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
(END)
Showing posts with label chinese preschool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chinese preschool. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Study of Mandarin Chinese by U.S. Students Booming
From: April 5, 2011 Education Week at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2011/03/study_of_foreign_language_cree.html
Study of Mandarin Chinese By U.S. Students Booming
By Erik Robelen on March 29, 2011 12:12 PM | Leave a comment | Recommend
Chinese is in. Latin and French, it seems, are out. And Spanish is still, well, el jefe. (Translation: the boss or chief.) That's my quick-and-dirty takeaway from new data on the study of foreign languages by U.S. students.
In another sign of China's growing prominence on the world stage, the number of U.S. students learning Mandarin Chinese has tripled in recent years, according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. But the roughly 60,000 young people studying it as of the 2007-08 academic year was dwarfed by the millions learning Spanish, by far the most popular language.
Overall, the data released today show that enrollment in foreign-language courses and programs has increased slightly. That may sound like good news, but as officials at the council are quick to note, it's nothing to celebrate, as fewer than one-in-five American students at the K-12 level are enrolled in foreign-language education. That's right, only 18.5 percent in 2007-08, or 8.9 million students, up from 18 percent in 2004-05.
"We're still woefully behind almost all other countries of the world, particularly industrialized countries," Marty Abbott, the education director at ACTFL, told me in an interview. "When you look at all the countries that surpass us on the PISA tests, they all have early-language programs, they start children learning language in elementary schools."
She added: "In Europe, the whole effort is to learn another language besides your language to a near-native level, and a third or fourth at what they call a 'functional proficiency level,' " she said.
Abbott did note that the data are more favorable when looking at the middle and high school levels, where most U.S. students study foreign languages. In grades 7-12, 32 percent were taking a foreign language. But that still suggests that most students will graduate from high school without ever having studied a foreign language.
As for Mandarin, Abbott said she's not surprised to see more students studying it, noting that this is consistent with previous trends when the rise in a nation's prominence led to more U.S. students studying the language. In the 1960s, she said, there was a big rise in the study of Russian, and Japanese in the 1980s. (I wrote last fall about the growing role of the Chinese government itself in promoting Mandarin-language instruction in the United States.)
I also spoke with Bret Lovejoy, the executive director of the ACTFL. He said the question is whether Mandarin will remain popular.
"The problem I see is that, and this can be with any language that seems to grab the attention of a lot of people, is how well is it going to be sustained over time," he told me. "And too often, what we see is that a new language program is installed in a school system or a school, and that one that's there and that may be very successful is eliminated."
Here's a snapshot of key findings, based on comparing 2004-05 enrollment with 2007-08. The languages that saw an increase include:
• Mandarin, up 195 percent to 60,000;
• Japanese, up 18 percent to 73,000;
• German, up 8 percent to 395,000;
• Russian, up 3 percent to 12,000; and
• Spanish, up 2 percent, to 6.42 million.
Meanwhile:
• French is down 3 percent to 1.25 million; and
• Latin is down 9 percent to 205,000.
There are plenty more data to mine in this report, so you should check it out.
One other thing. President Barack Obama just yesterday promoted the learning of foreign languages in a speech at a District of Columbia public school.
"For all the young people here, I want you guys to be studying hard because it is critical for all American students to have language skills. And I want everybody here to be working hard to make sure that you don't just speak one language, you speak a bunch of languages."
Lovejoy said he was pleased by the plug for learning other languages, but said he's been disappointed by the president when it comes to action.
"He's saying the right things, but we're not really seeing this translate into policy," Lovejoy told me.
He highlighted the fact that President Obama has proposed to consolidate funding for the $27 million Foreign Language Assistance Program at the U.S. Department of Education into a broader, competitive fund focused on promoting a "well-rounded education."
"The only proposal we've seen is to fold the FLAP into the well-rounded child [program]," Lovejoy said, "and I think that will lead to less money for languages."
Study of Mandarin Chinese By U.S. Students Booming
By Erik Robelen on March 29, 2011 12:12 PM | Leave a comment | Recommend
Chinese is in. Latin and French, it seems, are out. And Spanish is still, well, el jefe. (Translation: the boss or chief.) That's my quick-and-dirty takeaway from new data on the study of foreign languages by U.S. students.
