China On Their Minds Language

China on their minds
Language, culture classes become more common in schools

(Does your school system offer Chinese? If not, please contact the Chinese Language School of Connecticut, www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org for information on how to introduce Chinese language and culture to your children.)

As the world shrinks and China continues to grow as an economic powerhouse, more area public school districts are embracing its language and culture in an effort to better prepare their students.

Last fall, Medfield High School freshman Katrina Simon and her family hosted an exchange student from China, immersing the young woman in American experiences ranging from apple picking to shopping at the Apple computer store.

Now, Simon hopes Melody — the student’s adopted American name — can return the favor and be her guide in China.

“After talking to her and learning more about Chinese culture, I thought it was really interesting,’’ Simon said. “I really wanted to go and see it for myself with my own eyes.’’

Medfield’s school district has partnered with a school in Bengbu, a city in China’s Anhui province, for an extensive exchange program. Medfield hosted the school’s principal two years ago, followed by a visit to China by Superintendent Robert Maguire.

The next step was an exchange of teachers, with two from Bengbu visiting Medfield while a local teacher spent six weeks at the school in China.

Most recently, Medfield hosted two teachers and 10 students, including Melody. Next fall, Medfield will send students to Bengbu, and Simon has applied to be among them.

Melody’s family has already agreed to host Simon if she is selected. “She was thrilled that I wanted to come,’’ Simon said.

All of the trips are paid for with grants and private funds, Maguire said.

Medfield started teaching Mandarin in its high school three years ago, and expanded course offerings into the middle school this year. Educators say a growing number of schools are offering the language, with the local list including Belmont, Brookline, Concord-Carlisle Regional, Dover-Sherborn, Hopkinton, Lexington, Marlborough, Needham, Newton, and Weston.

“Most of them, 80 or 90 percent, they added it in the past five or 10 years,’’ said Wanli Hu, director of the China Program Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston, which offers conferences for Chinese language teachers.

Maguire said the Chinese language instruction is helping to prepare students for an increasingly global workplace.

“We’re in a different world,’’ he said. “Making students aware of the rest of the world, having them become cognizant of other languages and cultures, is going to be critical in the future.’’

Medfield is one of 60 districts across the country given Confucius Classroom status by the Asia Society, in recognition of exemplary Chinese language and culture programs. The honor has brought at least $30,000 in grants into the district, with the possibility of more to come.

Simon traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier this year for an event focused on school exchange programs, where she met the president’s wife, Michelle Obama, and Medfield’s school district contributed to the official state gift given to the president of China, Hu Jintao, during his visit to the United States.

Simon said she was surprised to learn how much more Melody knew about American society than she knows about other cultures. Simon was unable to name any Chinese music artists, while Melody was “totally obsessed’’ with Michael Jackson.


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And when she asked Melody, a talented singer and dancer, to perform, Simon said, “We thought she would sing a traditional Chinese song, and she sang the ‘Titanic’ song.’’

Medfield social studies teacher Richard DeSorgher, who spent six weeks in Bengbu, said the differences between the two systems are stark. He said students in China spend long hours at school, and extra time being tutored on nights and weekends for college entrance exams. Class sizes of up to 60 students mean rote learning is common, he said.

DeSorgher said he asked a Chinese-born student living in Medfield for advice before the trip. “He said, ‘Make it fun. The more you can make it fun, the more they’ll want to continue to learn English.’ So I went over there armed with a ton of American candy.

“I think I was kind of an oddity there,’’ DeSorgher added. “I put them in groups, I had them standing and sitting. It was just very different, I think.’’

Medfield’s burgeoning relationship with the Chinese language started when Spanish teacher Maura Batts took a one-year sabbatical to learn a new language.

“I was deciding between Chinese and Italian,’’ Batts said. “My heart wanted Italian, but Chinese is so up and coming, and I thought it would kind of rock my language world a little bit, because it’s so different.’’

Students are signing up for Chinese instead of French or Spanish for a variety of reasons, she said.

“One boy in the seventh-grade class was really into kung fu, and he just really loves watching Jackie Chan movies,’’ Batts said. “Other parents have told their children, ‘This is a new opportunity, it would be great for you to try this.’ A lot of those parents understand the global perspective.’’

DeSorgher said that, in addition to being potentially useful to students later in life, the Chinese exchange exposes them to diversity, something he said the district otherwise lacks.

“With this exchange, it brings in a different culture, a different language, different thought patterns,’’ DeSorgher said.

Maguire, who adopted the Chinese name Ma Bao Bo when he visited Bengbu, said he hopes his district will eventually be able to offer a full slate of Chinese classes, from middle school through high school.

The superintendent said the Chinese program is helping Medfield students make important personal connections across continents.

He told a story of sixth-graders participating in a video conference with their Chinese pen pals. One of the Chinese students became especially excited seeing her American counterpart, Maguire said.

