Studying Mandarin is “IN”

As I was walking home from the Salem Athenaeum on Saturday after my Chinese class, a couple of neighbors greeted me.  Commenting on my Mandarin Chinese teaching, one mother of a child who is taking my Chinese class said, “Your timing is perfect, and I am glad she (her daughter) is interested in learning it.”   Another woman who is a professor at Harvard Extension School said, “At Harvard now, Mandarin Chinese is the most popular language.”

In the last couple of weeks, my husband and I have been visiting several prep schools.  All of them offer Mandarin in their world language program.  To my surprise, one school even encourages their freshman students to take Mandarin instead of French.

I have this sense that Mandarin is “IN” now, and am very happy that I can be of service to those who want to study it.  This is further confirmed by today's Associated Press’s report on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s visit to Beijing: 

Geithner planned a speech Monday at Peking University assessing the global economy and U.S.-China relations. He spent two summers at the university as a college student learning Mandarin Chinese.

At a briefing previewing the trip for Asian journalists, Geithner referenced those ties, saying he had taught Chinese while in college and had a "long personal interest" in the country. But he insisted that while he had worked very hard at his Chinese language studies, he was not proficient.

“I cannot actually speak Chinese with competence,” he said.  “I did study though for a long time, very hard.  I practiced my characters very carefully.”

To read the full article, go to http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/05/31/geithner_calls_for_closer_economic_ties_with_china/

I agree:  to be competent with Chinese, one needs to study long and hard and must practice the characters very carefully.  However, at Panda Land we encourage you start learning with your own interests, your own objectives, and at your own pace.

 

Teaching and Learning Chinese in America

On Saturday May 23, I went to the Association of Chinese Schools Annual Conference in Burlington MA thinking that I would get some information on teaching Chinese. I walked into the Marriott hotel and straight to the registration desk.   Just after I filled in the form, I started to realize that this was an association of people from Taiwan.  I am from Beijing, People's Republic of China not Taiwan,  Republic of China.  I do know there are two different Chinese school systems  in America:  one is organized by and for people from Taiwan, the other  mainland China (please allow me to use this term to make the point). All I was thinking before coming was to learn about teaching Chinese in America, but didn't think about which association the conference was for.  Seeing I was a bit puzzled, the lady at the registration desk encouraged me to join the association and said there was a lot of communication between the two associations in recent years.   I signed in and paid the membership fee. 

Many of my friends are involved with Chinese schools around the country, but they are all with the mainland China association.  I started walking around the place and first found no one I knew and felt out of place.   Should I join this association?  I started to doubt my quick decision. Then I spotted a familiar face at an exhibit table – a Mandarin Chinese teacher at a local private high school.   I went to say Hi to her.  She was happy to see me and showed me the books and CDs she uses to teach Chinese.  She explained the challenges of teaching Chinese to Americans and her approach to teach Chinese to American high school students. 

After talking to her, I felt better.  Although most people here were from Taiwan, they teach Mandarin Chinese just like I do in America.  Although people in Taiwan study and use the traditional-character version of Chinese, we study and use the simplified version of Chinese and the Pinyin system.  Now, many Mandarin teachers from Taiwan teach simplified Chinese and Pinyin in America.  And they have a lot of experience.

Knowing I am from Beijing, the Chinese teacher pointed to the table next to her.  I went to introduce myself to the woman and man at the table.  It turned out to be from mainland China.  The woman is a director of the Confucius Institute at UMass Boston, and the man is with www.iMandarinPod.com – a website to promote teaching and learning Chinese.  He even went to the same University I went to in Beijing, Tsinghua University, one of the most prestigious Universities in the country.  After chatting with them, I felt so good.  Okay, after all, I didn't come to a “wrong place” or a “wrong association”.  We are all Chinese and teaching Chinese language and culture in America.