In another sign of China's growing prominence on the world stage, the number of U.S. students learning Mandarin Chinese has tripled in recent years, according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. But the roughly 60,000 young people studying it as of the 2007-08 academic year was dwarfed by the millions learning Spanish, by far the most popular language.
Overall, the data released today show that enrollment in foreign-language courses and programs has increased slightly. That may sound like good news, but as officials at the council are quick to note, it's nothing to celebrate, as fewer than one-in-five American students at the K-12 level are enrolled in foreign-language education. That's right, only 18.5 percent in 2007-08, or 8.9 million students, up from 18 percent in 2004-05.
"We're still woefully behind almost all other countries of the world, particularly industrialized countries," Marty Abbott, the education director at ACTFL, told me in an interview. "When you look at all the countries that surpass us on the PISA tests, they all have early-language programs, they start children learning language in elementary schools."
She added: "In Europe, the whole effort is to learn another language besides your language to a near-native level, and a third or fourth at what they call a 'functional proficiency level,' " she said.
Abbott did note that the data are more favorable when looking at the middle and high school levels, where most U.S. students study foreign languages. In grades 7-12, 32 percent were taking a foreign language. But that still suggests that most students will graduate from high school without ever having studied a foreign language.
As for Mandarin, Abbott said she's not surprised to see more students studying it, noting that this is consistent with previous trends when the rise in a nation's prominence led to more U.S. students studying the language. In the 1960s, she said, there was a big rise in the study of Russian, and Japanese in the 1980s. (I wrote last fall about the growing role of the Chinese government itself in promoting Mandarin-language instruction in the United States.)
I also spoke with Bret Lovejoy, the executive director of the ACTFL. He said the question is whether Mandarin will remain popular.
"The problem I see is that, and this can be with any language that seems to grab the attention of a lot of people, is how well is it going to be sustained over time," he told me. "And too often, what we see is that a new language program is installed in a school system or a school, and that one that's there and that may be very successful is eliminated."
Here's a snapshot of key findings, based on comparing 2004-05 enrollment with 2007-08. The languages that saw an increase include:
• Mandarin, up 195 percent to 60,000;
• Japanese, up 18 percent to 73,000;
• German, up 8 percent to 395,000;
• Russian, up 3 percent to 12,000; and
• Spanish, up 2 percent, to 6.42 million.
Meanwhile:
• French is down 3 percent to 1.25 million; and
• Latin is down 9 percent to 205,000.
There are plenty more data to mine in this report, so you should check it out.
One other thing. President Barack Obama just yesterday promoted the learning of foreign languages in a speech at a District of Columbia public school.
"For all the young people here, I want you guys to be studying hard because it is critical for all American students to have language skills. And I want everybody here to be working hard to make sure that you don't just speak one language, you speak a bunch of languages."
Lovejoy said he was pleased by the plug for learning other languages, but said he's been disappointed by the president when it comes to action.
"He's saying the right things, but we're not really seeing this translate into policy," Lovejoy told me.
He highlighted the fact that President Obama has proposed to consolidate funding for the $27 million Foreign Language Assistance Program at the U.S. Department of Education into a broader, competitive fund focused on promoting a "well-rounded education."
"The only proposal we've seen is to fold the FLAP into the well-rounded child [program]," Lovejoy said, "and I think that will lead to less money for languages."
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Growing Diversity Fuels Chinese School
The bi-lingual CAIS school in San Francisco uses many of the tools and teaching methods that are used at the Chinese Language School of Connecticut.
For more info on ways to engage your children in learning Chinese please visit: www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704461304576216613309652724.html?mod=wsj_share_facebook
By YUKARI IWATANI KANE
San Francisco's Chinese American International School has long had a reputation for strong academics, but it has grown more popular as a rising number of non-Chinese parents bank on Chinese-language skills for their children's future.
Lianne Milton for The Wall Street Journal
First-grader Martha Chessen gets help from instructor Xiu Geng in a math-in-Mandarin class at the Chinese American International School, where a growing number of students come from non-Chinese backgrounds.
When Christine Chessen decided to send her oldest child to CAIS eight years ago, her blond-haired daughter stood out among the sea of mostly Asian or half-Asian children. Her stock-trader husband opposed the idea, and friends thought she was crazy.
She went ahead and enrolled her daughter, because she wanted to expose her to a completely different culture. The move made sense to Ms. Chessen when she learned that there are more native speakers of Chinese in the world than those whose mother tongue is English or Spanish.