“The Chinese kid looks at the American girl and says, ‘You are so beautiful.’ And she looked back and said, ‘You’re beautiful too,’ ’’ Maguire said. “And they’re doing this in front of 100 other sixth-graders.

“That’s been a very powerful piece for me. They’re getting a fundamental understanding that, as people, they’re not much different from each other.’’

Museum of the Chinese in America

http://www.mocanyc.org/visit/exhibits/current/the_chinese_american_experience

With a Single Step: Stories in the Making of America
With a Single Step: Stories in the Making of America presents the diverse layers of the Chinese American experience, while examining America’s journey as a nation of immigrants. It interweaves the historical and political context of Chinese immigration to the United States with the personal stories and cultural traces of multiple generations to tie together three main threads:

1) The relationship between China and the United States; and its impact on Chinese Americans.
2) How Chinese Americans have perceived themselves in American society (and been perceived) over time.
3) The impact of Chinese Americans on American politics, culture, and life.



With a Single Step is organized thematically and chronologically by section:



1) Go East! Go West! (1784-1870) opens the exhibition with the flows and exchange of and people between the United States and China in the nineteenth century; how this encounter helped shape the formation of new American identities and brought America into the industrial revolution; and the diverse roles Chinese workers played in the industrialization of America.



2) Down With Monopolies! The Chinese Must Go! (1870-1930s) examines the political climate in America leading up to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, and its impact as the first federal law to restrict the immigration of a specific group based on nationality, defining in legal terms who could not “become American.”



3) Imagined and Intimate (1900-1930s) shows how the idea of “Chinatown” as a foreign place developed in the American imagination through the intimate genre of photography; while Chinese laborers, excluded from entering the skilled trades, were forced to make a living by providing services to whites on an intimate level by doing laundry, cooking food, and keeping house.



4) Welcome to Chinatown! presents examples of “yellowface” in mainstream culture, and how Chinese Americans have survived in economically marginalized environments through such creative inventions like chop suey.



5) Building Community showcases an old general store – a composite of salvaged objects and memories from Chinatown stores across the United States (Los Angeles, Boston, and New York City). General stores are, at once, a supplier of everyday and specialty Chinese goods, pharmacy, post office, travel agency, and community center.


6) The Rising Spirit addresses how cultural traditions and social/political networking have knit isolated people and fragmented families and communities together.



7) Allies and Enemies (1940-1950s) presents the dramatic changes of fortune for Chinese Americans. The U.S. and China become Allies during WWII, and the Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed; political refugees of the Chinese Civil War and students stranded in the U.S. create a new wave of Chinese immigration to America; and the Cold War creates a political environment that targets Chinese Americans as potential enemies of the state.



8) Towards a More Perfect Union (1960- Present) invites visitors to explore the impact of the American social movements of the 1960s, the normalization of U.S.-China relations, and the de-racialization of immigration laws in 1965 on the changes in the Chinese American community. MOCA presents projects inspired by an idea, a question, or a discovery, that have caused ripples in the society in which we live. Through these examples, we come to see that the Chinese American experience is an ongoing project, an adventurous undertaking with changing players and inspired outcomes. Visitors are asked to tell the Museum of ongoing projects and/or personal stories that represent the journey we all make in finding community and home.



9) MOCA video archive Many Voices, One Humanity
Twelve individuals discuss their own personal connections to the Chinese American story.
1. Agnes Chan, first Asian American woman NYPD officer

2. Emily Chang, spoken word artist/actor
3. Ti-Hua Chang, broadcast journalist
4. Jeff Gammage, journalist/father of two daughters adopted from China
5. Jennifer 8. Lee, journalist, New York Times
6. John Liu, first Asian American NYC councilmember and Democratic nominee for NYC comptroller
7. Roger Brue McHayle, co-founder PNB clothing
8. Taiyo Na, spoken word poet/musician
9. Father Raymond Nobiletti, Transfiguration Church
10. Anna Sui, fashion designer
11. Frank Wu, legal scholar
12. Henry Yung Jr., descendant of Yung Wing

CLSC Year End Ceremony!

Congratulations to all our CLSC students and teachers for another wonderful year at CLSC!

For more information on how you can participate, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or email us at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org

Please search us on Facebook under Chinese Language School of Connecticut for more photos!

Following are some of our students' performances, teachers' awards, presentation of students' final presentations.

Chinese Language School of Connecticut Elects New Board

Photo caption: Newly elected and outgoing Board members celebrate at a recent luncheon in Greenwich. Pictured, left to right, are top: James Lee, Greenwich, CT, Darwei Kung, Harrison, NY, Joab Tjiungwanara, Stamford CT, Jeffay Chang, Pelham, NY, Thomas Myers, Redding, CT; bottom: Mei Nishiwaki, Scarsdale, Dr. Sue Chang, Orange, Susan Serven, New Canaan, Cynthia Chang Scanlan, Greenwich, CT

The Chinese Language School of Connecticut Elects New Board of Directors

-- Local professionals to help expand school’s success in bringing Chinese to students --

“CLSC is entering its 9th year with a very dynamic, very dedicated Board of Directors, and we are excited to be a part of the school's continued growth,” noted CLSC Co-Chairs, Greenwich resident Cynthia Chang Scanlan, and Stamford resident Joab Tijungwanara.

