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More than 1 billion people count Mandarin1 as their native language. These sheer numerical dominance plus the fact that China has the world's fastest growing economy has made Mandarin Chinese attractive as a foreign language for more American students. Taylor Sylar reports from Oakland.
"e luo si…e luo si ren." At Pitmon high school in the Oakland Hills, there're 14 students in this 1st year mandarin class,a mixture of Asian, White, African-American and Indian. Freshman2 SW is half Mongolian and half Russian. He says it wasn't exactly his idea to take on this challenge.
SW: My parents, it was my parents' idea. We just discussed about it. I still want to take Spanish but my parents said that China had a brighter future.
That brighter future lit up right now by China's explosive economy is luring3 some 24,000 public school students to mandarin classes.
That's on top of the 150,000 students enrolled4 in private Chinese programs. Those are tiny numbers compared with the four million students studying Spanish in this country but mandarin's appeal is growing.
Both because of economic prospects5 and because of an expanding Chinese immigrant population here. Ninth grader Nicole Zeadow was already fluent in Cantonese but her parents, both from Hong Kong, want her to learn mandarin, China's official language. But Zeadow says she has her own motivation for wanting to learn the language." If my mum did want me to know something she would speak it in mandarin. So I would understand. So I would like…Ah, I need to take mandarin, I got to understand. So it was like both our decisions to take it." Zeadow says she plans to continue studying mandarin in college. She'll have lots of accompany there. Studies show that the number of students taking Chinese in college increased 20% between 1998 and 2002. That growing demand had the college board survey high schools to determine the interest in advance placement exams for mandarin. The response was 10 times what the board had expected. So as up to 2007 the college board will begin offering its mandarin AP exams which is almost certain to spark even more interest as students clamor for that early college credit and therein lies a big challenge.
The biggest bottleneck6 given that we know this growing interest among students and schools in offering it, is the lack of certified7 teachers.
Vivian Stewart is vice8 president of the Asian society, a group dedicated9 to increasing communication and understanding of Asia.
We have many speakers of Chinese in this country, both from heritage background and those who have taken it as undergraduates. But they are not preparing to be teachers because there hasn't been a market for teachers.
At least not until recently. Now, demand is strong enough that specialists are considering whether mandarin teachers need a fast track credential process. But even with teachers, getting a Chinese language program off the ground at a high school is difficult.
It can be expensive and slow to grow as the language has the reputation of being very difficult to learn. First, there're the artful and intricate Chinese characters to master , then students have the daunting10 task of learning to pronounce mandarin where 1 word can have 4 meanings depending on which of four tones is used.
Nineth grader Shain Scolf offers this demonstration11.
From ma, you use the 1st tone ma, it ends up being mother. But if you use the 2nd tone, which is i can't like up and down ma, it ends up being horse. So it always depends on what you're trying to say.
Well, there may be tones to perfect in mandarin, there're no tenses or conjugations unlike the Romance languages. Mandarin enthusiasts12 say that once the fear factor is overcome, the language is actually not too hard to learn. For NPR news, I'm Terry
"e luo si…e luo si ren." At Pitmon high school in the Oakland Hills, there're 14 students in this 1st year mandarin class,a mixture of Asian, White, African-American and Indian. Freshman2 SW is half Mongolian and half Russian. He says it wasn't exactly his idea to take on this challenge.
SW: My parents, it was my parents' idea. We just discussed about it. I still want to take Spanish but my parents said that China had a brighter future.
That brighter future lit up right now by China's explosive economy is luring3 some 24,000 public school students to mandarin classes.
That's on top of the 150,000 students enrolled4 in private Chinese programs. Those are tiny numbers compared with the four million students studying Spanish in this country but mandarin's appeal is growing.
Both because of economic prospects5 and because of an expanding Chinese immigrant population here. Ninth grader Nicole Zeadow was already fluent in Cantonese but her parents, both from Hong Kong, want her to learn mandarin, China's official language. But Zeadow says she has her own motivation for wanting to learn the language." If my mum did want me to know something she would speak it in mandarin. So I would understand. So I would like…Ah, I need to take mandarin, I got to understand. So it was like both our decisions to take it." Zeadow says she plans to continue studying mandarin in college. She'll have lots of accompany there. Studies show that the number of students taking Chinese in college increased 20% between 1998 and 2002. That growing demand had the college board survey high schools to determine the interest in advance placement exams for mandarin. The response was 10 times what the board had expected. So as up to 2007 the college board will begin offering its mandarin AP exams which is almost certain to spark even more interest as students clamor for that early college credit and therein lies a big challenge.
The biggest bottleneck6 given that we know this growing interest among students and schools in offering it, is the lack of certified7 teachers.
Vivian Stewart is vice8 president of the Asian society, a group dedicated9 to increasing communication and understanding of Asia.
We have many speakers of Chinese in this country, both from heritage background and those who have taken it as undergraduates. But they are not preparing to be teachers because there hasn't been a market for teachers.
At least not until recently. Now, demand is strong enough that specialists are considering whether mandarin teachers need a fast track credential process. But even with teachers, getting a Chinese language program off the ground at a high school is difficult.
It can be expensive and slow to grow as the language has the reputation of being very difficult to learn. First, there're the artful and intricate Chinese characters to master , then students have the daunting10 task of learning to pronounce mandarin where 1 word can have 4 meanings depending on which of four tones is used.
Nineth grader Shain Scolf offers this demonstration11.
From ma, you use the 1st tone ma, it ends up being mother. But if you use the 2nd tone, which is i can't like up and down ma, it ends up being horse. So it always depends on what you're trying to say.
Well, there may be tones to perfect in mandarin, there're no tenses or conjugations unlike the Romance languages. Mandarin enthusiasts12 say that once the fear factor is overcome, the language is actually not too hard to learn. For NPR news, I'm Terry
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1
Mandarin
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| n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的 | |
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2
freshman
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| n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女) | |
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3
luring
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的现在分词形式） | |
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4
enrolled
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| adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起 | |
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5
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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6
bottleneck
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| n.瓶颈口，交通易阻的狭口；妨生产流程的一环 | |
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7
certified
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| a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的 | |
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8
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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9
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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10
daunting
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| adj.使人畏缩的 | |
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11
demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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12
enthusiasts
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| n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 ) | |
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