magazine - De La Salle Institute

Academics
Addition to Curriculum
Mandarin Chinese Offered at De La Salle
Mandarin Chinese Added to DLS Curriculum
“During the first class this semester, I asked students why they decided
to take the Mandarin class,” Liang said. “They gave a variety of
reasons, including a love of Chinese food! No matter what the reason,
they have a lot of courage for doing so. Believe it or not, Mandarin
Chinese is the most widely-spoken language in the world. Therefore,
learning to speak Mandarin allows someone to speak with millions of
people worldwide.
“In addition, having thousands of years of history, Chinese culture
is endlessly fascinating. Learning to speak Mandarin allows
someone to enjoy tourist attractions in the country in a richer, more
meaningful way. Most importantly, learning to speak Mandarin
allows someone a huge advantage in participating in the international
Chinese business market, which is the fastest growing in the world.
Whether your interests are language, history, architecture, music, or
cuisine, knowledge of Mandarin will enrich your understanding of
Chinese culture.
At the Lourdes Hall Campus for Young Women, there are seven
freshman students enrolled in Liang’s class, one of whom is Yerania
Venegas. Of the seven students, two are taking Mandarin as an
Honors class.
“I chose to take Mandarin Chinese because it’s an interesting language
and I thought it would be fantastic to learn something new,” Venegas
said. “I definitely do not regret choosing this class.
“Ms. Liang is great and she helps us a lot like when everybody is
having struggles at pronouncing the words or writing them.
“I enjoy learning this new culture and language. It’s awesome. I
really hope to gain and adjust to this new language. I want to be
able to speak it, write it, and read it properly. I am sure that all of my
classmates and I will adapt to this new language and sooner or later,
speak it very well.”
According to the website www.anthro.palomar.edu, the most
common language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. It
is estimated that 874,000,000 people speak Mandarin
Chinese with 16 countries having substantial numbers of
native speakers.
In an effort to provide its students the opportunity to speak and
comprehend Mandarin Chinese, as well as strengthen the world
language portion of De La Salle’s Language Arts Division, the
administration of the Institute added Mandarin Chinese to the
curriculum for the 2011-12 school year.
“Mandarin Chinese was a successful summer program for seventh
and eighth graders,” De La Salle Assistant Principal Nick Colletti
said. “And that experience encouraged us to think about adding the
class to our curriculum.”
De La Salle’s Mandarin class is taught by Simiao Liang, who brings
an impressive resume with her. Liang teaches Mandarin I at the
Institute Campus for Young Men in the morning and at the Lourdes
Hall Campus for Young Women in the afternoon.
Before her arrival in the United States, Liang taught English to
Chinese students in Beijing, China. Liang then came to the U.S. where
she completed her Masters in Education (M.Ed) program in TESOL
(Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at The University
of Georgia. While at Georgia, Liang taught first-level Mandarin at
the Athens Chinese School. There she worked collectively with
American-born Chinese students, who were from the ages of four to
seven. Liang then moved to Chicago, where she began her current
position of teaching Mandarin to students in pre-kindergarten
through second grade at St. Therese Catholic Chinese School, located
approximately two miles from De La Salle. In addition, Liang also
teaches Mandarin at the Chinese-American Service League (CASL)
located in Chinatown. The students there – who are not all Chinese –
range in age from four to 14.
“In both China and the U.S., my experience tutoring and teaching both
English and Chinese, along with my M.Ed. in TESOL, has made me
better aware of how native-Chinese speakers learn English, as well as
how native-English speakers learn Chinese,” Liang said. “This twoway
knowledge and experience gained throughout my time in the U.S.
is highly relevant to teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages.”
Liang uses a variety of methods and techniques to enable her
students to expand and strengthen their knowledge of Mandarin. The
students use workbooks and their tablet computers, along with other
tactics such as referring to each other by using their Chinese names
and even playing a game of Jeopardy in which all of the answers
are in Mandarin. In addition, at the beginning and the end of each
class, Liang and her students follow a greeting routine used only in
classrooms in China, which shows mutual respect.
Students also watch a number of Chinese videos and participate in
annual Chinese holidays, such as the Mid-Autumn Festival which
celebrates the harvest and dates back over 3,000 years to moon
worship in China’s Shang Dynasty. Liang also provides students the
opportunity to enjoy mooncakes, which are Chinese pastries offered
to friends and family while celebrating the festival.
“Mandarin is a language that bears little resemblance to English,”
Liang added. “Because it is not the easiest language to learn, it is
important that when students begin, it is fun and engaging. However,
there is also a lot of hard work. But as an old Chinese saying goes,
“Sharpening your ax won’t waste time cutting your firewood,” which
means proper preparation will increase the speed of the process.
“In each class, we spend most of our time practicing spoken
Chinese through dialogue. The first several classes involve teaching
students Pinyin (the Chinese phonetic system) and Chinese tones.
(In Mandarin, the same pronunciation spoken in different tones
has different meanings.) These two things form the foundation
for learning Mandarin. While the process proceeds at a relatively
slow pace, I have developed a range of lighter activities to maintain
enthusiasm in learning the language.”
Of the 18 freshman students at the Institute Campus for Young Men
enrolled in the Mandarin class, eight are taking it as an Honors class,
including Horace Nowell III, who said there were a variety of reasons
for his wanting to take Mandarin.
“I have traveled to Singapore a few times, and have noticed the
prominent Chinese-speaking culture there,” Nowell III said. “I have
also made a few friends who speak Mandarin in Singapore. I find
Mandarin to be a totally different language and format than Spanish,
which I took as a language in grade school.”
“I also find the Asian culture and history to be very interesting. What
I like about learning Mandarin is learning the many different Chinese
characters because I find them to be like an art form.”
“What I hope most to gain from enrolling in this class is the ability to
properly speak and understand a language that is spoken around the
world, therefore, allowing a whole new world of adventures, people,
and opportunities to unfold for me.”
Taking everything into consideration as for the future of Mandarin at
De La Salle, there will be a Mandarin II class offered in the 2012-13
school year.
“Many students are interested in the business world, and Mandarin
is one of the most useful languages for that field,” De La Salle Dean
of Language Arts Carrie Contreras said. “We have confidence in our
new instructor, and we hope the program continues to grow.”
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