Mandarin spoken here
Educators aim to launch language programs as early as preschool
Once a week, as classes draw to a close at the private Brookwood School in Manchester-by-the-Sea, a few pint-size pupils make their way to a classroom usually reserved for aspiring Picassos.
Their mission: 20 jumping jacks.
But the challenge for these children, a preschooler and a dozen elementary students, isn't the physical exercise. That's just a ploy. The real work is counting -- in the Mandarin dialect of Chinese.
"Yi, er, san . . . (one, two, three . . .)," the children shout in unison as they bounce up and down, arms flailing.
China's emergence as an economic powerhouse has inspired the teaching of Mandarin, the official language of the world's most populous country, in American schools -- and not just in cities with large numbers of Chinese residents, but in suburbs that are far less diverse.
For years, tutors in Malden and Newburyport have offered private lessons to children as young as 5, but Brookwood, which has students in prekindergarten through Grade 8, is believed to be the first school in the northern suburbs to offer classes in Mandarin. One is for youngsters through Grade 3, the other for children in grades 4 to 8. The weekly lessons, which were introduced last January and are open to other local students, are now among Brookwood's most popular after-school programs, outpacing demand for sewing and acting lessons.
Other schools in the region expect to soon develop similar programs, some more extensive than Brookwood's. A handful of schools are planning to incorporate Mandarin into their curriculum as an elective. While Spanish is still students' top foreign language choice, local educators note that Mandarin has fast become the most popular non-Western language.
The Governor's Academy, a private high school in Newbury's Byfield section, is planning to begin offering Mandarin next fall. Malden's public school district is hoping to do the same. And in Amesbury and Beverly, educators are scrambling to find grants that will support the cost of Mandarin classes.
The search is tedious. Funding is elusive.
The state Department of Education does not offer grants for any foreign language programs, services, or teachers. And while there are promising signs -- President Bush has identified Mandarin as a "critical language" and launched a $114 million national security grant initiative to provide funding for nontraditional language programs -- the money has yet to trickle down to local districts. Area educators said federal grants are difficult to obtain and typically only provide seed money for new programs, not ongoing support.
"For years, we have been incorporating the study of China, its history and culture, into our curriculum. For us, the next step is to introduce the language. But how are we going to do it? That's the question," said Nancy Kassabian, assistant superintendent for teacher quality and professional development in Malden, who oversees the district's foreign language programs. "Given the financial pressures we face, we're going to have to be creative and think outside the box."
Kassabian, who serves on the state Department of Education's Global Advisory Council, remains optimistic. She noted that an Advanced Placement course in Mandarin is expected to be introduced this spring in high schools across the country, and said she hopes the new program will fuel interest at the state level in funding Mandarin instruction.
Just last month , Kassabian pointed out, state Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll recognized the importance of "global education" and urged districts to teach students to work and think in at least one language other than their own.
His comments, made during "International Education Week," follow the Legislature's passage in July of a bill that calls for the state to support global education, in part by providing grants for foreign language programs like Mandarin and funding for student trips abroad.
However, state lawmakers didn't earmark any money for the measure, which was sponsored by state Representative Kay Kahn, a Newton Democrat.
"That's the next big challenge," said Kahn. "I think it's urgent now that we educate our kids in a more global sense, given the world they will inherit. They are going to have to compete on a global stage."
By the time today's preschoolers graduate from high school, it is expected that China's workforce will be six times greater than that of the United States.
"Knowing the Chinese language and culture is essential. It's the bridge to communication, the key to building solid relationships," said Paul Sidmore, who teaches Mandarin at Gordon College in Wenham and helped Brookwood find instructors for its after-school program.
"Already, there is a desperate need in China for English-speaking experts in every field imaginable, like software programmers who can help bring their computer experts up to speed, and that need is only going to grow."
The Virginia-based American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages estimates there are 30,000 to 50,000 US students studying Mandarin, up from 5,000 in 2000. Still, American students lag far behind their Asian counterparts: In China, some 240 million children are studying English.
Local educators say early exposure to Mandarin is essential if American students are to master the language. Mandarin takes nearly three times as long to learn as the European languages traditionally taught in US schools, such as French and Spanish, according to the Foreign Service Institute, which trains American diplomats for the State Department. It takes 1,300 hours to master Mandarin, but only 480 hours to achieve proficiency in French or Spanish.
The reason: Chinese is a complex, character-based language. And learning to speak a language that is based on characters, rather than an alphabet, is challenging. Children can't rely on phonics to help them tease out the correct way to pronounce a word. In Mandarin, mastering tone and pitch is crucial.
To be fluent in Chinese, one has to learn more than 200 "root" characters that evolved from a series of symbols representing such objects as the moon, water, sun, mountain, man, woman, and child. These basic characters are combined with one another to form more complex characters, each of which represents a specific word. In all, the language encompasses more than 50,000 characters.
Given the complexity of the language, some districts are eager to start teaching Mandarin at the elementary level. But teaching young children a foreign language before they can read and write in their native tongue is a perplexing challenge.
"We have a lot of experience teaching foreign languages in middle and high schools, but none with elementary schools," said Doug Guy, director of foreign language programs for the Beverly public schools. "With younger students, it may not involve reading and writing. It may be all oral work."
Schools that have successfully developed a curriculum and cobbled together the resources required to launch a Mandarin program often stumble over another hurdle: Finding a highly qualified teacher in the subject.
While several local colleges offer courses in Mandarin, including Gordon and Northern Essex Community College, only two colleges in the state -- the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Wellesley College -- offer courses that lead to teacher certification in Mandarin.
"There is much more demand than there are teachers, and certainly, this is going to become a far more pressing issue moving forward," said Kathy Ennis, executive director of Primary Source in Watertown, an educational organization that offers workshops and seminars for kindergarten to Grade 12 teachers who wish to better understand areas of the world.
Ennis noted that over the past five years, a growing number of districts have expressed interest in learning about China, and incorporating lessons on China into their curriculum. In 2001, teachers in 13 districts statewide attended Primary Source seminars about China. This year, 34 districts, including Malden, Danvers, and Swampscott, are participating in Primary Source professional development programs.
"It's become increasingly important for our students to study China's language and culture because of the economic connections between China and the US," Ennis said. "We're just beginning to realize that we know very little about China, and yet the country is one of our largest trading partners."
For many of the youngsters studying Mandarin at Brookwood, all the talk about global economics is like white noise. They're aware of the din, but it doesn't capture their interest. Most are still too young to manage a weekly allowance, never mind worrying about international trade agreements.
Their focus: Coloring, crooning, and calligraphy.
"The writing is the hardest part," said William Crate, 7, a Brookwood second-grader, as he tried to match the hues he's using to color a rainbow with their corresponding Chinese characters. "Chinese letters are not at all like English letters, but I like the class. My favorite part is learning new songs. I like singing them to my little sisters."
Brenda J. Buote may be reached at bbuote@globe.com. 