Missouri schools embrace Chinese language lessons
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Sunday, March 8, 2009 8:06 AM CDT
BOWLING GREEN, Mo. (AP) — Here in Bowling Green, where school buses yield to Amish-driven horses and buggies, where the high school students can opt to take Advanced Livestock or Advanced Greenhouse, 17-year-old Tyler Cannon sits in Mandarin class, discussing his after-school job.
“Wo xihuan chi hàn bao,” he said, leaning back in his desk, arms crossed.
“You like cooking hamburgers at Dairy Queen?” quizzed his classmate, Breanna Orf.
“I do,” he replied, offering a cool grin.
This is the first year Bowling Green has offered classes in Chinese, and the nearly 50 students there have signed up for the challenge.
Chinese is spoken by more people than any other language, and China has the second-largest economy in the world. While the trend to teach Chinese in traditional schools isn’t exactly sweeping Missouri, schools across the country are signing on, even in far-reaching corners like Bowling Green.
Two Missouri public school districts offered Chinese classes two school years ago. This year, at least seven do, most of them in the Kansas City area. In Illinois, at least 30 districts and private schools, most in the Chicago area, offer Chinese instruction.
“It’s just a reflection of our trying to stay ahead of the curve nationally,” said Robert Headrick, coordinator of foreign languages for Rockwood schools, which will begin offering classes next year. “When you look at 21st-century skills and what we know about the global economy, it just makes sense at this point.”
He said the district also is exploring the possibility of offering classes in Arabic in the next few years.
This year for the first time, the Clayton School District offers Mandarin classes at the middle and high schools. St. Louis Public Schools offer classes at Bunche International Studies Middle School. Last year, the private Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School began offering them. And next year, the private John Burroughs School will offer Chinese as part of an introductory language course that meets twice a week.
Webster University on Friday celebrated the grand opening of its Confucius Institute, a nonprofit group that will offer Chinese language courses for adults, host lectures on Chinese culture and topics, and work with the state to train kindergarten through high school teachers on teaching Chinese.
St. Louis University High School has offered Chinese language courses for 45 years, and students take part in an exchange program every year. In fact, right now, the all-boys Catholic private school is temporarily coed because it is hosting two female exchange students for the semester.
“This might be the most usable language at the moment,” said Ching-ling Tai, who has taught Chinese at SLUH for more than 20 years. The school added a second teacher this year to help with the growing demand.
People think Chinese is incredibly difficult to learn, but some things about it aren’t as tough as you might think, says Patrick Huewe, chair of world languages at MICDS.
The grammar is about as complex as English, and vocabulary takes longer to learn because most isn’t related to English. Learning to write the characters is complex, and learning the four different pitches, or tones, can be tricky. For example, if you say the word “ma” one way, it means “mother.” If you say it another way, it means “horse.”
“So if you say the incorrect term, it could really elicit an unusual response from a native speaker,” Huewe said.
Bowling Green Mandarin teacher Cindy Wu Williams grew up in Taiwan and attended college in the United States. She married her college sweetheart, a Bowling Green native, and enrolled their son in school there. When a Chinese girl enrolled in Bowling Green High School barely knowing any English, the district turned to Wu Williams for help.
Wu Williams took the girl under her wing, meeting with her every week for hours. She did such a good job, the district asked if she would teach Mandarin at the high school. Spanish was the only foreign language it offered at the time.
Since the high school focuses so intently on agriculture it employs three full-time agriculture teachers administrators figure that students could use their new knowledge of Chinese to pursue international business in agriculture.
Wu Williams’ charm and enthusiasm also help, and she’s earned the reputation as one of the funniest teachers at the school. Even students who struggle in other subjects do well in her class. She teaches vocabulary by playing charades, pops Chinese rock music into the CD player, and shows them “Kung Fu Panda” while giving commentary on Chinese culture and the film’s language mistakes.
“She’s about the only teacher where you walk into a class and she genuinely wants to know how your weekend went,” said Sonja Perry, 15. “And she does that for everybody.”
Thanks to Wu Williams, Brett St. Clair, 17, wants to be a Chinese language interpreter. Before, he wanted to be a wrestler. “This is a bit more attainable,” he said.