Riverside, CT, June 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, has elected their new Board of Directors for the upcoming year.

New members of the CLSC Board is Pelham, NY resident, Jeffay Chang, and Harrison, NY resident, Darwei Kung.

Jeffay Chang explained, “I am excited to be part of a growing school and community of families that has developed a way to introduce children to Chinese interactively while providing the tools and resources for parents to support their child’s efforts.”

Darwei Kung explained, “My family speaks English at home. We would like our son to learn Chinese as a second language. My wife and I chose CLSC for the communicative style used for teaching Chinese, since this teaching style best reflects how language is taught in the U.S. educational system."

Greenwich, CT, resident Jim Lee and Scarsdale, NY resident, Mei Nishiwaki, are retiring from their roles as Directors. Jim has been involved with CLSC since its inception, in 2002, and has been a Director since May, 2006. Mei has been a Director since 2009. Both have made tremendous contributions to the growth of the school.
Mei Nishiwaki, although retiring from the CLSC Board of Directors, has generously agreed to serve on the school’s Advisory Committee. She noted, “CLSC’s program is perfect for my family. We are of Asian descent but do not speak Mandarin at home. Through the program's extensive use of technology and pace of delivery, my daughters are able to learn Mandarin in a supportive, engaging and enjoyable way.”
Jim Lee noted, “Looking back on my association with CLSC, I have fond memories of my children, starting at ages 7 and 11, learning Mandarin. The foundation was so good they are still taking classes at Greenwich High School and the University of Michigan. Service on the board was especially rewarding. I had the opportunity to shape curriculum, guide CLSC, and help in fund raising. I will miss my colleagues and friends at CLSC and I am grateful for the opportunity to have been asked to serve.”

CLSC Board of Directors for 2010 / 2011 include:

Cynthia Chang, Greenwich, CT (co-Chair)

Cynthia was born in Taipei, Taiwan and moved to New York City at the age of six, learning English after Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese. She graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and received a B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania. She worked in real estate and banking in New York City. Her husband, Brian Scanlan, founded a software company, and Cynthia joined the company soon after to manage administrative operations and facilities. The company had an initial public offering in 2000 at which time, Cynthia left to concentrate on family and community service in Greenwich, having moved there in 1997. She has been a board member at the YMCA of Greenwich since 2001, serving as the annual campaign chairman, Facilities Committee chair, and currently as Secretary of the Board. She also served as the First Selectman’s representative on the Board of Trustees of the Greenwich Library. Cynthia is also active with her alma mater, chairing the University of Pennsylvania’s Secondary School committee in Greenwich. Cynthia lives in Greenwich with her husband and two children, Kevin, 17, who attends the Brunswick School and Paula, 10, who attends Greenwich Country Day School.

Joab Tjiungwanara, Stamford, CT (co-Chair)

Joab is a Risk Manager with General Electric and has worked extensively in the credit and market risk area at GE Corporate Treasury. He is a graduate of University of Bremen, Germany (Electrical Engineering) and University of Rochester (MBA in Finance). Joab is an overseas Chinese who was born in Indonesia, went to Germany after high school and came to the US for graduate school. He speaks fluent Mandarin, German, English and is conversant in Indonesian.

Dr. Sue Chang, Orange, CT (Secretary)

Sue is a graduate of the University of Michigan where she received her B.S., followed by her M.D. degree at Michigan State University. She completed her residency training in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Nephrology at Yale University where she served as a research fellow in the genetics of hypertension. She is in private practice with Metabolism Associates of New Haven, CT.

Jeffay F. Chang, (Director) Pelham, NY

Jeffay serves as the East Coast Trust Strategist for the Goldman Sachs Trust Companies. He was named Executive Vice President with responsibility over national marketing and sales in 2008. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs in May 2004, Jeffay was a Corporate Vice President in the Private Wealth Services Group of UBS Financial Services where he provided counseling and planning services for ultra high net worth clients in such areas as wealth transfer and philanthropic planning, stock option exercise planning, and hedging and monetizing concentrated equity positions. Prior to UBS Financial Services, Jeffay was a Financial Planner in the Financial Planning Group of US Trust and before that was a Trust Officer in the Trust Settlement Department of US Trust. Jeffay obtained his B.A. from Brandeis University and J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. He is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, New York State Bar Association, New York Bankers Association, Estate Planning Council of New York City and the Westchester Estate Planning Council.