These days, her daughter isn't so unusual at CAIS, a private school that instructs in both Mandarin and English from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.
"With the rise of Asia, people are finally jumping on the bandwagon," said Ms. Chessen, a stay-at-home mom who now has all three of her children—a first-, fourth- and sixth-grader—enrolled in the school. Her children, she said, are growing up singing Chinese songs, playing Chinese instruments and learning Chinese calligraphy, which she said she now considers all "part of our culture."
A recent survey by the school found that CAIS's non-Asian population has grown 42% over the past decade and currently makes up 27% of its 472 students. The remainder are children with partial or full Asian backgrounds, though most come from non-Chinese-speaking families.
Even though the school has increased its overall student population by 35% since 2000, it continues to be difficult to get into. More than 100 families vied for the 25 to 30 pre-K spots available next year. In the lower grades, instruction is half in Chinese, half in English; in middle school, which starts with grade six, 35% is in Chinese. The day school, in Hayes Valley, costs about $22,000 a year.
CAIS's growth is part of a nationwide trend as China's rise in the global economy prompts parents to seek Chinese-language instruction for their children—including President Barack Obama, whose daughter Sasha is learning Mandarin.
The San Francisco Unified Public School District said Chinese, including the Mandarin and Cantonese dialects, was the most requested language program by parents of kindergartners after Spanish for the next academic year. There are several public Chinese schools in San Francisco, and a new Chinese-language charter school is set to open in the Oakland area in the fall.
While there are no overall figures on how many students take Chinese-language classes nationwide, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages said it saw a threefold increase in the number of public-school students taking such classes to 60,000 in the 2007-08 academic year from three years earlier.
Programs like CAIS's carry little risk, said Marty Abbott, director of education at ACTFL, because even those students who spend their entire day in another language eventually catch up to and might even surpass their peers in English-language skills.
"The beauty of immersion programs, whether they're partial or full, is that students spend a considerable amount of time hearing the language and develop it and use it," Ms. Abbott said.
At CAIS one recent afternoon, a Chinese-speaking teacher led a kindergarten class in a game. The children sat in a circle around a collection of sea animal toys and tried to guess which were each other's favorites by asking questions in Mandarin.
On other floors, a fourth-grade class took an English spelling test while a group of seventh-graders practiced playing the Chinese yue qin guitar and the zither-like guzheng in a music class.
Tzara Geraghty, a tall, 13-year-old eighth-grader, plays the yangzin, a Chinese dulcimer, in a Chinese music ensemble, loves to eat tangyuan (dumplings made of rice flour with red bean, sesame and peanut butter fillings) and is looking forward to a coming school trip to Beijing.
Tzara, who has been at CAIS since pre-kindergarten, said she didn't realize she was Caucasian until she grew much taller than her classmates in fourth grade. "I never felt like I was different," said Tzara, who also plays volleyball, basketball and soccer.
For parents and teachers, it's a slightly different matter. Jeff Bissell, the head of the school, said the greater number of non-Asian families has prompted CAIS to adopt the more collaborative American educational approach along with the traditional top-down Chinese style.
Even then, there are challenges, because teachers are dealing with parents and students who are unfamiliar with Chinese teaching methods, such as the rote memorization required to learn the written script.
"Ten years ago, I could demonstrate how to write a character and make sure students got it, but now we have to break down the steps more," said Kevin Chang, the lower school's director.
Last year, the Parent Association took an extra step, holding a Mandarin 101 class for parents for the first time. The goal was not to teach Chinese but to familiarize parents with how the language works so they could understand what their children were learning.
Ms. Chessen said she values the school's lessons. "What my kids have learned about the Chinese culture they apply to the rest of the world," she said. "It makes us feel like we're part of a bigger community."
Write to Yukari Iwatani Kane at yukari.iwatani@wsj.com
For more info on ways to engage your children in learning Chinese please visit: www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704461304576216613309652724.html?mod=wsj_share_facebook
By YUKARI IWATANI KANE
San Francisco's Chinese American International School has long had a reputation for strong academics, but it has grown more popular as a rising number of non-Chinese parents bank on Chinese-language skills for their children's future.