For Wu Williams, the lessons she is teaching go beyond language. She wants students to learn perseverance and to support each other in their quest to learn.
“I always tell them this is not just an elective language class,” she said. “This will open a world of opportunity for them.”
Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com
“Wo xihuan chi hàn bao,” he said, leaning back in his desk, arms crossed.
“You like cooking hamburgers at Dairy Queen?” quizzed his classmate, Breanna Orf.
“I do,” he replied, offering a cool grin.
This is the first year Bowling Green has offered classes in Chinese, and the nearly 50 students there have signed up for the challenge.
Chinese is spoken by more people than any other language, and China has the second-largest economy in the world. While the trend to teach Chinese in traditional schools isn’t exactly sweeping Missouri, schools across the country are signing on, even in far-reaching corners like Bowling Green.
Two Missouri public school districts offered Chinese classes two school years ago. This year, at least seven do, most of them in the Kansas City area. In Illinois, at least 30 districts and private schools, most in the Chicago area, offer Chinese instruction.
“It’s just a reflection of our trying to stay ahead of the curve nationally,” said Robert Headrick, coordinator of foreign languages for Rockwood schools, which will begin offering classes next year. “When you look at 21st-century skills and what we know about the global economy, it just makes sense at this point.”
He said the district also is exploring the possibility of offering classes in Arabic in the next few years.
This year for the first time, the Clayton School District offers Mandarin classes at the middle and high schools. St. Louis Public Schools offer classes at Bunche International Studies Middle School. Last year, the private Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School began offering them. And next year, the private John Burroughs School will offer Chinese as part of an introductory language course that meets twice a week.
Webster University on Friday celebrated the grand opening of its Confucius Institute, a nonprofit group that will offer Chinese language courses for adults, host lectures on Chinese culture and topics, and work with the state to train kindergarten through high school teachers on teaching Chinese.
St. Louis University High School has offered Chinese language courses for 45 years, and students take part in an exchange program every year. In fact, right now, the all-boys Catholic private school is temporarily coed because it is hosting two female exchange students for the semester.
“This might be the most usable language at the moment,” said Ching-ling Tai, who has taught Chinese at SLUH for more than 20 years. The school added a second teacher this year to help with the growing demand.
People think Chinese is incredibly difficult to learn, but some things about it aren’t as tough as you might think, says Patrick Huewe, chair of world languages at MICDS.
The grammar is about as complex as English, and vocabulary takes longer to learn because most isn’t related to English. Learning to write the characters is complex, and learning the four different pitches, or tones, can be tricky. For example, if you say the word “ma” one way, it means “mother.” If you say it another way, it means “horse.”
“So if you say the incorrect term, it could really elicit an unusual response from a native speaker,” Huewe said.
Bowling Green Mandarin teacher Cindy Wu Williams grew up in Taiwan and attended college in the United States. She married her college sweetheart, a Bowling Green native, and enrolled their son in school there. When a Chinese girl enrolled in Bowling Green High School barely knowing any English, the district turned to Wu Williams for help.
Wu Williams took the girl under her wing, meeting with her every week for hours. She did such a good job, the district asked if she would teach Mandarin at the high school. Spanish was the only foreign language it offered at the time.
Since the high school focuses so intently on agriculture it employs three full-time agriculture teachers administrators figure that students could use their new knowledge of Chinese to pursue international business in agriculture.
Wu Williams’ charm and enthusiasm also help, and she’s earned the reputation as one of the funniest teachers at the school. Even students who struggle in other subjects do well in her class. She teaches vocabulary by playing charades, pops Chinese rock music into the CD player, and shows them “Kung Fu Panda” while giving commentary on Chinese culture and the film’s language mistakes.
“She’s about the only teacher where you walk into a class and she genuinely wants to know how your weekend went,” said Sonja Perry, 15. “And she does that for everybody.”
Thanks to Wu Williams, Brett St. Clair, 17, wants to be a Chinese language interpreter. Before, he wanted to be a wrestler. “This is a bit more attainable,” he said.
For Wu Williams, the lessons she is teaching go beyond language. She wants students to learn perseverance and to support each other in their quest to learn.
“I always tell them this is not just an elective language class,” she said. “This will open a world of opportunity for them.”
Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com
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