Darwei Kung, (Director) Harrison, NY

Susan Serven, (Director; CLSC President) New Canaan, CT
Susan has been with CLSC since the school’s founding in May 2002. Susan is a graduate of Pace University (BBA, Marketing) and is pursuing her MBA in Finance and International Business (Fairfield University). She has held positions in global marketing at Lever Bros. Co., and Save the Children Federation, and as Special Events Director for the American Cancer Society.
Susan founded the Chopstix preschool Mandarin program in 1998 so her daughters and other children could learn Chinese; Chopstix proceeds were donated to help fund various non-profit groups working with Chinese orphanage programs. She continued running Chopstix until it joined CLSC in 2003. Susan and her husband Lawrence adopted their daughters Emily in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China in August 1996, and Becky in Gao Ming City, Guangdong Province, in October, 2000. They live in New Canaan, CT

Thomas K. Myers, Jr., (Director), Redding, CT

Tom is the Director of Sales and Marketing for FocusVision Worldwide based in Stamford, CT. A graduate of Bucknell University with a B.A. in Political Science, Tom spent his early career in account service with New York based advertising agencies. During this time he met his Taiwan born wife Katy. Since then Tom has held sales and marketing positions for several international companies. Tom’s interest in Chinese language increased quickly with the birth of his daughter, Emily. “I have always believed a second language to be a useful tool. But a second language with ties to one’s heritage is a gift that should not be missed. My goal is to help CLSC continue its efforts to make learning Chinese as enjoyable and satisfying as possible”.

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.

Chinese Language School of Connecticut Registration Opens for Fall 2010

Press Release

For immediate release


FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Susan Serven, Chinese Language School of Connecticut
203/918.8085
susan.serven@chineselanguageschool.org
please visit our web site: www.chineselanguageschool.org

photo caption: principal Daisy Chen Laone with students from the Chinese Language School of Connecticut

Chinese Language School of Connecticut Opens Registration for Fall 2010

-- Chinese Dance and Chinese Art Workshops New for 2010/2011 School Year--


RIVERSIDE, CT May 25, 2010 -- The Chinese Language School of Connecticut (www.chineselanguageschool.org) has announced that registration for its Fall 2010 programs is currently open. The school, which teaches Mandarin Chinese as a second language to students ages 18 months and up, uses age appropriate, interactive methods to introduce children to Chinese.

The school welcomes all students, from Beginner levels through Advanced, and offers multimedia, interactive, online support tools to make practice engaging, relevant, and fun for students.

New for 2010 is a Chinese dance class, and Chinese Art Workshops on calligraphy, origami, Chinese bookbinding using traditional rice paper, and much more. For more information, or to register, please visit www.chineselanguageschool.org.

Expanding programsAccording 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 eight 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, and our new corporate program.

Our school consists of families who have no Chinese background, but want their children 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 9th 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 25% of families from the Westchester area, as well as 70% from Fairfield County, and about 5% from farther away, in upstate Connecticut.

Parent and Harrison, NY resident Darwei Kung, said, “My family speaks English at home. We would like our son to learn Chinese as a second language. My wife and I chose CLSC for the communicative style used for teaching Chinese, since this teaching style best reflects how language is taught in the U.S. educational system."

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.

CLSC Advisory Committee Member and Parents Committee Chair Deborah Serianni noted, “We joined the CLSC community 3 years ago. Our son, Aaron (an 8 year old at Rye Country Day School) certainly enjoys the program. Learning the Chinese language is no doubt not easy, but he does not want to quit. He will be promoted to Level 5 next year! He likes the interactive internet program of "Better Chinese" as the core part of the curriculum. He also enjoys the cultural activities and the homework projects, which are challenging and fun. As a family, we have met a lot of great people and good friends."

Many CLSC students have gone on to continue their Chinese at area high schools. Norwalk resident and parent of former student Alexa Williams, Janet Williams said, “We’ve been with CLSC for five years and my daughter Alexa loved it. Alexa graduated Roton Middle School [in Norwalk] and will be taking Chinese next year at Brien McMahon].” Alexa noted, “Learning Chinese is a good experience for any nationality and any age group. I hope to use Chinese when I become an adult and get a job."

The CLSC faculty consists of experienced, native-speaking, Chinese instructors who are graduates of universities in the U.S. and China. CLSC teaches Mandarin Chinese using effective, proven methods, allowing the efficient acquisition of practical communication skills.

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 and their corporate language program, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org.

Dr. Henry Lee, Internationally-Acclaimed Forensics Detective, Celebrity Speaker and Author to speak at CLSC Chinese New Year Festival!

Just confirmed!

Internationally-acclaimed forensics detective, TV host, celebrity speaker and author Dr. Henry Lee to appear at CLSC's 8th Annual Chinese New Year Festival!

For info and tickets to the event please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org.

