Chinese classes for school-age students offered
Twenty-four students attended the National Chinese Science Math and Arts Competition in Utah in February. The program, in partnership with four additional K-12 programs across the country, collaborates on events such as this. Students competed in a character writing bee, visual arts and performing arts.
Starting this spring, the East Central Ohio Educational Service Center will offer Chinese language classes to elementary-age children.
“Beginning an after-school Chinese program is a way to build excitement and enthusiasm for a language not widely offered in the local area school districts,” said Michele Carlisle, coordinator of distance education at the East Central Ohio Educational Service Center.
The center currently teaches Chinese during the school day to various schools across the state. “We employ five full-time Chinese instructors who deliver daily Chinese language instruction to classrooms in more than 11 partner high school and middle school buildings,” Carlisle said.
The new after-school program will offer younger students a foundation for continuing with Chinese classes as they progress through middle school and high school. “There are many studies that show language acquisition is much greater with younger learners,” Carlisle said. “Unfortunately our local schools do not offer language at the elementary level, and this is a way to help springboard this language learning.”
The class is a six-week program with a one-hour session each week from April 16 through May 21. The cost is $50 for the program, which is held at the Educational Service Center offices in New Philadelphia. There are currently no scholarships available.
The class is open to children in any location as long as they have transportation to the class site. It is open to those enrolled in kindergarten through fifth grade.
The focus of the class will be to speak and understand Mandarin Chinese. The language instruction will include introductions, basic greetings, classroom expressions, numbers and colors.
“We will introduce tones and tonal placement,” Carlisle said.
The tone of voice and whether it rises or falls can be crucial to the meaning of a Chinese word. Words that have the same spelling may have completely different meanings depending on the differing tones. One example is “shui jiao.” With the accents here, shuǐ jiǎo means dumpling. With these accents, shuì jiào means sleep. Without an understanding of tones, one might order sleep for lunch.
The class also will introduce simplified Chinese characters to accompany vocabulary. Pin Yin will be explored as well. Pin Yin is a system of spelling out Chinese phrases by the way they sound, using letters from the English alphabet.
There are benefits of language study for elementary students. “In a global economy I feel strongly that a second language is a critical skill,” Carlisle said. “It develops a more competitive and versatile employee but also further develops the brain of a second-language learner.”
Chinese is considered a “critical language,” one of a long list of languages considered critical to national security by the National Security Education Program.
Some of the youth participating in the in-class Chinese language instruction have been able to receive college credit for their knowledge.
“Many of our students enter college with at least three hours of Chinese college credit,” Carlisle said, “and test out of additional Chinese hours at university campuses.”
The class will meet one hour per week from 4-5 p.m. in the computer lab of the East Central Ohio Educational Service Center, 834 E. High Ave., New Philadelphia.
Register online at events.ecoesc.org/event_detail?EID=1300750.
For additional information and questions, call Carlisle at 330-308-9939 ext. 8220 or email michele.carlisle@ecoesc.org. There is a tentative enrollment deadline of April 6.