LinkChinese UK News

The somewhat surprise success of Californian Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD)’s federal language grant application has generated much interest. PAUSD has since published the abstract of the original application on Palo Alto Online News website:

Abstract of original language-grant application

Following is the original summary of the grant application that has turned up with a pledge of federal funds a year later. The high-school instruction was proposed an an advanced-placement class.

ABSTRACT – Development and Implementation of a Comprehensive K-12 Mandarin Chinese Program with a Dual-Immersion Elementary Component in Palo Alto Unified School District

TYPE OF PROGRAM: FLAP-LEA

SCHOOLS: Elementary School TBD, Middle Schools TBD, Henry M. Gunn High School,

Palo Alto Senior High School

The Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD), Palo Alto, CA proposes to develop and implement a model K-12 Mandarin Chinese program beginning with elementary dual-immersion and culminating in Advanced Placement Mandarin Chinese Language and Culture. The program will begin in August 2006 with two classes of Mandarin Chinese Level I in each of the District’s two comprehensive public high schools and in August 2007 with two kindergarten classes of dual-immersion Mandarin Chinese/English to be located at one of the District’s 12 elementary schools.

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Califonia’s Palo Alto Unified School District has received from $200,000 federal grant to fund its foreign language programmes.

The grant is part of the federal National Security Language Initiative intended to address the shortage of critical foreign language speakers. The initiative aims to boost the number of Americans studying Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi and others in programs from kindergarten through college.

Susan Hong wrote on Palo Alto Online News:

Palo Alto Unified School District can expect to receive $201,418 in federal money to help increase foreign language instruction, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spelling announced today — surprising school officials.

They had applied for the grant a year ago but missed getting it by a half a point. They did not re-apply this year, but apparently the original application was kept open.

The grant is part of the federal National Security Language Initiative intended to address the shortage of critical foreign language speakers. The initiative aims to boost the number of Americans studying Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi and others in programs from kindergarten through college.

Full article.

 

Nancy Zhang wrote in Shanghai Daily, reacting to the Sunday Times’s report of some British schools’ unofficial policy of capping the number of pupils from China. She accused the school of deploying a policy that discriminates against Chinese students.

The Sunday Times reported that some private schools, including Wellington College in Berkshire, the Leys school in Cambridge and Brighton college, East Sussex, have decided to restrict their numbers of foreign pupils. The informal limit ranges from 8% to 20%. The schools argues that they must preserve the Britishness of the school, which was also expressed by some of the parents, according to the schools.

The numbers from mainland China have risen from a few hundred in 2000 to 2,345 this year. When added to pupils from Hong Kong, the total rises to 8,652, 40% of all foreign pupils.

UK schools discriminate against Chinese students, by Nancy Zhang:

Last month an article appeared in “The Sunday Times” about unofficial quotas some British schools have on the number of Chinese pupils they will admit.

This was preceded by another article the week before with the headline “Chinese students oust UK pupils from top universities.”

It seems there is a growing pattern in Western countries like the United Kingdom, where the Chinese in particular are seen to be infringing on that most valuable and socially crucial resource: education.

Ostensibly the schools claim these quotas are a practical issue of business-need. The schools mentioned were highly elite, private schools - traditionally a bastion of British life stretching back to the days of the empire.

The argument provided by the schools is that both foreign and British parents, their customers, come to these schools for a distinctly “British” education, so it is in the interests of both to keep numbers of Chinese below 10 percent and thus maintain their original character.

But I wonder if they would say the same if the incoming 10 percent of foreign students were white American or European. Or, on the other hand, if they would welcome a large number of legally British pupils who were ethnically Chinese.

Full article.

 

The Guardian newspaper reports that Commission of Racial Equality has written to the Border and Immigration Agency’s director general, Lin Homer, warning that the Highly-Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) reform carried out last year breached anti-discrimination laws.

The changes, in particluarly the retrospective application of the prolonged time required for permanent residence, have caused controversy. Those had successfully applied for HSMP and already been in the UK under the expection that they would be entitled to apply for permanent residence after four years were told that they had to wait for one more year. There has been long term campaign against this change organised by those affected.

Nick Johnson, director of policy and public sector of CRE, told Ms Homer that the race equality assessment of the changes to the HSMP does not fully comply with the requiremens of the Race Equality Duty. Mr Johnson asked officials to respond within the month.

Amit Kapadia, spokesman for the highly-skilled migrants programme forum, said: “It is completely unfair. We are not against the government making immigration changes, but it is wrong to apply them retrospectively.

“People came on pledges made by the government - that they would be able to settle in four years - and have sold properties and brought their families. Now their plans have been devastated.”

The Guardian’s Tania Branigan reports:

Migrant scheme reforms may have breached law, CRE warns

The government breached anti-discrimination laws after controversial changes to its immigration programme for highly-skilled workers, the Commission for Racial Equality believes.

The watchdog has written to the Border and Immigration Agency’s director general, Lin Homer, warning that it carried out an inadequate assessment of reforms before their introduction late last year.

The highly-skilled migrants programme (HSMP) was launched in 2003 and allowed workers pledging to make Britain their main home to claim permanent residence after four years. But campaigners say up to 40,000 people already living in the country, such as entrepreneurs, IT specialists and scientists, have been affected by the retrospective application of new rules designed to stop abuse of the system.

Read the full report.

 

These are some of the designs published in the Guardian of the opera Monkey: Journey to the West which will show at Manchester International Festival.