For info on Dr. Lee please visit http://www.drhenrylee.com/

Chinese Immigrants Tell Stories of Angel Island

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14224527

With reflection and tears, Angel Island turns 100
By Joe Rodriguez
jrodriguez@mercurynews.com

Malin Tom is an "emotional man," which explains why he kept his journey through Angel Island mostly to himself for 60 years.

"I did not want to cry in front of people," says Tom, now 81 and living in Santa Clara. "It is a sad story. I was so scared and poor. I was ashamed, and Chinese don't talk about their shame."

But he could not resist a granddaughter's plea a few years ago. Would he talk to her classmates about passing through the "Ellis Island of the West"?

"My granddaughter gave me courage."

And when Tom finally spoke it was as if a dam holding back immigrant tears had cracked, replenishing the soil of American history with bittersweet truth.

On Thursday, a ceremony in San Francisco

will commemorate — 100 years to the date — the opening of Angel Island's immigration station. The government will swear in 100 new American citizens. Some of the nation's top immigration officials will speak, as well as people who actually went through the island in San Francisco Bay, including poet Nellie Wong and her sister from Sunnyvale, Lai Webster.

The speakers won't sugarcoat the island's checkered past. Angel Island was different from its welcoming counterpart in New York Harbor.

About 500,000 immigrants passed through the island from 1910 to 1940. Of these, 300,000 were detained, a third of them Chinese. While most were ultimately allowed in, many, like Tom, waited months in a torturous limbo while their
backgrounds were investigated.

"Angel Island was really there to keep people out, not to welcome them," says Judy Yung, a University of California-Santa Cruz professor emeritus of American studies and author of two books on the subject. "We need to remember that. How can we use the lesson of Angel Island to live up to our ideal as a nation of immigrants?"

By the late 19th century, the easy gold in California was gone, an economic recession had settled in across the country and a new wave of immigrants from Asia and southern Europe stirred up a nativist backlash. Congress looked for scapegoats.

Even today Tom asks, "Why did they home in on the Chinese?"

He was 12 years old in 1939 and living with his mother in a poor village in Canton province. His father, Yip Way Tom, had sneaked through Angel Island in 1916 as "Jack Chew," the supposed son of a Chinese-American family. Under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, laborers could only immigrate if they were the children or grandchildren of U.S.-born, Chinese-Americans.

"The Chinese figured out a intricate system right away," Yung says.

American-born Chinese who could sponsor relatives often sold their immigration slots to underground brokers, who sold them in Hong Kong to desperate immigrants like the Toms. Sometimes, undocumented Chinese here created entirely new identities on paper, especially after thousands of birth records were destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.

The Chinese men who came to Angel Island with these false identities were known as "paper sons."

At 4 feet, 81/2 inches tall, young Tom boarded a ship in Hong Kong with a new identity, May Kwong Chew, son of Jack Chew, and "coaching" notes about the Chew family. He had to study notes between bouts with seasickness because he would be grilled by interrogators on Angel Island bent on ferreting out paper sons and daughters.

"After three weeks on a ship," Tom says, "the next three months were even worse."

Tom remembers going through three or four interrogations: Where was the water well in your village? How many steps did your front porch have? When did your uncle in America die? What company did he work for? Did he have birthmarks, and where?

Then he, like the other detainees, waited as immigration agents checked out his answers. Tom waited three months, about average, but some detainees were forced to remain on the island up to two years.

Nothing frightened him more than the whispers of suicides. Yung says some immigrants who flunked the questioning probably killed themselves on the island, but there is no official proof.

"They would have been too ashamed to go home and face their families and villages," said Yung, whose own father was a paper son and adopted the surname "Yung."

She estimates that 4 percent of Chinese were deported from the island.

Immigrants channeled their hopes and desolation into poetry, which they etched on the walls of their prison barracks. Tom read some of these, but "they made me feel even more sad."

To help pass the time, he played games with other Chinese boys in the recreation yard and picked up a few words of playground English. Because of the strict segregation, he never met boys from other nations, though he could see them during their allotted time in the yard.

Mostly though, he mulled over the interrogation questions during the day, complained about "terrible mush" and other western food, and cried silently under his blanket at night.

"I didn't want to make noise for the others," he says.

After three months, he was released and traveled to San Diego, where his father delivered produce to restaurants. On a much better diet, Tom sprouted to nearly 6 foot tall and played basketball in high school. He mastered English and kept his Chinese.

When he and his father returned to China in 1947, they learned Tom's brother and sister had died during World War II, probably from disease. Tom married, but with the communists taking over, he and his new bride moved to the United States in 1949 and sailed through immigration as Mr. and Mrs. Chew.

He might have remained a Chew were it not for the "Chinese Confession Program," a sort of amnesty for undocumented immigrants in the early 1960s, so long as they weren't communists or criminals. After three decades in the shadows, he became Malin Tom again, and a U.S. citizen. More than 18,000 Chinese paper sons and paper daughters also confessed and were allowed to stay.

He raised a family, and owned a nursery in Silicon Valley. And he never talked to anyone in detail about Angel Island.

