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 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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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.

 

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.

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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.

Full report.

 

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.

Full report

 

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.

Full report

 

Chinese student Yu Huai Zhang’s inspirational story of his experiences at Queen’s University Belfast and in Northern Ireland has earned him the title of International Student of the Year 2007. Yu Huai, who is known as Neo to his fellow students, beat off stiff competition from more than 2000 students representing 130 nationalities, to win the title and the £2,000 prize.

The competition - the British Council annual Shine International Student Awards - highlights the unique contributions of international students to life in the United Kingdom. Neo, who comes from Shenzhen and who studies Management at Queen’s, had previously been named Northern Ireland’s International Student of the Year.

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