美国纽约时报关于中文教育的新闻

魂游天外 · 发表于 2005-10-18 09:27

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 billon 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
longstanding 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."

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

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