programs have a reasonable cost.

Both of my sons attended the two-week programs in Osaka, which were very rewarding. My older son, in fact, is now studying Japanese at Pierce College with the intent of transferring to Cal State LA and majoring in Japanese.

The website is www.osula.com.

For U.S. teen in China, it pays to speak the lingo

By Ching-Ching Ni, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 1, 2008

Kyle Rothstein stands out in a sea of Chinese faces not because he is an American teenager with curly red hair and clear blue eyes, but because he speaks Chinese. Fluent Chinese.

The visual and verbal double take is the handiwork of his father, Jay Rothstein, a prescient American businessman who put Kyle in a bilingual English-Mandarin school in San Francisco when he was 5. The elder Rothstein had read that if you don't learn to speak a foreign language by that age, you never really get it.

"I knew it wasn't going to be easy," said Rothstein, who at the time was traveling to China on business several times a year. "There were times when he was crying every day, asking, 'I am not Chinese -- why do I have to learn Chinese?' "

But the benefits soon became obvious. By the time he was 12, Kyle had met two American presidents, hobnobbed with countless Chinese dignitaries and appeared on four Chinese TV shows. Now 17, Kyle is living in China's most cosmopolitan city, finishing school and starring in a soon-to-be-released feature film, "Milk and Fashion," about an American kid growing up in China. His father is the producer.

"I rebelled at first, but now I am grateful that my dad pushed me," Kyle, a reedy teenager with Shirley Temple locks and a relatively reserved temperament more befitting an honor student than a budding actor, said as he sat in the cafeteria of his Shanghai high school. "Everything about me has changed because of the Chinese language. It's opened up so many doors that other people don't have."

Rothstein, a single dad who acknowledges that he has raised his son much like a stereotypical stage mom, says it was all part of his plan to give the boy the best possible preparation for the future.

"I wanted to give him a good life, to do distinguished things," said Rothstein, who gained custody of his son after he and his wife divorced when Kyle was 6; she visits about twice a year. "Now college admissions officers are interested in him and saying, 'He has such an exotic resume -- we want him.' They want international kids. It's a global world."

More Americans than ever are waking up to the possibility that Chinese is the language of the future. With China's fast rise as an economic powerhouse, the language, once considered obscure and difficult to learn, is being embraced by parents looking to give their children a leg up in the global economy.

In 2000, about 5,000 American elementary and secondary schoolchildren studied Chinese. Today, the number is as much as 10 times that, according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. The College Board offered Advanced Placement exams in Mandarin Chinese for the first time last year, and more than 3,000 high school students took the test.

When Kyle enrolled in San Francisco's Chinese American International School, the oldest Chinese bilingual elementary school in the country, there were few others like him.

Rothstein, not a Chinese speaker himself, was unable to offer many after-school opportunities for his son to practice his conversation skills, so he found a way to turn strangers into teachers.

"We would go to tourist sites like Fisherman's Wharf or Golden Gate Bridge and have a race to look for visiting Chinese delegations," Rothstein said, referring to group tours from China. "When we found them, I would walk up to them and say, 'Hey, I found this kid on the street. He only speaks Chinese. Can you talk to him? Find out what he likes to eat? Can you take him back to China?' "

The reaction was usually the same: "What? How? Wow!" Then everybody would have a good laugh as the visitors marveled at the little redheaded American boy speaking their mother tongue.

Word spread, and soon Kyle became a kind of unofficial cultural ambassador and a must-see personality.

When the first President Bush visited San Francisco's Chinatown, organizers made sure he met Kyle. " 'So this is the kid everybody's talking about,' " Rothstein recalled the elder Bush saying. In 1998, the Rothsteins joined the delegation accompanying President Clinton on his trip to China.

Kyle and his father, a consultant who helped U.S. businesses set up shop in China and then switched mostly to the movie business, moved to Shanghai in 2003.

Chinese isn't the only thing that makes Kyle different. As a child, he took ballet and ballroom dancing classes. He has performed with the San Francisco Ballet Company and recently appeared in "The White Countess," starring Ralph Fiennes.

"Going to ballet instead of playing soccer, that's a bit of a bummer," Kyle said, who was eyeing the field where his friends played a game while he was showing a reporter around his school recently.

Most of his friends are expats because he finds that cultural differences make it difficult to get very close to his Chinese friends. For one thing, they study a great deal and don't have as much time to hang out. And Kyle says he knows so much more about Chinese pop culture than they do about America.

