More schools in North Jersey dive into Chinese

With China about to become the world's leading economic power, public schools in North Jersey have begun adding Mandarin Chinese to their roster of foreign languages.

Come September, Fair Lawn and Northern Valley Regional will share more than $300,000 from a government grant to implement a Chinese language and cultural program over three years.

The Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) is part of the National Security Language Initiative developed by President Bush to dramatically increase the number of Americans learning languages considered "critical to U.S. security and the global economy."

Chinese is high on the list, along with Arabic, Russian, Hindi and Farsi. Mandarin is the dialect of Chinese spoken around Beijing and has become the official language of all of China.

District administrators in Fair Lawn say it only makes sense to begin teaching Chinese to children as early as the fifth grade. Studies have shown that character-based languages, such as Chinese, are harder to learn and, thus, should be introduced at a young age.

"There is already a great demand for people who can speak Chinese," said Jean Modig, world language supervisor in Fair Lawn. "Our students will certainly need to compete."

Pat Raupers, director of curriculum for Northern Valley Regional, agreed.
"Students who are interested in the study of business recognize China as an enormous trade partner with the U.S.," Raupers said. "It can help them to prepare for future careers in business."

The Northern Valley Regional district, which serves students from Closter, Demarest, Harrington Park, Haworth, Northvale, Norwood, Old Tappan and Rockleigh, applied for a FLAP grant after students expressed an overwhelming desire to study Mandarin.

At Ridgewood High School, where Mandarin was implemented nearly two decades ago to accommodate a growing Chinese population, students are taught authentically, said Joan Lipkowitz, the school's language supervisor.
"Kids have to be able to go to China and negotiate daily activities," Lipkowitz said.

During a recent Chinese 2 class at Ridgewood High School, students learned how to read street signs -- not an easy task, given that the signs contain characters in both colloquial and classical Chinese.

"If you only know colloquial Chinese, you will read the sign as 'Park here,' but if you understand classical and colloquial, you'll see that the sign really says, 'Do not park here,' " said teacher Louise Cheng.

Alecsa Follender, 16, said she decided to take Chinese last year because it seemed like a challenge. Now in her second year, she said the language becomes increasingly difficult. But she's determined to become fluent one day.
"It's hard to get used to because there are so many vocabulary words and it's all characters and opinion," she said. "And then you have to translate that into English."

Fair Lawn will begin instruction next fall in Mandarin for Grades 5, 6 and 7, with limited enrollment in Grades 6 and 7 based on an admission essay, a statement of parental support and a commitment to study the language throughout middle school, Modig said.

Eighth grade will be added to the program in September 2008. Future plans will include offering high school classes and Advanced Placement Chinese.
Modig, who visited China last summer as part of a special program, has since immersed herself in the culture. She has practiced the language with beginner workbooks sent by the Chinese government and brought in national consultants to work with the school's faculty.

Part of the fun component will be field trips to New York City's Chinatown and an overview of calligraphy, feng shui, tai chi and Chinese proverbs, she said.
"We want to make this a high-quality program that will help them in real life," said Modig.
By GIOVANNA FABIANO and SONI SANGHA
Staff Writers

Source: "http://www.northjersey.com"
Published: 2006/12/31