10th Annual Chinese New Year Festival!

photo caption: Greenwich High School sophomore Grant Wang, 15, Greenwich, leads his Dragon Troupe, including Derek Wang, 10, Greenwich, Jack Rowley, 8 Bedford, NY, Kyle Lum, 5, Harrison, NY, Brandon Lum, 8, Harrison, NY, Henry Lagani, 6, Mamaroneck, NY, Ryan Chang, 9, Pelham, NY.


Chinese Language School of Connecticut Celebrates
10th Annual Chinese New Year Festival

-- Anniversary event will showcase Chinese food, art, and culture --

“We are excited and thrilled to be able to offer this wonderful event to the community, and celebrate our school’s 10th anniversary at the same time,” Anita Lai, Chair, Chinese New Year Festival 2012


Riverside, CT, January 10, 2012 – A host of special VIP guests, Chinese acrobats, martial artists, dancers and traditional Chinese musical performers will pay tribute to ten years of Chinese language-learning at the Chinese Language School of Connecticut at the school’s 10th Annual Chinese New Year Festival.

This year’s Festival will be held Sunday, January 22, 2011, from 12:00-3:00pm at the Stamford Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, 2701 Summer Street, Stamford, CT. For information and tickets please visit: www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org.

Chinese New Year Festival Chair, Anita Lai, of Greenwich, CT, said, “It’s especially fortunate that our 10th anniversary falls in a ‘Dragon’ year. In Chinese culture, the sign of the Dragon is a very auspicious sign. It represents wealth, strength, leadership, passion, bravery, and innovation, a good year to celebrate in!”

CLSC Board co-Chair, Pelham resident Jeffay Chang, said, "The Chinese Language School of Connecticut understands the importance of having children experience the culture to better appreciate the language. We are again looking forward to our school’s 10th Annual Lunar New Year Festival!”

New Canaan resident and Chinese New Year Parents Committee Chair, Janet Leung Fonss, exclaimed, “Food, culture, entertainment, and FUN!! The annual CLSC New Year's celebration showcases everything wonderful about our school. There is no better way to experience Chinese culture and language. Our children look forward to this fabulous event every year!"

New Canaan resident and Chinese New Year volunteer, Samantha Connell noted, "My children have been students at The Chinese Language School of Connecticut for six years now and they love attending the annual Chinese New Year Festival. Being part of the rich cultural heritage makes learning the language come alive for my children.”

This year’s Chinese New Year Festival will usher in the year of the dragon with musical performances, martial arts, and Chinese acrobatics by the Chinese DBA Performing Arts troupe http://www.chineseperformingarts.us and will feature a lion dance, traditional dancers, children’s activities, children’s arts and crafts, Asian vendors, and an all-you-can-eat, authentic Chinese buffet luncheon included with the price of admission.

CLSC President and Board member Susan Serven, of New Canaan, said “It’s been an honor and a privilege working with such a wonderful team of volunteers on each of our last 10 Chinese New Year Festivals. We’ve gone from a small, CLSC-family event, to an elegant, large scale gala, with fabulous food and top-tier entertainment. I know I speak for everyone when I say we wish CLSC another wonderful 10 years!”

The non-profit, fully accredited Chinese Language School of Connecticut (CLSC) (www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org) teaches Mandarin Chinese as a second language to children and adults in their weekday and weekend classes, private and small group tutoring, iVuChinese online distance learning, Before and After School programs, cultural workshops, summer classes, and AP Prep sessions. CLSC is the only fully-accredited supplemental Chinese language program in the U.S. which uses U.S. teaching methods in order to engage children in learning Chinese.

For information on the Chinese Language School of Connecticut’s programs, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or email them at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org. For interesting articles on Chinese language learning and Chinese culture, please visit http://GreenTeaPop.blogspot.com and on Facebook at facebook.com/ChineseLanguageSchoolofConnecticut

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Registration for 2011 / 2012 Opens at Chinese Language School of Connecticut

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Susan Serven, Chinese Language School of Connecticut
info@chineselanguageschool.org
please visit our web site: www.chineselanguageschool.org

Visit us on Facebook: facebook.com/ChineseLanguageSchoolofConnecticut


Chinese Language School of Connecticut Opens Registration for Fall 2011

-- New Online Learning Program New for 2011 / 2012 Year--


RIVERSIDE, CT June 10, 2011 -- The non-profit Chinese Language School of Connecticut (www.chineselanguageschool.org) has announced that registration for its Fall 2011 programs is currently open. The school, which teaches Mandarin Chinese as a second language to students ages 18 months and up, uses an interactive, conversationally-based approach, and welcomes students from all backgrounds and every level, from beginner through advanced.