Lianne Milton for The Wall Street Journal
First-grader Martha Chessen gets help from instructor Xiu Geng in a math-in-Mandarin class at the Chinese American International School, where a growing number of students come from non-Chinese backgrounds.
When Christine Chessen decided to send her oldest child to CAIS eight years ago, her blond-haired daughter stood out among the sea of mostly Asian or half-Asian children. Her stock-trader husband opposed the idea, and friends thought she was crazy.
She went ahead and enrolled her daughter, because she wanted to expose her to a completely different culture. The move made sense to Ms. Chessen when she learned that there are more native speakers of Chinese in the world than those whose mother tongue is English or Spanish.
These days, her daughter isn't so unusual at CAIS, a private school that instructs in both Mandarin and English from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.
"With the rise of Asia, people are finally jumping on the bandwagon," said Ms. Chessen, a stay-at-home mom who now has all three of her children—a first-, fourth- and sixth-grader—enrolled in the school. Her children, she said, are growing up singing Chinese songs, playing Chinese instruments and learning Chinese calligraphy, which she said she now considers all "part of our culture."
A recent survey by the school found that CAIS's non-Asian population has grown 42% over the past decade and currently makes up 27% of its 472 students. The remainder are children with partial or full Asian backgrounds, though most come from non-Chinese-speaking families.
Even though the school has increased its overall student population by 35% since 2000, it continues to be difficult to get into. More than 100 families vied for the 25 to 30 pre-K spots available next year. In the lower grades, instruction is half in Chinese, half in English; in middle school, which starts with grade six, 35% is in Chinese. The day school, in Hayes Valley, costs about $22,000 a year.
CAIS's growth is part of a nationwide trend as China's rise in the global economy prompts parents to seek Chinese-language instruction for their children—including President Barack Obama, whose daughter Sasha is learning Mandarin.
The San Francisco Unified Public School District said Chinese, including the Mandarin and Cantonese dialects, was the most requested language program by parents of kindergartners after Spanish for the next academic year. There are several public Chinese schools in San Francisco, and a new Chinese-language charter school is set to open in the Oakland area in the fall.
While there are no overall figures on how many students take Chinese-language classes nationwide, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages said it saw a threefold increase in the number of public-school students taking such classes to 60,000 in the 2007-08 academic year from three years earlier.
Programs like CAIS's carry little risk, said Marty Abbott, director of education at ACTFL, because even those students who spend their entire day in another language eventually catch up to and might even surpass their peers in English-language skills.
"The beauty of immersion programs, whether they're partial or full, is that students spend a considerable amount of time hearing the language and develop it and use it," Ms. Abbott said.
At CAIS one recent afternoon, a Chinese-speaking teacher led a kindergarten class in a game. The children sat in a circle around a collection of sea animal toys and tried to guess which were each other's favorites by asking questions in Mandarin.
On other floors, a fourth-grade class took an English spelling test while a group of seventh-graders practiced playing the Chinese yue qin guitar and the zither-like guzheng in a music class.
Tzara Geraghty, a tall, 13-year-old eighth-grader, plays the yangzin, a Chinese dulcimer, in a Chinese music ensemble, loves to eat tangyuan (dumplings made of rice flour with red bean, sesame and peanut butter fillings) and is looking forward to a coming school trip to Beijing.
Tzara, who has been at CAIS since pre-kindergarten, said she didn't realize she was Caucasian until she grew much taller than her classmates in fourth grade. "I never felt like I was different," said Tzara, who also plays volleyball, basketball and soccer.
For parents and teachers, it's a slightly different matter. Jeff Bissell, the head of the school, said the greater number of non-Asian families has prompted CAIS to adopt the more collaborative American educational approach along with the traditional top-down Chinese style.
Even then, there are challenges, because teachers are dealing with parents and students who are unfamiliar with Chinese teaching methods, such as the rote memorization required to learn the written script.
"Ten years ago, I could demonstrate how to write a character and make sure students got it, but now we have to break down the steps more," said Kevin Chang, the lower school's director.
Last year, the Parent Association took an extra step, holding a Mandarin 101 class for parents for the first time. The goal was not to teach Chinese but to familiarize parents with how the language works so they could understand what their children were learning.
Ms. Chessen said she values the school's lessons. "What my kids have learned about the Chinese culture they apply to the rest of the world," she said. "It makes us feel like we're part of a bigger community."