"Not even to me," says his wife, Jean.

Too much shame.

In 2001, Tom returned to the island after 61 years with his adult children and grandchildren, who had begged him to go. He says the hardest part was visiting a restored dormitory, where he spent so many tearful nights, remembering the sound of doors being locked behind him.

"I cried again," Tom says. "I'm still an emotional guy."

Contact Joe Rodriguez at 408-920-5767.


A look back through Angel Island history

An immigration station opens on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay on Jan. 21, 1910 to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
As immigrants from Asia, Russia and Mexico arrive, the station is dubbed the Ellis Island of the West, but its detainees are segregated by race, ethnicity and gender.
About 500,000 immigrants pass through over the next 30 years, the majority of them Asians.
While Europeans arriving at Ellis Island passed through in two to three hours, Chinese immigrants at Angel Island endure interrogations that often lasted two weeks to six months, with a few forced to stay up to two years.
On Nov. 5, 1940 the last group of 200 immigrants on the island — 150 of them Chinese — are transferred to San Francisco. Congress repeals the exclusion act in 1943.
Today, visitors to Angel Island can visit a museum, restored dormitory and read the poems carved into the immigration station's walls. Guided tours are $4 for adults and $3 for children. For schedules and directions, go towww.aiisf.org or call 415-435-3392.
Source: Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

NY Times: Foreign Languages Fade in Class - Except Chinese

From http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/education/21chinese.html?emc=eta1


January 21, 2010
Foreign Languages Fade in Class — Except Chinese
By SAM DILLON
WASHINGTON — Thousands of public schools stopped teaching foreign languages in the last decade, according to a government-financed survey — dismal news for a nation that needs more linguists to conduct its global business and diplomacy.

But another contrary trend has educators and policy makers abuzz: a rush by schools in all parts of America to offer instruction in Chinese.

Some schools are paying for Chinese classes on their own, but hundreds are getting some help. The Chinese government is sending teachers from China to schools all over the world — and paying part of their salaries.

At a time of tight budgets, many American schools are finding that offer too good to refuse.

In Massillon, Ohio, south of Cleveland, Jackson High School started its Chinese program in the fall of 2007 with 20 students and now has 80, said Parthena Draggett, who directs Jackson’s world languages department.

“We were able to get a free Chinese teacher,” she said. “I’d like to start a Spanish program for elementary children, but we can’t get a free Spanish teacher.”

(Jackson’s Chinese teacher is not free; the Chinese government pays part of his compensation, with the district paying the rest.)

No one keeps an exact count, but rough calculations based on the government’s survey suggest that perhaps 1,600 American public and private schools are teaching Chinese, up from 300 or so a decade ago. And the numbers are growing exponentially.

Among America’s approximately 27,500 middle and high schools offering at least one foreign language, the proportion offering Chinese rose to 4 percent, from 1 percent, from 1997 to 2008, according to the survey, which was done by the Center for Applied Linguistics, a research group in Washington, and paid for by the federal Education Department.

“It’s really changing the language education landscape of this country,” said Nancy C. Rhodes, a director at the center and co-author of the survey.

Other indicators point to the same trend. The number of students taking the Advanced Placement test in Chinese, introduced in 2007, has grown so fast that it is likely to pass German this year as the third most-tested A.P. language, after Spanish and French, said Trevor Packer, a vice president at the College Board.

“We’ve all been surprised that in such a short time Chinese would grow to surpass A.P. German,” Mr. Packer said.

A decade ago, most of the schools with Chinese programs were on the East and West Coasts. But in recent years, many schools have started Chinese programs in heartland states, including Ohio and Illinois in the Midwest, Texas and Georgia in the South, and Colorado and Utah in the Rocky Mountain West.

“The mushrooming of interest we’re seeing now is not in the heritage communities, but in places that don’t have significant Chinese populations,” said Chris Livaccari, an associate director at the Asia Society.

America has had the study of a foreign language grow before, only to see the bubble burst. Many schools began teaching Japanese in the 1980s, after Japan emerged as an economic rival. But thousands have dropped the language, the survey found.

Japanese is not the only language that has declined. Thousands of schools that offered French, German or Russian have stopped teaching those languages, too, the survey found.

To prepare the survey, the Center for Applied Linguistics sent a questionnaire to 5,000 American schools, and followed up with phone calls to 3,200 schools, getting a 76 percent response rate.

The results, released last year, confirmed that Spanish was taught almost universally. The survey found that 88 percent of elementary schools and 93 percent of middle and high schools with language programs offered Spanish in 2008.

The overall decline in language instruction was mostly due to its abrupt decline in public elementary and middle schools; the number of private schools and public high schools offering at least one language remained stable from 1997 to 2008.

The survey said that a third of schools reported that the federal No Child Left Behind law, which since 2001 has required public schools to test students in math and English, had drawn resources from foreign languages.