With my doubt gone from my mind, I was able to enjoy the conference.  I looked at every exhibit table and looked at many books and CDs.  A woman from Flushing New York showed me her way of using computers to teach Chinese and encouraged me to do so since I am a software engineer by trade.  I learned a lot, and most of all I got a lot of inspiration from the conference.

New Chinese Class for Adults

Want to broaden your personal or business horizons while learning Chinese language and exploring its culture and history?  Want to do this together with like-minded people with similar goals?  Panda Land and The Salem Athenaeum are offering a new Chinese class for adults.

My name is Judy Wang Bedell and I was born, raised, and educated in Beijing, China. I have been an instructor in Chinese and cultural enrichment since 2004; I want to help people make connections with my native country.  My educational background was in Computer Science and Engineering (B.E. from Tsinghua University, Beijing; M.S. from University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.)  I was a software engineer for twenty-two years. With my husband and children I lived in Paris for a year and a half and returned to Salem in the summer of 2008.

In January 2009, I started Panda Land, a new endeavor to teach Mandarin Chinese to local residents.  In my first newsletter, I expressed my thoughts behind Panda Land:

While my family and I were living, working, and studying in Paris and travelling around France and Europe, I came to realize that the world has changed.  In Paris, I saw many Chinese people – tourists taking photos of the Eiffel Tower, local residents running Traiteurs Asiatiques (Chinese take-out restaurants) next to sidewalk cafés, business people meeting on the Champs-Élysées. During our travels I saw Chinese flags flying from hotels in Rome, and Chinese visitors in Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and Spain. I was surprised and glad to see that China has arrived in the world and the world has embraced its people and culture.

Now that I am back home in Salem, a city famous for its own history with China, I would like to share Chinese language and culture in our neighborhood. If you want to learn Chinese yourself, or cultivate the Chinese heritage of your children, or simply raise them as tomorrow’s citizens of the world, I am at your service.

Since then, Panda Land has three small classes for 12 children and teenagers in Salem and Marblehead, as well as a private tutoring for one adult.  As word has spread and demand has grown, we are starting a new class for adults at The Salem Athenaeum. 

Through this class, I want to foster knowledge of China through discussion and informal instruction in conversational Mandarin at Beginner and Advanced-Beginner levels.  A textbook will be used but the students will set the pace.  Each class will be limited to ten adults.  Payment will be on a per-session basis.  Class schedule and cost will be determined after preliminary enrollment. 

If you are interested, please come to our introductory meeting.

Free Introductory Information Meeting

Time:  Saturday, May 30 at 10 AM or Thursday, May 28 at 7 PM

Place:  The Salem Athenaeum, 337 Essex Street, downtown Salem.

Contact: Judy Wang Bedell, (978)-998-9317, judy.bedell@gmail.com

             The Salem Athenaeum, (978)-744-2540, www.salemathenaeum.net

 

Mama, I Love You! 妈妈, 我爱你!

Since this coming Sunday is Mother’s Day, today I had young girls in my class do drawings to express their love for their mothers in Chinese.  One girl drew a flower bouquet with a smiling face in the center under the bright sun with a caption:  妈妈, 我爱你!  Another drew an airship flying across the sky under the rainbow with a sign:  妈妈, 我爱你!    As one girl was drawing her picture she said, “My mother will cry when she sees this.”  At the end of the class I asked a girl to say to her mom:  妈妈, 我爱你!  And the mother replied with a big smile: “我爱你!  Those are the first words I said to you when I first saw you.”  I was deeply moved---the mother had learned some Chinese before she went to China to receive her daughter.

Since I have started teaching Chinese, I have come to know several American mothers with daughters from China.  I have been amazed by the bond and love between them.  The mothers want their daughters to learn Chinese and cultivate their Chinese heritage, while the girls are eager to learn Chinese.  These girls know that their mothers love them very much and are very happy.

I feel so lucky that I have the privilege to help these mothers teach their daughters Chinese language and culture. To these mothers:  I wish you a Happy Mother’s Day!