Write to Yukari Iwatani Kane at yukari.iwatani@wsj.com
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Chinese poised be the #1 most popular language on the web
English Is Out: Chinese to Rule the World Wide WebBy: Hillary Brenhouse
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/03/english-is-out-chinese-to-rule-the-world-wide-web/#ixzz1A7EtNjKU
“Great Firewall” or not, Chinese Web surfers have overtaken the intertubes and so, it turns out, has their mother tongue. The stats are in: Chinese is poised to outpace English as the dominant language online.
Some say we (sort of) have Al Gore to thank for the Internet, but it may as well have been made in China: the number of Web users in the Middle Kingdom soared to 450 million—more than a third of the country's population—this year, according to Wang Chen, head of China's State Council Information Office. The U.S. boasts just under half that many, but since English is more widely spoken globally, a majority of sites are published in that language.
Not for much longer. An infographic by Nextweb, based on statistics culled by the marketing firm Internet World Stats, shows that—with Web use in China growing at such a rapid rate—it could take less than five years for Chinese to become the most popular language on the Net.
With the boom in China's Internet usage has come a rise in government censorship. Sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are still frequently off-limits to its denizens. China's extensive Internet policing system this year shut down more than 60,000 websites deemed harmful or politically subversive. It's safe to say that almost all the rest of them speak Beijing's language, or will soon.
(Visit the Chinese Language School of Connecticut's web site to see how you can begin your children's Chinese language learning.)
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/03/english-is-out-chinese-to-rule-the-world-wide-web/#ixzz1A7EtNjKU
“Great Firewall” or not, Chinese Web surfers have overtaken the intertubes and so, it turns out, has their mother tongue. The stats are in: Chinese is poised to outpace English as the dominant language online.
Some say we (sort of) have Al Gore to thank for the Internet, but it may as well have been made in China: the number of Web users in the Middle Kingdom soared to 450 million—more than a third of the country's population—this year, according to Wang Chen, head of China's State Council Information Office. The U.S. boasts just under half that many, but since English is more widely spoken globally, a majority of sites are published in that language.
Not for much longer. An infographic by Nextweb, based on statistics culled by the marketing firm Internet World Stats, shows that—with Web use in China growing at such a rapid rate—it could take less than five years for Chinese to become the most popular language on the Net.
With the boom in China's Internet usage has come a rise in government censorship. Sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are still frequently off-limits to its denizens. China's extensive Internet policing system this year shut down more than 60,000 websites deemed harmful or politically subversive. It's safe to say that almost all the rest of them speak Beijing's language, or will soon.
(Visit the Chinese Language School of Connecticut's web site to see how you can begin your children's Chinese language learning.)
Monday, September 27, 2010
Parents Debate the Merits of Chinese
Maybe they should sign their youngest children up for toddler league T-ball, instead?
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2010/09/27/parents-debate-the-rise-of-mandarin-at-elementary-schools/
By Yuliya Chernova
The growth of Mandarin classes at elementary schools in and around New York City stirred debate at UrbanBaby.com, a popular forum website for parents.
As The Journal reported, more schools around the city this year started offering — and in some cases requiring — Mandarin instruction, including New Explorations Into Science, Technology and Math (known as NEST+m), PS 20 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and PS 310 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The rise of Mandarin stems, in part, from separate programs backed by the U.S. and Chinese governments that offer resources for the classes.
The UrbanBaby discussion took on the issue of whether Mandarin is appropriate for elementary-school children. Some writers on the anonymous forum suggested that there is no need to introduce a difficult language so early on, arguing that children won’t gain proficiency anyway when taught just once a week. As one commenter put it:
anyone who has tried to teach toddlers a foreign language that no one in their household speaks (inc nanny) will realize that the classes are just not enough - you need to either live there and immerse or have the immersion at home for it to take hold.
Other commenters suggested that it’s harder to find Mandarin practice outside of school, making it even more unlikely that the language would stick for young students. Some contributors to the forum argued that Spanish will be the predominant and most useful second language in the U.S. for years to come, so schools should focus on it. One commenter was skeptical about language instruction in general for elementary students: “But is it really necessary for a child at the age of 5 to be taught some random language? I can think of 10 other things that could be done with that time.”
Some contributors spoke out in support of early exposure to Mandarin. One person, identified as a NEST+m parent, argued that “the daytime class gives you a place to start if you decide to embrace it. Otherwise just do the minimum and treat it like on of the other non-core subjects e.g. dance.”