CLSC’s principal, Daisy Chen Laone, noted, “CLSC offers students a unique opportunity to explore Chinese language and culture through innovative, hands-on, age-appropriate programs. Students do not need to have prior experience in Chinese in order to attend. We offer interactive, engaging, customized programs, which are designed to teach Mandarin Chinese to non-Chinese-speaking students using U.S. teaching methods.”

Ms. Laone continued, “CLSC faculty members are all native speaking teachers who are required to undergo a rigorous training process of a minimum of 75 hours per year, in order to make Chinese language learning fun for younger students, engaging and exciting for elementary school students, and fairly rigorous for older students wishing to take Chinese in high school and beyond. We have designed our curriculum to include benchmarks and measurable objectives which allow all students to become as proficient as possible within set timeframes, while engaging their interest in learning about a culture which is more than 4,000 years old.”

New for 2011 is CLSC’s online Homework Help program, and new AP Chinese classes.

CLSC Prinicpal Daisy Chen Laone explained, “CLSC’s Homework Help program is designed to offer customized, online assistance for students learning Chinese. These online sessions are taught by CLSC-trained, native speaking Chinese instructors, who can assist current CLSC students with assignments they are working on, or can help them practice their pronunciation, and gain confidence with their conversational skills.

"We are also pleased to announce our newly-designed AP Chinese Language and Culture Exam Preparation Course. This prep course is designed to supplement what students are already learning in their AP Chinese class at school. It provides students with the extensive language skills practice and broad cultural exposure they need to help them prepare for the AP Chinese exam. According to the College Board, "The AP Chinese Exam assesses students' interpersonal communication skills, their abilities to present and interpret language in spoken and written forms, and their functional familiarity with Chinese culture."

For more information, or to register, please visit www.chineselanguageschool.org.

Stamford residents Hanna Martino (10 years old) and Gianna Martino (6), when asked why they liked to go to CLSC, and why they think learning Chinese is important, replied,

Hanna: "I like going to CLSC because when I have a question my teacher always explains it and because teachers are very nice,” and "Learning Chinese is important because it is always good to know more than one language because you can communicate with more people."

Gianna: "I like going to CLSC because we go to [art and] culture class and we paint. We also play games in Chinese," and, "Learning Chinese is important because you can translate to people, you can order food, ask questions and know your hotel number and what people are saying."


Expanding programs
According to CLSC’s President, Susan Serven, “We have focused considerable energy and resources on building the quality of our faculty and curriculum during the past nine years since our founding in 2002. The results of this strategy are evidenced by program expansion into various public and private schools, our conducting before and after school programs at more than 20 schools and organizations, the expansion of our private tutoring and small group private classes, our corporate program, and our new online learning programs.

Our school consists of families who have no Chinese background, but who want to allow their children the opportunity to learn Chinese and about Chinese culture; adoptive families, who want to have their children maintain language and cultural ties; Chinese-American families who may not speak Chinese at home, but encourage their children to learn, and many families who do speak some Chinese at home, but who want a more interactive, age-appropriate, engaging learning experience for their children.

“We are currently entering our 10th year, and we look forward to continuing to focus on providing students with a high quality educational product that strives to make learning Mandarin and experiencing Chinese culture fun by incorporating traditional language training techniques with interactive supplements, games and other activity based exercises.”

We’re very pleased that our school now consists of about 35% of families from the Westchester area, as well as 60% from Fairfield County.
Why study Chinese at an early age?

Principal Daisy Chen Laoneg explained, “Our approach is unique because we stress interactive usage over rote memorization. Lessons are organized around themes such as family, food and travel so that children can quickly gain useful communication skills. More than 50% of class time is devoted to conversation and activity-based learning to give children ample opportunity to practice communicating in Chinese. We’ve done considerable research to determine which learning methods and interactive, online support materials work best for American students learning Chinese as a second language, and it seems to be working; many parents say their children love doing their Chinese homework!”