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The Xinhua News Agency reports a Chinese teacher’s story in Bangladeshi:

By Xinhua. Dhaka, Bangladesh, 08:30 AM IST

Yang Jinxiang, a teacher from China Languages University who speaks neither English nor Bangla, is teaching Chinese in Dhaka University.

What has impressed people about her most is not teaching Chinese in a foreign country, but her style of teaching.

Yang cannot speak Bangla, the mother tongue of Bangladeshis, or English, the widely spoken language in the country. But over the last two years, there are 19 students in her class who will get scholarships from the Chinese government to study in China.

She came to teach in Dhaka University in August 2005. There were two teachers in the Chinese Department at that moment including Afzar Hossain who had studied in China from 1997 to 2001.

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Book reviewed by Pin Lu on WaterInk

In the introduction of his new book Getting Rich First: Life in a Changing China (Chatto and Windus), Duncan Hewitt wrote that when he sat at the cafe of Shanghai IKEA, he can see cars and trucks were rushing around outside the window in the three level elevated roads which also tangled with a light weight train rail. When I was reading this, I was sitting beside a window in a quiet corner of one of the large Waterstone’s in Edinburgh. Outside the window is the cobbled back street, where a pigeon was fighting hopelessly against a seagull for some leftover chips. Incidently, Edinburgh is where Hewitt’s journey started, as one of the students learning Chinese in Edinburgh University who were about setting foot in China in late 80s.

An often heard complaint among the youngests who came to the UK from China is that this place is just a bit dull. People can cite me many things they used to do in China, eating out at a newly opened restaurant, karaoke at a new KTV, or exchanging some latest American tv series are just the common ones. There seems to be endless supplies of new ways of consuming and entertaining. Things are moving rather fast there.

This fits well what Hewitt said, that it almost like the 60 years of post war development in the West has been compressed into 20 years in China. BBC’s Andrew Marr, in his History of Modern Britain, describes the make over of Birmingham in the 60s - the old Birmingham almost completely disappeared while people can’t wait to see a New Britain. Imagine that in a much bigger scale, repeated every five years. That’s what’s happening in China.

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According to an online survey, 62 percent of Chinese and 63 percent of Indians agreed developing countries like China and India should cut carbon emission just as developed countries do.

Most Chinese, Indians back carbon cuts -survey
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-06-08 09:13

LONDON - Most Chinese and Indian people agree developed countries have the right to demand that emerging countries cut their carbon emissions, according to a survey by market research firm Global Market Insite.

Sixty-two percent of Chinese respondents and 63 percent of Indians said they agreed “it would be appropriate for developed countries to demand restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions from developing countries, such as China and India.”

Eighteen percent of the 14,188 respondents polled in 14 countries for this year’s World Environment Review said US government policy was the biggest threat to the world’s climate.

This included 13 percent of US citizens and 23 percent of people from European G8 member countries France, Germany, Italy and Britain.

Only 14 percent of those asked said they thought lack of action by developing countries to reduce their emissions was the biggest threat to the world’s climate.

And less than 12 percent of Chinese and Indians surveyed said US policy was the biggest threat to the environment.

Read the full report.

 

Llandovery College, a private school in Carmathenshire, Wales, is about to give Mandarin lessions to its pupils as young as four, the Western Mail reports. The Mandarin lessions will start from September, when a Chinese teaching assistant sponsored by the British Council will arrive.

Paul Rowland wrote in Western Mail:

ONE of Wales’ most famous private schools is to become the first in the country to offer pupils lessons in Mandarin Chinese.

Llandovery College claims the language will become a highly valuable asset for its students because of the growing importance of China in the global economy.

From September, children as young as four at the Carmarthenshire school will begin learning the language’s 60,000 characters, as well as having lessons about Chinese culture from a native Mandarin-speaking teacher.

China is one of the world’s fastest growing economies, with a growth rate of around 10%, and is one of the world’s largest exporters of goods, with an export growth rate of 24% in 2006.

In recent years it has firmly established itself ahead of Britain as the world’s fourth largest economy.

Read the full story.

 

Here is a fantanstic opportunity to meet the recruiting team from Shen Zhen Vanke. Vanke, founded in 1984, is one of the first publicly listed Chinese mainland enterprises. Vanke’s core business is residential property development.

On Saturday 9th June 2007,they are hosting a recruitment fair in London.

Time:11:00-17:00
Venue: Gallery Lounge, Royal National Hotel,2 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0DG

Talents are invited in the following fields:

1)2007 International NP Recruiting
We seek 20 individuals who…
Have degrees from universities or colleges overseas or in Hong Kong
Have an international mindset and open mind
Be willing to develop their careers in China, work in the real estate industry and identify with Vanke’s values
Can bring back knowledge, ideas, tools and methodologies that exceed the norm
2)2007 International Internship Program
We also seek 30 individuals interested in 2- to 6-month internships who…
Are full-time students of major overseas or Hong Kong universities
Have passing grades in any major
Have an international mindset and open mind
Are interested in an opportunity to be part of Vanke projects and enjoy teamwork with a group of intelligent colleagues
3)Career Path
The New Power will have the chance to receive a challenge job in Vanke, you may start your career in fields as follows:
Company Operation Management Strategy Research CRM
Capital Operation Corporation Finance Strategy Cooperation
Architecture Technique Research Risk Management HR Management

Free lunch provided.
For catering purpose, anyone who are interested please confirm your attendance by replying this email. xb_dong@yahoo.co.uk