Tue 5 Jun 2007
Xinhua News Agency reports:
BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) — China sent more than 400 volunteers to teach Mandarin in Thailand, the largest number of volunteers since China launched its program to send volunteers abroad to teach the Chinese language, the overseas edition of People’s Daily reported on Monday.
This is the fourth batch of volunteers sent to Thailand since China launched the teaching program in 2004.
Sun 3 Jun 2007
Chinese guitarist Xuefei Yang will be playing at the Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park on Wednesday June 13th at 7:30pm.
Praised by all who have heard her Xuefei Yang is a star who should not be missed.
Born in Beijing, Xuefei began playing the guitar at the age of seven, taking formal tuition at ten from Chen Zhi. Soon after, she made her first public appearance at the First China International Guitar Festival. Immediately she gained such acclaim that the Spanish Ambassador in China presented her with a handmade concert guitar. During her school years, she played extensively in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Spain and Australia and gave concert tours in Taiwan, Japan and Portugal.
At only eleven, she won 2nd prize in the Beijing Senior Guitar competition being the only child competitor. When playing in Tokyo the following year, she was given a special award by the Guitar Alliance of Japan and the celebrated Japanese luthier Masaru Kohno presented her with one of his concert guitars. The composer Rodrigo attended her debut concert in Madrid when she was fourteen. In 1995 John Williams came to Beijing. He was so impressed with her playing that he gave two of his own Smallman guitars to her Conservatory especially for her and other top students to play.
Sun 3 Jun 2007
Students in Orange County, U.S. are learning Chinese in the schools. Many students see learning Chinese as a way to increase career opportunities, while some Chinese American students want to connect with their heritage.
The Orange County Register reports:
Twins Josh and Kyle Roberts, 14, know that studying Chinese sets them apart.
“For, like, business and stuff, it’s an important language to learn,” said Josh, who lives with his family in Trabuco Canyon.
The eighth-graders are learning to speak, read and write Chinese at Las Flores Middle School, where Chinese is in such high demand that there is no longer a year-long class in French.
“You hear Chinese is the language of the future,” said Holly Feldt, principal of Las Flores Middle. “And we need to be aware of that fact and be proactive about teaching kids so that they’re ready.”
Las Flores is not alone. As China looms as a future economic superpower, more and more Orange County teens are asking about and signing up for Chinese language classes. While countywide enrollment numbers are not available, education officials at some schools are seeing that Chinese is replacing French on some students’ schedules.
Sun 3 Jun 2007
The Chronicle newspaper of Goshen, New York reports the Goshen Central School District has been funded by U.S. Department of Education to provide Mandarin Chinese lessons to its sixth-grade students.
GOSHEN —The Goshen Central School District has received the U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language Assistance Grant, a three-year grant that will allow its sixth-grade students to study the language of Mandarin Chinese.
The program is open to select students and is a full-year traditional foreign language program, delivered via state-of-the art e-learning hardware and software. Classes will be taught by a New York State certified teacher whose primary classroom is located in the Video conferencing Lab at the Orange-Ulster BOCES Harriman Learning Center.
From this location, the teacher will meet with one or two classes at a time for instruction. Materials will be made available to students through a teacher created Web site and blackboard. Students will also meet with their teacher at least once a month. Communication with the teacher will take place during video conferences, via the course management system and through e-mail.
Sun 3 Jun 2007
It’s a matter of “practise, practise, practise”. The Chronicle Herald, a local newspaper in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, reports the Mandarin lessons for the Grade 3 students at Sacred Heart School:
Like many young girls these days, Sarah Tai-MacArthur and Robin Short are yapping away on cellphones, talking about going to the mall.
But this isn’t your typical chat between preteens.
These two smart Grade 3 students are speaking Mandarin Chinese. The interactive lesson is part of a special after-school program at Sacred Heart School of Halifax.
With smiling instructor Ming-Ling Tsay always nearby to correct pronunciation or offer encouragement, a small group of students gather together once a week to learn the most spoken language in the world.
Sat 2 Jun 2007
From Associated Press:
BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese city has halted construction of a chemical plant after residents sent more than 1 million mobile phone text messages protesting possible pollution dangers, news reports said Thursday.
The $1.4 billion facility being built by Tenglong Aromatic PX (Xiamen) Co. Ltd to produce the petrochemical paraxylene was planned for the booming southeastern port of Xiamen, the Xinhua News Agency and newspapers said.
“The city government has listened to the opinions expressed and has decided, after careful deliberation, that the project must be re-evaluated,” a deputy mayor, Ding Guoyan, was quoted as saying.
The plant was to be located 10 miles from the center of Xiamen, a center for Taiwanese and Hong Kong investment. The nearest homes were about a mile away, according to news reports.
Full report (from The Guardian)
Fri 1 Jun 2007
The four relay teams running the Edinburgh Marathon Relay 2007 for the charity Mother’s Bridge of Love (MBL) have successfully finished the Marathon Relay, within 3hrs 30min. to 4hrs. Here are some photos taken by the volunteers supporting the four teams.
Photographers of Edinburgh Marathon Relay 2007 (1st and 2nd series) were taken by Chen Xu, Chen Lei, Shi Lei, Yang Yang, Ma Yan, Dai Yihuan, Lu Pin
09 Relay team Golden Team captain Wang Mei
10 Relay team Flying Panda’s Fu Yu in action
11 Relay team Red Army and MBL’s Wendy Wu
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