CLSC Instructor Initiates Chinese at Bridgeport's Harding High School

CLSC instructor Lei (Gordon) Cheng has faciliated a new Chinese program at Bridgeport's Warren Harding High School.

http://www.newstimes.com/schools/article/Harding-offers-a-new-accent-in-learning-Chinese-278120.php

"Mandarin Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world. In Connecticut, according to the latest available statistics, just 593 public high school students in the state were studying Chinese. That is double the number taking it in 2005, but compares to 70,791 who took Spanish in 2007"

Harding offers a new accent in learning: Chinese
By Linda Conner Lambeck, STAFF WRITER
Published: 04:15 p.m., Sunday, December 6, 2009

BRIDGEPORT -- Griselle Lopez and Alberto Santiago converse briefly in Spanish, their native tongue, before pulling their chairs together to rehearse a brief monologue in Mandarin Chinese.

"OK, guys," announces Lei "Gordon" Cheng, their instructor, when time is up.

Seven weeks into a course held twice a week after school at Warren Harding High School, Lopez and Santiago, both 17, manage to plow through the transliterated dialogue about how many people are in their family and what they do.

When one stumbled, the other offered a little coaching by mouthing the words or using hand gestures in encouragement. They are followed by five other pairs of Harding students who had varying levels of success with Chinese tone and pronunciation.

Cheng is the first to admit, Chinese is not an easy language to learn. Some say it takes twice as long to learn as other languages. Yet, Cheng said his Harding students seem to have what it takes to learn the language. "They are enthusiastic, self-motivated and smart. I am learning from them. I teach them Chinese. They teach me English, and a little bit of Spanish," said Cheng, who is a University of Bridgeport graduate student.

The program brings together 20 students, most from Harding's World Language Academy, and the resources of UB's School of Education for a year-long class. The class meets from 2:45 to 4:15 twice weekly through the end of the year.

William Jassey, director of the international degree program at UB, said the idea came from Harding Principal Carol Birks, who used to run Gear Up, a college preparatory program, at UB.

"It's just a great opportunity to expose them to another language," said Birks. "We offer French and Spanish. We don't offer Chinese, which is one of the languages students today should know."

Mandarin Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world. In Connecticut, according to the latest available statistics, just 593 public high school students in the state were studying Chinese. That is double the number taking it in 2005, but compares to 70,791 who took Spanish in 2007.

Birks said she used $5,000 from a federal Small Learning Communities grant to hire the teacher and provide transportation to cultural activities at UB. The class has already made the trip once to campus to meet with UB's large Chinese student population. There is also a before-school Chinese art class.

Leticia Castro, 16, a Harding senior, took the class because she is interested in Chinese culture and wants to become an engineer and may study abroad. "I think it would be interesting to work in China and talk their language. I don't want to be seen as a foreigner," she said.

Getting used to Chinese pronunciation has been a challenge, Castro added, but she feels she is finally getting the hang of it.

"Sometimes I walk home saying things out loud to myself," she said.

Ricardo Perez, a teacher in Harding's World Language Academy, tells the class the best way to learn a language is to try and internalize it. If they have to think about it, it inhibits fluency.

There are handouts and repetition exercises in Cheng's class, but no one seems bored. There is a buzz and frequent laughter as Cheng reviews body parts in Chinese and watches as students reach for toes and noses. He explains that in Chinese, there are different words for family members -- grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, depending on which side of the family they are and who was born first.

"So many words in Chinese you need to know," he said. So many characters, too. Chinese has thousands of them.

Everyone in the class has a Chinese name, just as Cheng adopted "Gordon" as his English identity.

Lopez entered Harding four years ago not knowing how to speak English. She said Chinese is easier than English. "The letter combinations sound the same as Spanish," she insisted.

"The hardest part is speaking it," Aryzandy Tepale, a 14-year-old freshman, said of Chinese.

Marco Aguilar, 16, a sophomore, said his goal is to place an order in Chinese at a Chinese restaurant.

Though some students in the class are still on their way to mastering English, Perez, said learning two languages at once is a good thing. "They can compare grammar and structure and ways of thinking," he said.

Birks has already talked to district officials about the possibility of adding Chinese as a credit course in the curriculum next year.