Experts said several factors were fueling the surge in Chinese. Parents, students and educators recognize China’s emergence as an important country and believe that fluency in its language can open opportunities.

Also stoking the interest has been a joint program by the College Board and Hanban, a language council affiliated with the Chinese Education Ministry, that since 2006 has sent hundreds of American school superintendents and other educators to visit schools in China, with travel costs subsidized by Hanban. Many have started Chinese programs upon their return.

Since 2006, Hanban and the College Board have also sent more than 325 volunteer Chinese “guest teachers” to work in American schools with fledgling programs and paying $13,000 to subsidize each teacher’s salary for a year. Teachers can then renew for up to three more years.

The State Department has paid for a smaller program to bring Chinese teachers to schools here, with each staying for a year.

In the first two years of its Chinese program, the Jackson District in Ohio said it had provided its guest teacher housing, a car and gasoline, health insurance and other support worth about $26,000. This year, the district is paying a more experienced Chinese guest teacher $49,910 in salary and other support, in addition to the $13,000 in travel expenses he receives from Hanban, bringing his compensation into rough parity with Ohio teachers.

Ms. Draggett visited China recently with a Hanban-financed delegation of 400 American educators from 39 states, and she came back energized about Jackson’s Chinese program, she said.

“Chinese is really taking root,” she said. Starting this fall, Jackson High will begin phasing out its German program, she said.

Founders of the Yu Ying charter school in Washington, where all classes for 200 students in prekindergarten through second grade are taught in Chinese and English on alternate days, did not start with a guest teacher when it opened in the fall of 2008.

“That’s great for many schools, but we want our teachers to stay,” said Mary Shaffner, the school’s executive director.

Instead, Yu Ying recruited five native Chinese speakers living in the United States by advertising on the Internet. One is Wang Jue, who immigrated to the United States in 2001 and graduated from the University of Maryland.

After just four months, her prekindergarten students can already say phrases like “I want lunch” and “I’m angry” in Chinese, Ms. Wang said.

"Lucky Girl" Reading at Greenwich Library, November 8

From Mary O'Neill at ONeill@centerchem.com

"Lucky Girl" reading by author Mei Ling Hopgood at Greenwich Library November 8.

Sunday, November 8th at the Greenwich Library in Greenwich, CT ; FCC
Southern CT and FCC Westchester regions are cosponsoring a reading in
Greenwich, CT. $5 per person, preregistration required. Register
online at www.fccny.org . For more information
or to volunteer to help with this event, Mary O'Neill at
oneill@centerchem.com

CLSC Staff Invited to Harvard Chinese AP Workshop

CLSC Staff members recently returned from an October workshop on Chinese AP training, sponsored by the ACTFL and Harvard University.

This workshop was by invitation, and a grant covered the fees. For info on the program, what was covered, or how to advance your child's studies in Chinese via classes or private tutoring, please contact the Chinese Language School of Connecticut at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org.

Pictured are CLSC Principal Daisy Chen Laone, Program Director Jopi Shen, Vice Principal Xian Xian Feng, teachers I-Hui Li, Wendy Zhou Witkowsky, and member Xian Wu, outside Harvard's Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and the famous Jan Ying library.


Photo includes Mr. Bai, Committee Chair of the workshop.

From: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/look-east-why-chinese-lessons-are-booming-1799026.html

There is also an interesting blog and comments section beneath this article, on the web site link. Seems many believe the UK is suffering from many of the same issues the U.S. is: lack of understanding why Chinese is important, lack of certified teachers.

Look East: Why Chinese lessons are booming

Where Chinese was once an exotic subject to study, today it has taken off in many schools. Hilary Wilce finds it has won the ultimate accolade – its own GCSE textbook


Thursday, 8 October 2009

The Independent, London


Two East London schoolgirls are chattering animatedly about their families, but not in English, or in their home languages of Urdu or Bengali. Instead Shajedah Kayum and Johura Hasna are gassing confidently in Mandarin Chinese.


At Kingsford Community School, in Beckton, east London, every pupil studies Mandarin when they start at age 11, and growing numbers are now choosing it at GCSE. Last year, 15 students took the subject and 66 per cent of them achieved A or A* grades. In Year Nine, about 50 students have already embarked – one year early – on Mandarin GCSE.

Kingsford is not alone. Mandarin is fast going mainstream with about 500 schools – no one knows the precise figure – offering it as part of the curriculum, and many more in after-school clubs. The first GCSE Chinese textbook has just been published by Pearson Education, in conjunction with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, tailored to a new EdExcel exam.

The language that used to be seen as an exotic novelty is taking its place as a normal GCSE languages option.

Sceptics say that this is all just a gimmick and that classroom time could be better used to help pupils become competent in a more accessible language such as French or Spanish.

But according to school heads who offer Mandarin courses, which include language and culture, the subject opens pupils' eyes to the biggest country in the world, hones general language skills, engages boys – who relate to the visual and spatial aspects of the language – enhances students' resumes, and can be a subject in which pupils who struggle with other languages do well.