Another self-identified parent of a student in the NEST+m Mandarin program said the once-a-week class was “more about the culture/geography so far and less about the language,” which served as an important introduction to China generally.
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2010/09/27/parents-debate-the-rise-of-mandarin-at-elementary-schools/
By Yuliya Chernova
The growth of Mandarin classes at elementary schools in and around New York City stirred debate at UrbanBaby.com, a popular forum website for parents.
As The Journal reported, more schools around the city this year started offering — and in some cases requiring — Mandarin instruction, including New Explorations Into Science, Technology and Math (known as NEST+m), PS 20 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and PS 310 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The rise of Mandarin stems, in part, from separate programs backed by the U.S. and Chinese governments that offer resources for the classes.
The UrbanBaby discussion took on the issue of whether Mandarin is appropriate for elementary-school children. Some writers on the anonymous forum suggested that there is no need to introduce a difficult language so early on, arguing that children won’t gain proficiency anyway when taught just once a week. As one commenter put it:
anyone who has tried to teach toddlers a foreign language that no one in their household speaks (inc nanny) will realize that the classes are just not enough - you need to either live there and immerse or have the immersion at home for it to take hold.
Other commenters suggested that it’s harder to find Mandarin practice outside of school, making it even more unlikely that the language would stick for young students. Some contributors to the forum argued that Spanish will be the predominant and most useful second language in the U.S. for years to come, so schools should focus on it. One commenter was skeptical about language instruction in general for elementary students: “But is it really necessary for a child at the age of 5 to be taught some random language? I can think of 10 other things that could be done with that time.”
Some contributors spoke out in support of early exposure to Mandarin. One person, identified as a NEST+m parent, argued that “the daytime class gives you a place to start if you decide to embrace it. Otherwise just do the minimum and treat it like on of the other non-core subjects e.g. dance.”
Another self-identified parent of a student in the NEST+m Mandarin program said the once-a-week class was “more about the culture/geography so far and less about the language,” which served as an important introduction to China generally.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Thanks for Another Great Year at the Chinese Language School of Connecticut
Even in all this rain, they tell us summer's nearly here.
Congrats to everyone at the Chinese Language School of Connecticut on another wonderful year.
And for those who may have missed our Year End Celebration on Sunday...
Congratulations to Cameron Yick and Alex Chou, who graduated this year, but will be back to assist our teachers and mentor our younger students. (Pictured: CLSC Principal Daisy Laone, Alex Chou, Cameron Yick, CLSC President Susan Serven)
Thank you to all our teachers and students who put on such a wonderful performance today, we're very proud of you!
Thank you to outgoing Parents Committee Chair (for 2 years!), Amy Yu.
Thank you to outgoing VP Marketing (for 3 years!) Marie Howe.
Thank you to outgoing VP Development, Chinese New Year Chair (for 3 years!) Sue Lue.
Thank you to incoming Parents Committee Chair, Deborah Serianni.
Thank you to incoming Chinese New Year Chair Samantha Connell, and co-Chair, Michelle Fang.
We have some wonderful things planned for next year, including our expanded class for preschoolers, Musical Mandarin.
We are introducing a Pen Pal program with Chinese students this summer...for info please email info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org (you must be a current or past student of the Chinese Language School of Connecticut's weekday, weekend, Before / After School Chinese or private tutoring programs to participate).
And, Daisy and our teachers have been developing our own Level 1 Beginner materials...as well as working with various interactive Chinese learning materials providers to create an engaging Chinese curriculum at all levels!
For info on registration for the school year 2009/2010, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or email us at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org.
Congrats to everyone at the Chinese Language School of Connecticut on another wonderful year.
And for those who may have missed our Year End Celebration on Sunday...
Congratulations to Cameron Yick and Alex Chou, who graduated this year, but will be back to assist our teachers and mentor our younger students. (Pictured: CLSC Principal Daisy Laone, Alex Chou, Cameron Yick, CLSC President Susan Serven)
Thank you to all our teachers and students who put on such a wonderful performance today, we're very proud of you!Thank you to outgoing Parents Committee Chair (for 2 years!), Amy Yu.
Thank you to outgoing VP Marketing (for 3 years!) Marie Howe.