"I know [pop star] Jay Chou and [boy band] F4; they know basic stars like 50 Cent, but they don't know who the Foo Fighters are," Kyle said. "If I say Mike Myers, they don't know who that is. But if I say Austin Powers, that funny British guy in the movie, they might know the face."

To his teachers in China, Kyle is not only an anomaly but also a role model, and not just for foreigners.

"He's the first typical American high school student we put into the normal Chinese class," said Sally Zhang, the vice principal of Jin Cai High School. "The Chinese students feel amazed. Most Chinese parents think learning English is very important. Now they see even foreign students can speak such good Chinese. So they know we should pay more attention to the Chinese language."

Although the popularity of Chinese is growing among nonnative speakers, the number learning it pales in comparison with the number studying English, now being learned by an estimated 200 million Chinese. To these Chinese, English is a tougher nut to crack. That's why they appreciate making friends with foreigners such as Kyle and hope there will be more of them in the future.

"We tried to speak English to him, but our English is so bad," said Shi Jun, 17, one of Kyle's pals. "Then we realized his Chinese was so good. We could communicate so much better."

chingching.ni@latimes.com

Learning Chinese a humbling experience

How do you say, 'I'm lost'? Mastery of Mandarin eludes our intrepid writer but she enjoys a rich experience studying in Beijing.

By Susan Spano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
06:03 PM PDT, January 04, 2008



She packed her bags for China to study Mandarin, or Putonghua. What she discovered was about more than words.

Beijing, China

An old Chinese proverb sums up the three months I spent studying Mandarin in Beijing: To suffer and learn, one pays a high price, but a fool can't learn any other way.

The famously difficult Chinese language could make a fool out of anyone. Standard Chinese, known as Mandarin or Putonghua, has tens of thousands of characters, many taking more than 20 strokes to write, and a transliteration system called Pinyin that expresses Chinese words in the 26-letter Latin alphabet of English.

Further complicating matters, Mandarin is a tonal language, meaning that the same Pinyin word has four definitions depending on the intonation.

More than 20% of the world's population speaks Chinese. But while studying it last year at Beijing Language and Culture University, I often wondered how Chinese children ever learn it. Generally, I felt like a child, or at least deeply humbled. But on those rare occasions when I could read a sign or tell a cashier I didn't have any small change, I felt like Alexander the Great at the gates of Persepolis.

You don't learn Chinese in three months -- or at least I didn't. Basic Chinese at the Monterey-based Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center is a 63-week course. But spending a semester in BLCU's short-term, accelerated program struck me as a good way of getting to know Beijing, which had proved elusive on my first visit 10 years ago, chiefly because I couldn't communicate.

BLCU specializes in teaching Chinese to overseas students. But there were many other schools in Beijing to consider because the demand for Chinese language training is growing exponentially. The Chinese Ministry of Education estimates that 40 million people around the world studied the language last year. Moreover, China's popularity among American exchange students increased 90% between 2002 and 2004, and 35% more in 2007.

A Chinese professor at my alma mater, Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, recommended BLCU, a state-approved institution founded in 1962 in the leafy university district of Beijing. It was the right choice for me, as it turned out. It's near the academic powerhouses of Peking and Tsinghua universities, and it is well-known to taxi drivers.

The school has a student body of about 15,000, a third from China studying to become Chinese teachers or preparing for careers that require a foreign language. Like American college students, Chinese undergraduates at BLCU play sports, party and call home to ask their parents for money.

The rest of the students come from more than 120 countries around the world and generally pay their own way. They have to hit the books hard just to keep up in accelerated Chinese class, where the approach is known as stuffed duck.

Inside the ivory tower

When I arrived here, I thought I would enjoy class from 8 to noon every weekday morning and spend the rest of the time tooling around Beijing.

I could easily have found an apartment off campus, but that required a residence permit from the local police. So I got a single in a dorm, figuring that living like an undergraduate at age 52 would be the worst indignity I would have to endure.

I had it all backward.

The campus, which occupies most of a city block close to the heart of Haidian District around Wudaokou subway station, is an Oriental ivory tower, surrounded by walls with gates locked at midnight (though pub crawlers are admitted after that with a little pleading). It was the dreary end of a Beijing winter when I arrived, so all I noticed at first was that BLCU had everything a student could need: ATMs, a library, bookstore, post office, conference center, market, hair salon, copy shop and gymnasium with Olympic-size pool.

