Learning their ABCs in Mandarin Chinese
March 6, 2009
By Chantelle Lusebrink
Learning one language is hard enough, but learning a language without letters seems nearly impossible. Students at Newcastle Elementary School, though, aren’t letting Mandarin Chinese scare them away.
Stephen Hei, a third-grader, colors in Chinese characters that symbolize the colors he is using in his Chinese Mandarin class at Newcastle Elementary School. In the background Amelia Hei, a first-grader, class teacher Art Lee and kindergartner Jonathan Hei do the same. By Chantelle Lusebrink
“I’m not Chinese in any way, but I wanted to learn how to speak a language, because it’s cool,” said Steffan Ortega, 10. “I also wanted to learn how to make cool characters.”
The program started three years ago to incorporate foreign language into children’s education at an early age, said founder Kimberly Eickerman.
“It is really important to me that my children learn to speak a second language, because most of the kids they will be up against later know a second language,” Eickerman said.
“The Chinese language is the most common language on earth,” said Ethan Le, 9. “It is very good to learn for business later.”
After months of research, Eickerman found Seattle Languages International, a language institute, which has a database of teachers who come out and teach two courses every Wednesday after school. The teachers are native speakers and have teaching certificates. Families pay $195 for a 17-week session.
“For me, it is a cultural thing,” said Michele Jarvis, a parent coordinator and founder, adding that Mandarin is her parents’ native language.
Jarvis said she regrets not learning the language when she was younger, but during that time, the only option was learning at a Chinese school on Saturdays.
“It is different here,” she said. “It’s after school and they are with their friends. It makes learning more fun. Whereas me, I was forced, and I didn’t like it and didn’t learn it.”
There are two types of classes — intermediate and advanced.
Any student can join, whether they are familiar with the language or not, Jarvis said.
Students in the intermediate group work with teacher Art Lee to memorize characters, learn the meaning of characters and the pronunciation of them. Students were learning colors in a recent session.
“Lon sé means blue,” said Amelia Hei, a first-grader. “It’s fun, but we are learning Chinese because my mom signed us up. I think she said we are going to China soon.”
Amelia and her two brothers, Stephen and Jonathan, are in the class together.
The more advanced class works on pronunciation, writing and construction of simple phrases.
“It’s neat to learn all the different names and characters that go into simple signs,” said Bradley Jarvis, 10.
While students won’t gain full fluency in the language, they certainly have a head start, Lee said.
“It’s about making them feel interested in learning the language than about learning to speak it fluently,” he said. “Hopefully, what they learn here will make them want to take the language again in high school or college.”
Aside from basic grammatical foundations, students also learn about Chinese culture and history through games and songs.
“If we’re good, then he brings in stuff or lets us play the number game called heart attack,” said Stephen, a third-grader.
In the advanced class, students spent an entire day celebrating Chinese New Year with their teacher, Irene Yang, who brought in games, activities, snacks and crafts.
Most were interested in a chopstick racing game and learning to write their names with Chinese characters.
“I like learning how to write the characters,” said Lauryn Hepp, 11. “If I ever want to travel, the more I learn to speak Chinese, the better chance I have to travel there.”
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