Thank you to outgoing VP Development, Chinese New Year Chair (for 3 years!) Sue Lue.
Thank you to incoming Parents Committee Chair, Deborah Serianni.
Thank you to incoming Chinese New Year Chair Samantha Connell, and co-Chair, Michelle Fang.
We have some wonderful things planned for next year, including our expanded class for preschoolers, Musical Mandarin.
We are introducing a Pen Pal program with Chinese students this summer...for info please email info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org (you must be a current or past student of the Chinese Language School of Connecticut's weekday, weekend, Before / After School Chinese or private tutoring programs to participate).
And, Daisy and our teachers have been developing our own Level 1 Beginner materials...as well as working with various interactive Chinese learning materials providers to create an engaging Chinese curriculum at all levels!
For info on registration for the school year 2009/2010, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or email us at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Great article for those new to Chinese
Thanks to Wendy Lin for a wonderful article. I thought the clear explanations on how Chinese differs from English, especially in sentence structure, was great.
For more info on learning Chinese, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org.
Make Chinese Learning Fun, Easy, and Sustainable
by Wendy Lin
The Chinese language is like any other foreign language. It has an easy and a complex part. Chinese people have said, “Knowing yourself and your opponents well before the battle is the key to win.”
How Chinese is easier than other languages
1. Verbs do not have different tenses: e.g. Chinese people would say “I go to China last year.”, “I go to China next year.”
2. Nouns are neither singular nor plural: e.g. “one book”, “ten book” are both correct.
3. Genders do not exist orally as they would in English, French, or any other western language.
4. Characters remain unchanged. Because of this, one character could cover several English words. For example, the Chinese Zodiac only has one character to represent each of the twelve animals, but in English, there are several different translations for one animal. Therefore you might have seen several editions for the Chinese Zodiac signs.
5. Numbers, months, dates, and weekdays are easy to learn: You only need to learn the numbers from 1 through 10, and you will be able to count from 1 through 99, since the numbers between 11 and 99 are a combination of numbers 1 through 10. In addition, you only add an additional character “month” plus the numbers 1 to 12, and you will be able to name all 12 months of a year. It is the same for dates and weekdays; add the character “day” or “weekday” followed by a number.
6. The structure of questions and statements is the same but the question word is used:
a. The use of question word “嗎／ 吗 Ma”:
The question word “Ma” is used when the response “yes or no” is expected, and it is placed at the end of a statement. When it does, it will convert a statement into a question.
e.g. 今 天 是 五 月 十 日 今 天 是 五 月 十 日嗎
b. The use of question word “幾／ 几 ji”:
幾／ 几 is a question word for numbers. When it replaces all the numbers in a question, it converts the statement into a question.
e.g. 今 天 是 五 月 十 日 今 天 是 幾 月 幾 日？
c. By applying the formula, “Positive Word + Negative Word = Question Word”, students can flexibly conduct a dialogue. This avoids the learners having to deal with the complicated structure and makes the learning more flexible.
e.g. 是 不 是 ， 好 不 好 ， 有 沒 有 ， 大 不 大 ， 高 不 高 …
Chinese is not phonetic, as are all romance languages. The whole process of learning a new word takes about triple the effort as learning English. In order to make Chinese learning less frustrating and easy to adopt, all the listening, speaking, reading, and writing should be introduced step by step. It makes the learning objectives clearer as well.
The character, the basic unit of the Chinese language, is so much more different from the words of romance languages that make many people think that Chinese is very difficult to learn. In order to build up a good foundation and prevent repeated mistakes in writing characters, the stroke order should be carefully introduced. Moreover many characters share the same components. Once students are familiar with the strokes, it will help them write a new character that contains the same components without help. Counting the number of strokes will also help students to look up a character in a dictionary. Conventionally, the Chinese dictionary arranges the characters by the number of strokes in the character.
To prevent frustration and make the learning easier and more acceptable, the difficult parts especially should not be applied onto the beginners, instead teachers should emphasize on the easy aspects in the language.
The difficult aspects of learning Chinese other than writing characters:
Sentence structure is another challenge to a non-Chinese speaker. There might be several ways to express one situation, for example, “I have learned Chinese for two years” is the same as “I Chinese have learned for two years”, and “Chinese I have learned for two years”. Or, “What is your name?” in English could be “Your name is called what?” or “ You are called what name?”. In some cases, some words can be omitted and the meaning remains the same.