Twelve schools in Britain have now become Confucius Classrooms, receiving support from the Office of Chinese Language Council, known as Hanban, along with help from the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, itself a Confucius Institute since 2006.

This allows them to grow as specialist hubs, helping other schools to bring in Chinese studies.

Kingsford, a language college for 11- to 16-year-olds, is a Confucius Classroom and believes Mandarin has brought many benefits to its pupils. The school is a new one and only moved into its current building in 2002. The original head asked colleagues to suggest innovative cross-curricular programmes and the current head, Joan Deslandes, who was then in charge of humanities, languages and technology, suggested doing something on China.

"China had just joined the World Trade Association, I was interested in Confucius and I thought it was a language which none of our children spoke, so this would be a level playing field," she says. In a school where the pupils speak 55 languages between them, finding such a language was no easy task. Even so, some governors were initially resistant.

But Mandarin triumphed and since then the school has won a national Mandarin-speaking competition, sent students regularly to visit China, and built a close link with Brighton College, an independent school in Sussex, where Mandarin is compulsory.

Three Kingsford students a year go on scholarships to Brighton College to do their A levels. Other pupils have this year moved to other independent schools, including Cheltenham Ladies College, with their applications bolstered by their Mandarin skills.

The Mandarin programme brings many national and international visitors to the school, where they listen to pupils talk and watch them perform a tai chi-based fan dance.

The whole programme has clearly given many pupils a feeling of confidence and achievement. "I really like it and I'm glad I chose it," says Johura Hasna, who is just embarking on her GCSE and says she might want to work as a lawyer using her Chinese.

She was one student who won a trip to China "where, when you started talking people were, like, 'Wow'".

Osman Abdul-Moomin, another Year Nine pupil and who won the trip, says he was struck, in China, by how well everything was organised and how hard people worked. He is delighted he is doing the subject. "Speaking Mandarin – it's a trump card!"

The school has two permanent Mandarin teachers and is looking for a third. It also gets support from Hanban teachers who come on placement from China. Linying Liu is the school's Confucius classroom manager, who is helping to write the new Chinese textbooks. She says that she could easily find a job in an independent school, but is happy in the tougher conditions that Kingsford offers.

For the head teacher Joan Deslandes, the programme is just one aspect of an education of high expectations. Mandarin is in the top three languages that employers say they want, she says.

"But any school that wants to do it will have to have the full backing of the school leadership, and will need to make an investment in curriculum time. And it will have to recognise there are no quick wins here. It will not necessarily make your exam results look good." Even so, Kingsford students, despite coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, far exceed the national GCSE average.

Mandarin has now reached take-off point in British schools with the publication of the new textbook, according to Katharine Carruthers, the director for the SSAT Confucius Institute. "For the first time it is going to look like any other GCSE," she says. "Before it could be seen as something exotic and heads could get away with a bit of teaching after school, but now it's going viral and heads are starting to think, 'I'd better take a look at this because it's obviously changed.'" Textbooks for Key Stages 3 and 2 are also in the pipeline.

According to Andrew Hall, the head of Calday Grange Grammar School, in West Kirby, the home of another Confucius Classroom, the language "has gone from novelty to mainstream" in 10 years. His school works with five other secondary schools as well as with primaries and nurseries. "The students enjoy it and parents are very supportive," he says. "There's a great and growing awareness of China."

But just how proficient are students who have gained GCSE Chinese? In speaking and listening they are not far off the level they would be in, say, French, says Katherine Carruthers. Their reading and writing, however, takes longer, which means the passages that are set for them are shorter and easier. "But there is every sign that the subject is engaging children," she says. "They love learning about the culture and it is very motivating."

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

CLSC Students Skip Levels of High School Chinese

Students who study Chinese (either through CLSC or private tutoring) may be able to skip one or more levels of their high school's Chinese program.

The normal procedure is for parents to check with their school's Chinese instructor the winter or spring before the student is to enter high school so the student may be able to take the high school's Chinese 1 exam to determine placement. For questions as to how your middle school student may be able to advance in Chinese, or on how your high school student may be able to earn college credit in Chinese (while in high school) please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org.

Thanks to CLSC Alumni Parent, Betty Liu, Southport for the following: "Thank you for offering such excellent programs at CLSC. Our high school, Faifield Ludlowe High School, offers Mandarin during the school day. Now that my daughter Ivy is a freshman there, she will be able to take Intermediate Mandarin (She was able to get waived from Beginner Chinese due to her previous Chinese learning). My older daughter Amber also did this last year.

Because Mandarin is so different from English, it seems to tweak the brain in such a way that it enhances learning other subjects as well, the way learning chess and music do. As a result, I believe my kids have done better in school because of studying Chinese. Best of luck on continuing the mission of CLSC."