Besides the cafeteria, which serves hot Chinese meals on penitentiary-style aluminum trays for about 25 cents an entree, there are several small restaurants specializing in foreign cuisine (though my taste buds told me that everything came from the same kitchen). I favored the LaVita Café, where I studied in the morning and drank a lot of coffee. The Muslim restaurant near the basketball courts was by far the most popular, chiefly for its delicious flat bread cooked on a round ceramic oven by a big, vicious-looking baker wielding a long wooden paddle.

Scattered around campus are 17 dorms, a few new high-rises but mostly two-story, gray brick buildings, vintage 1980 or so, inevitably fronted by a parking lot full of dilapidated bicycles. My dorm was No. 13, near the west gate, with a front desk manned 24/7 by staff members who knew but mostly refused to speak English.

My room, which cost about $400 a month, was on the second floor and far more comfortable than I had expected.

Its walls bore Scotch-tape marks from previous occupants. It had a mini-refrigerator, Internet hookup (for $20 more a month), a hard single bed, a card-operated telephone and a television. (The TV showed only state-sponsored CCTV news in English and a Korean-language station that aired reruns of "CSI: Miami" nightly, with Korean subtitles.) The private bath had an unenclosed shower dispensing water hot enough to make instant noodles.

About once a week, a washer in the faucet handle broke so I couldn't stop hot water from gushing out of the shower. By the time the plumber came, the whole room was a steam-filled sauna. And though the heating system was powerful, it was centrally operated. When I started to sweat, I asked a floor attendant how to turn it off. She rolled her eyes and, with the disdain of an upperclassman, said, "Open a window."

Most foreign students furnished their dorm rooms from the campus Friendly Store, stocking goods as varied as bean paste and blow dryers, the latter priced at just $6 because they were manufactured in India, I was told.

But wanting to make my dorm room a place I could come home to, I took a cab to the IKEA on the Fourth Ring Road (which is just like IKEAs everywhere) and visited the Panjiayuan antiques and flea market on the southeastern side of town one Sunday morning. I could never have carried everything I wanted to buy but came away with some treasures: a bubble-shaded ceramic lamp in the shape of a Ming Dynasty courtesan, a hand-painted scroll of Chinese men and caged birds, and a kitschy mantel clock faced with a cheerful picture of Chairman Mao.

Instruction begins

Then the academic semester began with a placement test, given in a spartan classroom to about a dozen primarily English-speaking students. Students were grouped according to their mother tongue, with young Korean speakers dominating by a wide margin.

Instruction at BLCU starts in the students' first languages, progressing after about a month to an all-Chinese learning environment.

I sharpened my pencils and prepared for the worst. But first, the teacher asked those of us who had never studied Chinese to raise our hands and said, "You know nothing. You can go."

So I joined the most ignorant class in BLCU's accelerated Chinese program, and my status never changed.

A month into the semester, I did so poorly on a practice test that it finally dawned on me I needed to study at least four hours a day to enjoy and benefit from class. I did all the exercises in my textbooks and made flashcards with Chinese characters on one side and Pinyin on the other.

(To be continued)

The only thing I didn't do to get ahead was to hook up with a language partner, though native English speakers like me were in such hot demand that Chinese students occasionally tailed me across campus working up the courage to suggest we team up for English-Mandarin conversation.

Soon I was doing better, and my classmates noticed.

They were a wonderfully mixed and motley crew from all the corners of the world where people are realizing that their futures may be inevitably tied up with China.

I spoke French with Joelle, a tall young woman born in the Republic of Congo and educated in Poland. Roger, from Brazil, planned to study with a Chinese martial-arts master.

Michael was an E.M. Forster-esque Englishman, between jobs in Asia. Tatyana came from Vladivostok and spoke only Russian, so she used a dictionary to translate the teacher's English into her mother tongue.

Mohammed, from Egypt, had to contradict people who assumed he had a harem, and we all thought that Shinji, a Korean with a sociology degree from the University of Chicago and a build like Superman, worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.

There were only two other students from the U.S., one a Chinese American girl who wasn't sure whether she wanted to be a writer or a dentist, the other a thirtysomething New Yorker whose excellence at Chinese quickly made him the class favorite. When our teacher struggled to explain the nuances of Mandarin in English, Jacob stepped in to assist her.

We were given three textbooks on Chinese grammar, listening and speaking. Three teachers -- laoshi in Mandarin -- rotated with them. In China, the teaching profession is still highly revered. Anyway, I revered my instructors, especially Wu laoshi, a thin, bespectacled woman in her 30s with an unfulfilled yen to see the world.

On a bench near my dorm, she prepped me for my role as laoshi in a skit my class reluctantly performed at the spring talent show. Later, we commiserated about some of my fellow students' perpetual tardiness and obvious failure to prepare.

