Students of all ages in the Los Angeles Unified School District may have the opportunity to learn about the Mandarin Chinese language and culture if a new program is adopted.
The district has already begun expanding the Mandarin program with the hope of providing students with the opportunity to better prepare themselves for a world in which China will be a strong economic, political and linguistic presence, said Harry Haskell, director of the world languages and cultures program in LAUSD.
“We have a lot of Spanish and French, but Mandarin is an extremely important language now because of China being such a strong presence in the global marketplace,” Haskell said.
Hongyin Tao, a UCLA professor of Chinese language and linguistics, said he believes the program will address the needs of many Chinese-American heritage speakers, who in the past could often only take Mandarin Chinese language classes in community schools.
In addition, he felt it could benefit non-Asian students because of China’s economic power and political influence.
There are currently about 800 students enrolled in the new Mandarin programs, said Stewart Kwoh, an Asian-American studies professor at UCLA and vice chair of the Committee of 100, an organization that promotes the teaching of Mandarin in public schools.
If the Board of Education adopts the plan later this year, Kwoh said faculty at UCLA, Cal State Los Angeles and Cal State Long Beach will continue working with LAUSD and the Committee of 100 to gradually expand the program.
By 2020, every high school and middle school and 100 elementary schools in the district would have a Mandarin program under the proposal.
Since the majority of students in LAUSD are not Asian American, the program aims to provide non-Asian students with the opportunity to learn Mandarin Chinese, Kwoh said.
“It’s an ambitious program,” he added. “It will open up career opportunities and improve educational prospects.”
Receiving four guest teachers from China helped the program develop this year, Haskell said.
“We hope to be recruiting teachers as we expand,” he added.
Overall, the program seems to be going over well, Haskell said.
“One parent (at an elementary school) came up to me and volunteered how much she liked the program,” he added. “She was totally satisfied and overjoyed with her son’s exposure to Mandarin.”
It has been more challenging in the secondary schools than in the elementary schools because some of the children did not immediately understand the importance of Mandarin and this program, Haskell said. Some said that because many of their neighbors were Spanish or Korean, they thought other languages were more important.
But, Haskell added, as students get a better understanding of the program, they see how it benefits their cultural perspectives and careers.
“There is no substitute for the rush you get when you can say something in two different ways and can experience two visions of the world,” he said.
Several UCLA students who have tutored in the Los Angeles Unified School District felt the program would be valuable.
“Having something like a Mandarin program is beneficial because it’s helping students explore a new culture and learning a new language,” said Cameron Feng, a second-year undeclared student and a tutor with Higher Opportunity Program for Education, affiliated with the Vietnamese Student Union.
Natalia Garcia, the director of Arts and Crafts and Education in Amigos de UCLA, said she thinks it’s always good for students to be exposed to different languages and cultures, whichever ones they may be.
She added that she hopes to see similar programs in the future.
“Maybe it’s a good start to something that could encompass more cultures and languages,” Garcia said.