Program to familiarize kids with Mandarin Chinese
Posted on 07/28/2010
From the Wilton Villager: http://www.wiltonvillager.com/story/489558
By DANIELLE CAPALBO
Villager Staff Writer
WILTON -- You're never too young to learn something new.
That's the prevailing philosophy behind a growing program designed to familiarize pre-school children with Mandarin Chinese through play and cultural activities.
Called Chopstix, the program is offered by the Chinese Language School of Connecticut and, this fall, the Greenwich-based institute will be hosting two free classes at the Georgetown Community Center.
"It's a different way to learn," said Susan Serven, the mother of two adopted Chinese girls and a co-founder and president of the school.
Rather than teaching the language outright -- the way a student might learn French in school, for instance -- instructors at Chopstix guide children through games and art projects while speaking Mandarin Chinese almost exclusively. Eventually, the pint-size pupils respond to -- and replicate -- the commands, as if it were second nature.
"We want them to feel comfortable, and we use a play-based model because that's how most kids are able to learn the best," said Katy Myers, who was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and moved to the states as a pre-teen. "For the most part, they really don't even know they're learning -- they think they're playing a game."
Myers has been teaching at the Chinese Language School for seven years -- she's the director of arts and culture -- and will guide the demonstration classes.
The school itself was founded in 2002 by a group of area parents, including Serven, inspired to promote awareness of Chinese culture and to give children and adults of all backgrounds an opportunity to learn the most widely-spoken language in the world, Serven said.
"About 23 percent of the world speaks Mandarin Chinese as a first language," she said. "Not only people in China and Taiwan, but in Malaysia, Singapore, the Phillipines."
Chopstix was integrated into the school's curriculum a year later, adapted from a nonprofit program that Serven ran in the late-90s. She said the importance of teaching the language at a ripe age is manifold. For one thing, she said, younger children are more likely to retain the structure of the language and to retain it longer, making it easier to revisit as teenagers or adults.
There's an element of global practicality, too, she said.
"Most parents, especially in this area, recognize China's growing emergence in the global economy," she said. "Many business people in Shanghai, Hong Kong -- they speak English, but it's important to understand their culture and their language moving forward."
Myers said the program represents a possibility that hasn't always existed for second-generation immigrants or Chinese children adopted into English-speaking families: to learn the language of their heritage.
"I realized that, growing up, there were no places for Chinese children to get together, for families to get together, and celebrate their heritage," she said -- in part because immigrants spoke different dialects and couldn't easily create communities or schools."
It's also a way to create a cross-cultural community of Asians and Americans, she said.
"Hopefully we can create an Asian-American community -- a way to foster more understanding of our different cultures."
Chopstix classes will be held at the Georgetown Community Center, formerly the Gilbert and Bennett School, at 49 New Street, Wilton. Demo classes will be held on Aug. 28 and Sept. 4: ages 2 to 3, from 10 to 10:45 a.m.; and ages 4 to 5, from 11 to 11:45 a.m. For further information, visit www.chineselanguageschool.org/.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
China Becomes Second Biggest World Economy
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38482538
Depending on how fast its exchange rate rises, China is on course to overtake the United States and vault into the No.1 spot sometime around 2025, according to projections by the World Bank, Goldman Sachs and others.
China came close to surpassing Japan in 2009 and the disclosure by a senior official that it had now done so comes as no surprise. Indeed, Yi Gang, China's chief currency regulator, mentioned the milestone in passing in remarks published on Friday.
"China, in fact, is now already the world's second-largest economy," he said in an interview with China Reform magazine posted on the website of his agency, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.
Cruising past Japan might give China bragging rights, but its per-capita income of about $3,800 a year is a fraction of Japan's or America's. (Check the latest US GDP report here)
"China is still a developing country, and we should be wise enough to know ourselves," Yi said, when asked whether the time was ripe for the yuan to become an international currency.
Can It Be Sustained?
China's economy expanded 11.1 percent in the first half of 2010, from a year earlier, and is likely to log growth of more than 9 percent for the whole year, according to Yi.
China has averaged more than 9.5 percent growth annually since it embarked on market reforms in 1978. But that pace was bound to slow over time as a matter of arithmetic, Yi said.
Slideshow: Countries With the Most Foreign Investment
If China could chalk up growth this decade of 7-8 percent annually, that would still be a strong performance. The issue was whether the pace could be sustained, Yi said, not least because of the environmental constraints China faces.
In an assessment disputed by Beijing, the International Energy Agency said last week that China had surpassed the United States as the world's largest energy user. If China can keep up a clip of 5-6 percent a year in the 2020s, it will have maintained rapid growth for 50 years, which Yi said would be unprecedented in human history.
The uninterrupted economic ascent, which saw China overtake Britain and France in 2005 and then Germany in 2007, is gradually translating into clout on the world stage.
China is a leading member of the Group of 20 rich and emerging nations, which since the 2008 financial crisis has become the world's premier economic policy-setting forum.
In one important respect, however, China is still a shrinking violet: anxious to shield itself from the rough-and-tumble of global markets, it does not permit its currency to be freely exchanged except for purposes of trade and foreign direct investment.
And Yi said Beijing had no timetable to make the yuan fully convertible.
"China is very big and its development is unbalanced, which makes this problem much more complicated. It's difficult to reach a consensus on it," he said.
In the same vein, China was in no rush to turn the yuan into a global currency.
"We must be modest and we still have to keep a low profile. If other people choose the yuan as a reserve currency, we won't stop that as it is the demand of the market. However, we will not push hard to promote it," he added.
No Big Rise in Yuan
China has been encouraging the use of the yuan beyond its borders, allowing more trade to be settled in renminbi and taking a series of measures to establish Hong Kong as an offshore center where the currency can circulate freely.