Ms. Laone continued, “Generally, younger children acquire a second language better than older children. Early introduction to Chinese exposes each child to a wider variety of its contexts. These contexts foster language proficiency and help develop insights into the nature of the language. With time, each child will gain a deeper understanding and better command of the Chinese language. He / she will ultimately develop a life long interest of Chinese language and culture.

For information on the Chinese Language School of Connecticut’s weekday and weekend language programs, including their Before and After School programs, special workshops. lectures, events, private tutoring, online learning, and their corporate language program, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org. For interesting articles on Chinese language learning and Chinese culture, please visit http://GreenTeaPop.blogspot.com and on Facebook at facebook.com/ChineseLanguageSchoolofConnecticut


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Chinese Language School of Connecticut Offers Expanded Art and Culture Programs

Students Participate in Chinese Art and Culture Programs
-- Redding-based Artist Introduces Children to Chinese-Themed Mixed-Media Art --

“VP Art & Culture Katy Chen Myers is an energetic, true professional, dedicated to exploring Chinese history and culture with students via art, and we are all so lucky to have her,” noted CLSC Principal, Daisy Chen Laone.

Riverside, CT, July 1, 2010 – The Chinese Language School of Connecticut (www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org), the fully-accredited, non-profit, Riverside, CT-based provider of Chinese language programs to students, schools and corporations, is pleased to announce expansion of their Art and Culture programs for academic year 2010 - 2011.

During the Art and Culture section of CLSC’s classes this year, VP Art & Culture Katy Chen Myers, of Redding, CT, developed and ran segments whereby students studied traditions and celebrations focused on Chinese folktales and festivals such as the Moon festival. Handcrafted lanterns have been designed by CLSC students for an art shows in Westport and Greenwich this fall and winter.

Ms. Myers explained, Children love to cook, and eat, and are usually very interested in what others’ meals are like, as well. In our segment “The Chinese Diet” we studied agricultural traditions of northern and southern China, culminating with a look at traditional Chinese foods, and the banquet foods of the Qing Dynasty.

China has a tradition of travelling performers creating shadow puppet theaters during the Ming Dynasty, and up to the modern era. Our younger students were able to design their own shadow puppets as they learned about these Chinese entertainment traditions. We created our own, authentic traveling Chinese Shadow Puppet theater, probably the only one in the tri-state area, and students assisted in recent puppet performances.”

Ms. Myers continued, “One of our goals is to introduce Chinese as a second language to students while allowing them to explore Chinese culture via art in age appropriate ways. Our older students’ main focus centered on answering the question: Who am I? by creating a mixed-media project which involved students telling their own story by creating a biography in Chinese characters, and by creating self portraits using the graphic novel “American Born Chinese by Gene Yang as their inspiration.

Another project for this upcoming school year is the Chinese Cherry & plum blossom quilt which will also be readied for exhibit in upcoming shows.

One of the highlights of this past year was that in addition to showcasing work at various children’s venues, art created by CLSC students was accepted into a professional artist exhibit at Weston Art’s Center in Weston CT. The seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, a series of four paintings by students from CLSC levels 3-8, was displayed alongside works by professional illustrators, photographers and print makers from all over the US.

We are currently working with various venues to plan more exhibits as professionals, in New Canaan, Ridgefield and New York City for the 2010-2011 academic year. The main theme for CLSC’s art and culture segments next year will be the Silk Road. Many exciting projects are currently being planned for all levels with the goal being exhibition in various schools and libraries in Fairfield County.

I’m so pleased to be able to share my passion for art, and Chinese culture, with students of all ages, via CLSC’s programs. ”

For information on CLSC’s weekend or weekday language classes, summer programs, private tutoring, corporate services, or any of their other programs, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or email them at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org.

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Extraordinary Chinese Restaurant

This is a restaurant, built high into a cliff somewhere in China where, if you can actually make it there, the food is free.

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.

CLSC Teacher Claire Huang Featured

CLSC Teacher Claire Huang was recently featured in a Families with Children from China magazine article on girls adopted from China, learning Chinese.

If you'd like to form a private tutoring group in your area, please contact the Chinese Language School of Connecticut at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org or visit them at www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org.

Did the Chinese Discover the Americas?

from www.clta.org

Is there evidence that ancient America was discovered and colonized long before Christopher Columbus?

