Classes in Chinese Grow as the Language Rides a Wave

Dear All,

Please check out the below link...
I think the original article, which posted on NY Times needs the member ID to log on, below is the link I searched that still has the original article information.

http://paulipema.blogspot.com/2005/10/classes-in-chinese-grow-as-language.html

New York Times, 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 billion 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 long-standing 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."