Someday Marlboro High School sophomore Eden Lunde, 15, hopes to communicate with her friends in Mandarin Chinese. Eden, who only speaks English right now, has enrolled in the Freehold Regional High School District’s first year of Mandarin Chinese classes.
“I have a lot of friends who speak Mandarin and I go to a Mandarin Chinese church. I always attend the English services, but one day I would like to attend the Mandarin services. I want to make communication with my friends easier,” Eden said.
Eden’s reasons for wanting to learn Mandarin Chinese were shared among most of her classmates, about half of whom are of Asian descent.
Teacher James Huang said some of the Asian students in the class speak Cantonese, which is another Chinese dialect. He said those students enrolled in the class to learn grammar and how to write in Mandarin.
The FRHSD currently offers French, Italian, Latin, Russian and Spanish as foreign language courses. This year administrators implemented the Mandarin Chinese course in five of the district’s six high schools. Howell High School is not offering the language.
According to Norman Robertson, supervisor of the Classical and World Language Department, Marlboro High School has two sections of Mandarin I and one section of Mandarin II, which can be attributed to the fact that there is a large Asian population in the Marlboro community.
R
obertson and Jose Francis, a teacher
at Freehold Township High School, traveled to China over the summer through Hanban (The Office of Chinese Language Council International) to observe and to confer with teachers and public school administrators about effective methodologies and teaching strategies. Robertson and Francis made a presentation to the FRHSD Board of Education on Oct. 20.
According to Robertson, Hanban “supplies our schools with a plethora of reading materials, tapes, maps, dictionaries and other items which relate directly to the Chinese language and culture.”
Even with those resources available, Huang said the key to learning a language is for a person to immerse himself into the environment.
“Like any language, if you don’t hear it enough or practice it then it won’t have the same effect. The environment has a significant effect on learning a language. Chinese is tougher than other languages. It is not as popular as Spanish and French. With Chinese there is a different set of symbols and tone changes,” Huang explained.
In the Chinese culture there are six different dialects spoken. According to Huang, Mandarin is the more standardized dialect and it is the official national language of China.
Robertson said it is important for America “to address the needs and demands of a culturally diverse society. The role of China as a world power is becoming increasingly important. As the world is getting smaller and smaller, global communication is increasing.”
Freshman Stephanie Gorstein, 14, recognizes the importance of knowing another language in today’s world. She said she decided to take Mandarin Chinese because she plans to do business in China someday.” Mandarin is the biggest dialect used in China and Asia has a large manufacturing industry,” Stephanie said.
Freshman Christina Liung, 14, is Malaysian and Cantonese and said she decided to take the course so she can better communicate with her mother, who speaks Mandarin.
The course is taught with basal text which is employed in Mandarin courses, oral proficiency activities, cultural exercises, technology and student centered strategies as a means to enhance daily instruction.
According to Robertson, the district strives to employ the oral approach to language acquisition. A CD-ROM which contains listening comprehension and oral-aural guided practice accompanies the “Far East Chinese for Youth” series.
“Students have been introduced to the Pinyin writing approach as well as basic Chinese characters and script. Students gain an appreciation of the Chinese culture, myths and legends through authentic reading, games, competitions and group projects,” he said.
To make the language a real part of students’ lives, the district hopes to meet its goal of establishing a key pal communication system between American students learning Mandarin here and Chinese students currently studying English in China, according to Robertson.