In 1972 the late Dr. Hendon M. Harris, Jr. made a startling discovery. While searching for Chinese collectibles he came across an ancient Asian map book containing a world map showing a land mass labeled "Fu Sang" to the east of China, land that we today call America. After years of research and his discovery of the existence of twenty-nine other supporting maps, Dr. Harris published a 796 page book titled The Asiatic Fathers of America. In that book, Dr. Harris contended that by 2200 B.C. Chinese had reached the Americas.

In 2003, with the sudden world-wide interest in this topic, the family took the maps to the Library of Congress. For three years the maps were there while being studied. On May 16, 2005 Dr. Harris' daughter, Charlotte Harris Rees, gave a speech at the Library of Congress about the early arrival of Chinese to America. In 2006, Mrs. Rees published a condensed, easy reading version of Dr. Harris' original text. This abridged version of Dr. Harris' book contains several never before released pictures of the Harris map collection. The book also contains a brief biography about Dr. Harris' unusual life. In 2008 Mrs. Rees published a book based upon her own research entitled Secret Maps of the Ancient World.

At the invitation of the Renwen Society of China Institute, Mrs. Rees will give a lecture on Saturday, September 26, 2:00-3:30 pm, on both her and her father's books. Her talk will bring together many academic studies and medical research revealing evidences of very early arrival of Chinese to America.

Dr. Harris, a third generation missionary, was born in Kaifeng, China to American parents. He learned both Chinese and English at a very early age. He was familiar with the Chinese.

Mrs. Charlotte Harris Rees is an independent researcher and a graduate of Columbia International University. As a child Mrs. Rees lived for four years in Taiwan then later for a year in Hong Kong where her parents were missionaries. In recent years she has made several trips to China. She has appeared in the United States on television, National Public Radio, in numerous news articles and has given speeches - including at the Library of Congress, the University of Maryland, the University of London, and in Beijing - about her family's map collection and the early arrival of Chinese to America.

Secret Maps of the Ancient World is Mrs. Rees's third book. It is endorsed by Dr. Hwa-Wei Lee, retired Chief of the Asian Division of the Library of Congress, and by New York Times best selling author, Gavin Menzies (1421: The Year China Discovered the World). Secret Maps of the Ancient World was listed in fall 2008 as a new publication by WCILCOS (The World Confederation of Institutes and Libraries for Chinese Overseas Studies.) The book also appeared in March 2009 at the National Library Show for American College and Research Libraries in Seattle (USA) and at the London (England) Book Fair in April 2009. Her web site is www.HarrisMaps.com .

Free admissions, but advance registration is requested. To register online, please visit http://chineselectures.org/upcoming.html. To register by phone, please call (646) 912-8861. For inquiries, please email renwen@chinainstitute.org .

Location: China Institute, 125 East 65th Street, New York, NY 10065
Date and time: Saturday, Sept. 26, 2:00-3:30 pm

Chinese at Greenwich YMCA After School Programs

The Chinese Language School of Connecticut and the Greenwich Family Y Present Chinese After-School Programs



-- Greenwich Family Y to offer Mandarin as part of their ongoing After School programs --



“The Greenwich Family Y is pleased to help meet the community’s growing interest in learning Chinese. We want this to be one of many valuable resources the Y is able to offer the Greenwich community,” said Greenwich Family Y President and CEO, Rebecca Fretty.



Riverside, CT, September 18, 2009 – The Chinese Language School of Connecticut (www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org), the fully-accredited, non-profit provider of Chinese language programs, is pleased to partner with the Greenwich Family YMCA to offer Mandarin Chinese as part of the Y’s After School programs at St. Roch’s, New Lebanon, Hamilton Avenue and North Mianus schools.



Chinese After School Y programs will begin the week of September 21 and are for children who are registered for the Greenwich Family Y’s After School programs. For more information, please visit http://gwymca.org/programs.php or call them at 203-869-1630.



CLSC Principal, Daisy Chen Laone, said, “Students at the Greenwich Family Y After School program will be introduced to Chinese by interacting in age-appropriate activities, singing songs and participating in craft projects. We’re happy to be able to engage even more children in learning Chinese!”



For more info on CLSC’s program, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org, email them at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org, or visit http://greenteapop.blogspot.com.







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