Measure words are another obstacle even to native speakers. For native speakers, measure words were introduced to children at a young age. Since sentence structure is not a major problem to them as it is to the second language learners, they are able to concentrate on distinguishing the different usages of different measure words. However, it is quite confusing to non-Chinese speaking learners.
Wendy Lin/Author of the book series "Practical Chinese" and the "Daily Chinese"
www.practicalchinese.com
practicalchinese@gmail.com
For more info on learning Chinese, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org.
Make Chinese Learning Fun, Easy, and Sustainable
by Wendy Lin
The Chinese language is like any other foreign language. It has an easy and a complex part. Chinese people have said, “Knowing yourself and your opponents well before the battle is the key to win.”
How Chinese is easier than other languages
1. Verbs do not have different tenses: e.g. Chinese people would say “I go to China last year.”, “I go to China next year.”
2. Nouns are neither singular nor plural: e.g. “one book”, “ten book” are both correct.
3. Genders do not exist orally as they would in English, French, or any other western language.
4. Characters remain unchanged. Because of this, one character could cover several English words. For example, the Chinese Zodiac only has one character to represent each of the twelve animals, but in English, there are several different translations for one animal. Therefore you might have seen several editions for the Chinese Zodiac signs.
5. Numbers, months, dates, and weekdays are easy to learn: You only need to learn the numbers from 1 through 10, and you will be able to count from 1 through 99, since the numbers between 11 and 99 are a combination of numbers 1 through 10. In addition, you only add an additional character “month” plus the numbers 1 to 12, and you will be able to name all 12 months of a year. It is the same for dates and weekdays; add the character “day” or “weekday” followed by a number.
6. The structure of questions and statements is the same but the question word is used:
a. The use of question word “嗎／ 吗 Ma”:
The question word “Ma” is used when the response “yes or no” is expected, and it is placed at the end of a statement. When it does, it will convert a statement into a question.
e.g. 今 天 是 五 月 十 日 今 天 是 五 月 十 日嗎
b. The use of question word “幾／ 几 ji”:
幾／ 几 is a question word for numbers. When it replaces all the numbers in a question, it converts the statement into a question.
e.g. 今 天 是 五 月 十 日 今 天 是 幾 月 幾 日？
c. By applying the formula, “Positive Word + Negative Word = Question Word”, students can flexibly conduct a dialogue. This avoids the learners having to deal with the complicated structure and makes the learning more flexible.
e.g. 是 不 是 ， 好 不 好 ， 有 沒 有 ， 大 不 大 ， 高 不 高 …
Chinese is not phonetic, as are all romance languages. The whole process of learning a new word takes about triple the effort as learning English. In order to make Chinese learning less frustrating and easy to adopt, all the listening, speaking, reading, and writing should be introduced step by step. It makes the learning objectives clearer as well.
The character, the basic unit of the Chinese language, is so much more different from the words of romance languages that make many people think that Chinese is very difficult to learn. In order to build up a good foundation and prevent repeated mistakes in writing characters, the stroke order should be carefully introduced. Moreover many characters share the same components. Once students are familiar with the strokes, it will help them write a new character that contains the same components without help. Counting the number of strokes will also help students to look up a character in a dictionary. Conventionally, the Chinese dictionary arranges the characters by the number of strokes in the character.
To prevent frustration and make the learning easier and more acceptable, the difficult parts especially should not be applied onto the beginners, instead teachers should emphasize on the easy aspects in the language.
The difficult aspects of learning Chinese other than writing characters:
Sentence structure is another challenge to a non-Chinese speaker. There might be several ways to express one situation, for example, “I have learned Chinese for two years” is the same as “I Chinese have learned for two years”, and “Chinese I have learned for two years”. Or, “What is your name?” in English could be “Your name is called what?” or “ You are called what name?”. In some cases, some words can be omitted and the meaning remains the same.
Measure words are another obstacle even to native speakers. For native speakers, measure words were introduced to children at a young age. Since sentence structure is not a major problem to them as it is to the second language learners, they are able to concentrate on distinguishing the different usages of different measure words. However, it is quite confusing to non-Chinese speaking learners.
Wendy Lin/Author of the book series "Practical Chinese" and the "Daily Chinese"
www.practicalchinese.com
practicalchinese@gmail.com
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