I told Wu laoshi not to worry, bie zhaoji in Chinese. Our class was full of oddballs.

She didn't know that word, but when I explained, I got a good laugh out of her.

Squeaking past midterms

BLCU cleared out during Golden Week, the big spring holiday in China. I went to Tibet but got back in time to prepare for midterms. We were graded on a 100-point scale, with no curve.

I came very close to flunking.

Never mind. Winter yielded to spring, with translucent skies and lilacs by the post office.

Every morning I woke up to the rubber-soled footfall of the security force running in a phalanx past my window. I grabbed coffee at LaVita and went to class. My attendance was sterling even if my grades were not.

Every afternoon, I studied hard and even learned a little Mandarin I'll probably forget.

But I won't ever forget watching Chinese boys in droopy shorts play basketball, chatting with Wu laoshi on a bench, eating hot flat bread from the Muslim restaurant, and the smell of Chinese lilacs.



By Susan Spano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
06:03 PM PDT, January 04, 2008
susan.spano@latimes.com

I have designed the lesson plan incorporating cardboard, play dough, and Chinese map. Students will mold China's topography according to the map and label it. After wards, use TPRS (Teaching Language Through Reading and Storytelling) technique to implement stories using the content knowledge of China's topography.

Please see the attachment.

(Continue)

Here is the assignment sheet.

Here is another lesson plan that I have implemented to teach Chinese language through history and skits.

Cheng & Tsui has provided Asian language and cultural materials to students around the world since 1979. To celebrate their 30th anniversary, they want to know how learning an Asian language affected your life.

Tell them your story by sending in a video or essay by June 1st. Judges will review all submissions and winners will be announced on June 12th.

Visit http://www.cheng-tsui.com/mylife to read the official rules, review judging criteria, and enter the contest. Winners will win a $100 Visa gift card or Cheng & Tsui gift certificate and each of the runner-ups will receive a $25 Cheng & Tsui gift certificate.

I teach Japanese in South Bay area, but i can find out for you. Where do you live? How far can you travel? Let me know all your situation when i see you next Tuesday.

I used to use the Japan Foundation Library a lot.

Here goes the catalog of their DVD and VHS:
http://www.jpf.go.jp/jfla/lib_catalog.html

There are many VHS and DVD in English explaining Shintoism, manners and famous cities, etc.

When you look for any specific books and story-cards (perfect for elementary/Junior high students), just call them or e-mail them re what type of materials you are looking for, they will be able to help you and ship the package to your school site or your house free. (If you are a teacher, you can get the membership card.) But you need to return it to them with your own money on time.
Nihongo Library: nihongolib@jflalc.org

Last year I used their 'Japan Foundation' library in Japan, they helped me search for almost anything re Japan and the culture. I asked them to look for a Japanese song regarding bathing, they came out a several songs and sites in internet. They even pulled out some articles from government white papers. I am sure that the Japan Foundation in LA could do something similar to that. Call them up and find out.

Also they offer various classroom grants available, if you are planning some events or materials re Japan:
Mrs. Makiko Watanabe could help you guide you to the right person or department.

Walnut Valley USD just launched a bilingual program at Walnut Elementary School through FLAP grant. Next year, these kindergarteners will be placed in first-grade dual-language class as new kindergartners enter the program. Their goal is to have K-5 Chinese Dual Language Program in next five years. For more information, you could visit Walnut Valley USD homepage.

http://www.wvusd.k12.ca.us/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=175964&id=0
edited by rkim on 4/13/2011

I definitely agree that more language classes should be offered to teachers, thank you all for the info. I am expecially interested in Japanese. My school is currently undergoing the IB School application process and has pushed for more languge classes. Students are able to take French, Spanish, or Mandarin. However, Mandarin seems to be the more popular course, and the most necessary according to my school and the feeder high school. Therefore, French will no longer be offered. The students seem to really enjoy taking the Mandarin class and I like the fact that it exposes them to a culture that they are not familiar with and one that they feel disconnected to. The only problem that we are running into is that we cannot find credentialed teachers to teach this course and consequently are limited to the number of students who can be enrolled in this course. As a result, all other students are automatically placed into the Spanish language class.

What a great idea about contacting the mentioned organizations to get phrases and basic langugae info for the classroom! I will definitely look into them!

You can get in touch with Andrea Young at International Studies Learning Center in South Gate. She teaches Japanese 1, 2, 3 to High School students. She is a great resource and connector.