But Yi said: "Don't think that since people are talking about it, the yuan is close to becoming a reserve currency.
Actually, it's still far from that." He said expectations of a stronger yuan, also known as the renminbi, had diminished.
There was no basis for a sharp rise in the exchange rate, partly because the price level in China had risen steadily over the past decade. "This suggests that the value of the renminbi has moved much closer to equilibrium compared with 10 years ago," he said.
Slideshow: Asia's Most Expensive Cities
Yi's comments are unlikely to go down well in Washington, where lawmakers have scheduled a hearing for Sept. 16 to consider whether U.S. government action is needed to address China's exchange rate policy.
China scrapped the yuan's 23-month-old peg to the dollar on June 19 and resumed a managed float. The yuan has since risen only 0.8 percent against the dollar, and economists calculate that it has fallen in value against a basket of currencies.
China would stick to the principle of holding its $2.45 trillion of official reserves in a mix of currencies and assets.
The stockpile — the world's largest — was so big that it was impossible to adjust its currency composition in a short space of time: "We won't be particularly bearish on the dollar at a given time or particularly bearish on the euro at another time."
Depending on how fast its exchange rate rises, China is on course to overtake the United States and vault into the No.1 spot sometime around 2025, according to projections by the World Bank, Goldman Sachs and others.
China came close to surpassing Japan in 2009 and the disclosure by a senior official that it had now done so comes as no surprise. Indeed, Yi Gang, China's chief currency regulator, mentioned the milestone in passing in remarks published on Friday.
"China, in fact, is now already the world's second-largest economy," he said in an interview with China Reform magazine posted on the website of his agency, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.
Cruising past Japan might give China bragging rights, but its per-capita income of about $3,800 a year is a fraction of Japan's or America's. (Check the latest US GDP report here)
"China is still a developing country, and we should be wise enough to know ourselves," Yi said, when asked whether the time was ripe for the yuan to become an international currency.
Can It Be Sustained?
China's economy expanded 11.1 percent in the first half of 2010, from a year earlier, and is likely to log growth of more than 9 percent for the whole year, according to Yi.
China has averaged more than 9.5 percent growth annually since it embarked on market reforms in 1978. But that pace was bound to slow over time as a matter of arithmetic, Yi said.
Slideshow: Countries With the Most Foreign Investment
If China could chalk up growth this decade of 7-8 percent annually, that would still be a strong performance. The issue was whether the pace could be sustained, Yi said, not least because of the environmental constraints China faces.
In an assessment disputed by Beijing, the International Energy Agency said last week that China had surpassed the United States as the world's largest energy user. If China can keep up a clip of 5-6 percent a year in the 2020s, it will have maintained rapid growth for 50 years, which Yi said would be unprecedented in human history.
The uninterrupted economic ascent, which saw China overtake Britain and France in 2005 and then Germany in 2007, is gradually translating into clout on the world stage.
China is a leading member of the Group of 20 rich and emerging nations, which since the 2008 financial crisis has become the world's premier economic policy-setting forum.
In one important respect, however, China is still a shrinking violet: anxious to shield itself from the rough-and-tumble of global markets, it does not permit its currency to be freely exchanged except for purposes of trade and foreign direct investment.
And Yi said Beijing had no timetable to make the yuan fully convertible.
"China is very big and its development is unbalanced, which makes this problem much more complicated. It's difficult to reach a consensus on it," he said.
In the same vein, China was in no rush to turn the yuan into a global currency.
"We must be modest and we still have to keep a low profile. If other people choose the yuan as a reserve currency, we won't stop that as it is the demand of the market. However, we will not push hard to promote it," he added.
No Big Rise in Yuan
China has been encouraging the use of the yuan beyond its borders, allowing more trade to be settled in renminbi and taking a series of measures to establish Hong Kong as an offshore center where the currency can circulate freely.
But Yi said: "Don't think that since people are talking about it, the yuan is close to becoming a reserve currency.
Actually, it's still far from that." He said expectations of a stronger yuan, also known as the renminbi, had diminished.
There was no basis for a sharp rise in the exchange rate, partly because the price level in China had risen steadily over the past decade. "This suggests that the value of the renminbi has moved much closer to equilibrium compared with 10 years ago," he said.
Slideshow: Asia's Most Expensive Cities
Yi's comments are unlikely to go down well in Washington, where lawmakers have scheduled a hearing for Sept. 16 to consider whether U.S. government action is needed to address China's exchange rate policy.
China scrapped the yuan's 23-month-old peg to the dollar on June 19 and resumed a managed float. The yuan has since risen only 0.8 percent against the dollar, and economists calculate that it has fallen in value against a basket of currencies.
China would stick to the principle of holding its $2.45 trillion of official reserves in a mix of currencies and assets.
The stockpile — the world's largest — was so big that it was impossible to adjust its currency composition in a short space of time: "We won't be particularly bearish on the dollar at a given time or particularly bearish on the euro at another time."
Chinese archaeologists' African quest for sunken ship of Ming admiralSearch for remains of armada which came to grief on a pioneering voyage to Kenya
Chinese archaeologists travel to Kenya this week to begin work unearthing what is believed to be the remains of a Chinese treasure ship, piloted by ancient Chinese captain Zheng He.
Zheng He mapped out many continents in the early 1400s. He is widely believed to have arrived in North America before Christopher Columbus, according to retired British submarine commander and and writer, Gavin Menzies.
Please see the full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/25/kenya-china
Zheng He mapped out many continents in the early 1400s. He is widely believed to have arrived in North America before Christopher Columbus, according to retired British submarine commander and and writer, Gavin Menzies.
Please see the full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/25/kenya-china
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