Taiwan disaster relief

(This bulletin has been sent to CLSC; CLSC cannot verify the validity of or give details on any of the following; we invite you to please contact these organizations or individuals yourselves, thank you.)

Dear Friends:

As news of the disastrous typhoon and mudslides occur in Taiwan, our
hearts go out to the victims. See *
http://oldlady.idv.tw/old/2009/20090808/index.html* Whole villages have
been wiped out. Help is urgently needed now and into the near future for
the victims and their families .

Because time is of the essence, rather than acting as an intermediary, to
collect donations then, to disburse to the agencies, the OCAFC unanimously recommended that we pass along information on the following organizations through whom you can make donations directly if you are so inclined.

Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association (DDMBA) www.dharmadrum.org/* ;*

www.DDMBA.org for USA headquarter

They have on the ground volunteers in Taiwan, and 100% of donations go to
relief effort, with no overhead costs. Donations should be made out to

DDMBA (for Taiwan Disaster Relief)

90-56 Corona Ave

Elmhurst, NY 11373


If you donate to this organization, our board member Alice Chen and her
family will match donations up to $2,000. Please send an email to Aliceat
contekalice@aol.com* *, indicating the $ amount donated and the check
number for the matching donation. DDMBA will mail a receipt upon receive the
donation check. It is 100% tax deductible.

Comment: donors can remain anonymous.


East Villagers

*www.eastvillagers.org/articles.php?tag=chao%20foundation*

All donations will be matched by Ping and Amy Chao Family Foundation (Ping
Chao is a classmate of Jy-Hong Su, our former President)

http://www.eastvillagers.org

All donations will be applied to joint relief effort with Taiwan Root
Medical Peace Corps;

Comment: Donors’ name will be listed online.

Tzu Chi Foundation

http://www.us.tzuchi.org/usa/home.nsf/home/index



TAIWAN BUDDHIST TZU CHI
FOUNDATION,

U.S.A. NATIONAL
EADQUARTERS

1100 S. Valley Center Ave., San Dimas, CA 91773

Tel: 909-447-7799 / Fax: 909-447-7948

*Web: *http://www.us.tzuchi.org



World Journal

www.worldjournal.com

Comment: World Journal is one of the most widely read Daily News in
Chinese Language for Chinese Language Communities.


In addition, there are many other Organizations and Channels suitable for
donating to TTDRD. We strongly recommend you as a concerned and caring individualor family to evaluate them independently and to support this extremely urgent disaster Relief Campaign. The victims in Taiwan do need your
immediate action and donation now! Time is of the Essence. We want your
donation dollars go to the end victims as directly, as soon, and as much as
possible.

Thanks!

Jason Liu

President

OCAFC


------------------------------

Congress Targets Chinese Education

CLSC was profiled on the CBS Evening News a few years ago, as one of the pioneers in U.S. Chinese education (thanks to parent and Chinese New Year Chair Sam Connell for this link):

http://www.examiner.com/x-15615-Asia-Headlines-Examiner%7Ey2009m7d15-Congress-targets-Chinese-language-education

Congress targets Chinese language education

WASHINGTON - A bill pending in Congress would dramatically expand
Mandarin Chinese language classes for American students. The
measure, the U.S.-China Language Engagement Act, would award
competitive grants to schools to “establish, expand or improve”
Chinese language and cultural classes. It also expands technology op
tions to help American schools establish “virtual connections”
with schools in China.

U.S. Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., who authored the legislation, said
the measure can increase the competitiveness of American workers.

“While an estimated 200 million Chinese school children are studying
our language and culture, less than 50,000 American elementary and
secondary students are studying Chinese,” Davis said. “This bill
is part of a broader legislative package seeking to improve our comp
etitive edge and relationship with China.”

School districts around the country are increasingly adding Mandarin
language courses to their curriculum, but a lack of funding and
qualified teachers often makes program implementation difficult.
Linguists are divided as to whether studying foreign languages at an
earlier age is essential for fluency in the target language. The so-
called “critical learning period” has been challenged by more
provocative research which demonstrates the “plasticity” of the
human brain in people of all ages and backgrounds.

Mandarin Chinese, called “Putonghua,” is widely considered one of
the most difficult languages for native English speakers to master.
It is classified by the Defense Language Institute as a “category fo
ur” (out of four) language in regards to difficulty of mastery by na
tive English speakers. On the Foreign Service Institute language dif
ficulty scale, Mandarin is rated as a “category three” language
(out of three), due to the exceptional difficulty it poses for Engli
sh speakers to learn.

National security experts have said that the U.S. has a shortage of
qualified “critical language” speakers – specifically Mandarin
and Arabic. Both the CIA and FBI regularly advertise positions with
their agencies for Americans who possess some Chinese ability. In Ma
y, CIA Director Leon Panetta announced that he was boosting the agen
cy’s foreign language training programs. The 9/11 Commission Report
criticized the weak foreign language capabilities of the government’
s national security agencies.

On the campaign trail, then-candidate Barack Obama stressed that
foreign language instruction should be expanded in American schools.
“I don’t speak a foreign language. It’s embarrassing,” he
said. “It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all
speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go
over to Europe and all we can say is merci beaucoup, right?”

A number of current Washington officials studied Mandarin as college
students. Democratic New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand studied the
language for six months in Mainland China and Taiwan. Treasury
Secretary Tim Geithner spent two summers learning the language at
Beijing’s Peking University, called “BeiDa” in Chinese.

The bipartisan bill, H.R. 2313, is cosponsored by U.S. Reps. Charles
Boustany, R-La.; Gerry Connolly, D-Va.; Mike Honda, D-Calif.; Steve
Israel, D-N.Y.; Mark Kirk, R-Ill.; Rick Larsen, D-Wa.; and Erik
Paulsen, R-Minn.

The legislation is currently awaiting further action in the House
Committee on Education and Labor.

Mandopop videos CLSC students like

Beside the Plum Blossom - Lee Hom

Hair Like Snow - Jay Chou

See My 72 Changes - Jolin Tsai