LinkChinese UK News

Mike Wendland reports on Detriot Free Press about the new online game to help people to learn Chinese:

As the Olympics approach and China becomes even more dominant in the news, a Michigan State University professor has created an online video game that teaches Chinese culture and language.

Called Zon/New Chengo, (http://enterzon.com/), the multiplayer Web-based role-playing game was created by Yong Zhao, MSU distinguished professor of educational psychology and technology. A native of a poor, remote area of the Sichuan Province, he has become a highly influential researcher in Chinese education, bringing in more than $20 million in research to the university.

“Games are supposed to be fun and educational,” said Zhao.”This game offers a vicarious, virtual experience of China.”

The goal for the player is to fare well and advance socially and economically, with players moving from “tourists” to “residents” and finally to “citizens” of modern China. At the different stages, players encounter quests, have access to learning materials — including live Chinese tutors — and are able to organize and participate in social activities.

Read the full story.

 

Claire Smith reports in Scotsman:

THREE years ago, teachers and pupils from Grantown Grammar went on a trip which had a profound influence on them and the school.

Eight pupils and two teachers travelled to Beijing to take part in a three-week language and culture course run by the British Council which for many of them began a fascination with all things Chinese.

Today, visitors are often surprised to see examples of Chinese calligraphy on the walls – and to learn this small school is one of the first in the UK to offer a chance to learn basic Mandarin.

Read the full report.

 

Schools in Lancashire share teaching resources to offer their pupils Mandarin courses. Gordon McCully reports on This Is Lancashire:

East is meeting west at a primary school where pupils are getting to grips with learning Mandarin.

Youngsters at Gillibrand Primary, Grosvenor Road, Chorley, are picking up the new language with the help of Mandarin teacher Lichan Lu. Head teacher Sharon Franklin said: “She comes in once a week and she takes year one and year five children.

“It’s through our links with Parklands High School because she is a language assistant at Parklands.”

Read the full report.

 

The Guardian’s Julie Nightingale reports the increasing number of Chinese assistants coming to UK secondary schools to support the teaching of Chinese language and culture:

Eric Yu looks taken aback when asked his age. “Thirty-four,” he replies, cheerfully bemused and presumably wondering whether he’s about to be asked any other vital statistics.

Most European language assistants in UK schools are in their late teens or early 20s, but Yu is not a late developer; he’s Chinese. And the Chinese assistants who come here to support the increasing numbers of schools now teaching Mandarin are all qualified teachers with several years of experience under their belts.

Yu has a BA in English and teaches in a Shanghai secondary school. He’s spending a year at Djanogly city academy in Nottingham, supporting the school’s programme of Mandarin language and Chinese culture.

Read the full story.

 

The Scotsman reports that Edinburgh’s Stevenson College has given certificates to its seventh group of Chinese teachers. The course is specially tailored for the development of Chinese teachers. In parternship with Cambridge University, Stevenson College is the only Scottish centre offering English lessons to the teachers. Besides the language, the class also visited schools across Edinburgh to better understand the teaching of language.

Scotsman’s report

 

Banks Albach of Califonia’s San Jose Mecury News reports:

The federal government is offering the Palo Alto Unified School District nearly $800,000 over three years to fund its recently created Mandarin immersion program.

The grant, which the board of trustees will discuss Tuesday night but take no action on, is part of the U.S. Department of Education’s Foreign Language Assistance Program and requires renewal each of the three years.

According to a staff report, the district would receive $197,809 the first year, $279,191 in the second and $283,264 in the third. The district is required to match the grant, dollar to dollar.

“It’s bringing additional money into the district,” Board Member Mandy Lowell said.

But the grant has also prompted some words of caution from Board Member Gail Price. Yes it’s free money, she said, but the district should plan ahead for when the grant is no longer available.

After a long debate over Mandarin immersion, the district board approved the program in a 4-1 vote in June, just weeks before news of the grant came in. The immersion program is set to start in the fall of 2008 in the Ohlone Elementary School. Mandarin I and II are already offered at each of the high schools.

Full report

 

Edinburgh Evening News reports Edinburgh Castle has commissioned audio guides in Mandarin and Russian. The decision is based on the analysis of recent trend and tourists’ requests. Edinburgh Castle has already had audio guide in six languages.

Edinburgh Evening News

 

Des Moines Register of Iowa, U.S. reports:

The West Des Moines school district will offer a high school Mandarin Chinese curriculum for the first time in fall 2008, thanks to a roughly $600,000 federal grant.

Valley Southwoods Freshman High School and Valley High School will be the second and third schools in metropolitan Des Moines to teach the language, said Phyllis Staplin, director of curriculum for the West Des Moines district. The other is Des Moines’ Central Campus, a regional academy for central Iowa students.

“We have wanted to do this for quite awhile,” Staplin said. “We want our students to have not only global awareness and understanding, but we want them to build proficiencies in language. … The grant has enabled us to do this.”

The district received word last month that it was awarded a three-year U.S. Department of Education grant that will funnel about $197,000 into the new program for each of the next three years, said Donna Wilkin, associate district superintendent for teaching and learning services.

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Pupils in five UK state schools are going to study Chinese in their schools, helped by a project sponsored by Hanban, China’s equivalent of the British Council. The five schools are to become ‘Confucius classrooms’, which is dedicated to promoting the study of Chinese culture and language, the Independent reports.

All five schools, which include grammar and comprehensive schools and privately sponsored academy, were chosen by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. The schools have already started teaching Chinese. The new project means more resources for the Chinese teaching. Hanban is giving each school £3,000 to help the project off the ground.

Next week 175 pupils and their teachers will leave UK next week to attend a summer camp in Beijing.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is redrafting the syllabus of GCSE Chinese exam so that it can be learnt as a foreign language in the same way as French or German. This is believed will help the Chinese teaching in schools.

(more…)

 

The Confucious Institute, the government-backed organisation, has been established to help people around the world to learn Chinese, Asahi.com reports.

There are now 156 Conficious Institutes in 55 countries and regions. The target is to have 200 up and running by the end of the year. The Confucious Institute is modeled on similar cultural organisations such as the British Council, the Alliance Francaise, Germany’s Geothe Institut and Spain’s Instituto Cervantes.

Hiroshi Matsubara writes on Asahi.com:

Japan hosts seven institutes, and a dozen more universities have asked China to help them open Confucius Institutes, according to the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo.

The Chinese government shoulders about 10 million yen of annual operating costs for each institute in Japan. Teachers are dispatched from a partner university in China.

Kiyofumi Yamashita, a former company president, started learning Chinese at the Confucius Institute at J.F. Oberlin University in Machida, western Tokyo, in April.

The 68-year-old describes his studies as a post-retirement “luxury.” He spends up to six hours a day immersing himself in Chinese language, culture and history.

The full report.