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Make way for Mandarin

Yesterday I had a chance to pull up a seat at a level one Chinese class in our Upper School. What a gift these students are receiving with master teaching and only five students in an interactive classroom environment. Within minutes it became clear that the vast majority of the experience would take place in Chinese. Students were asked to play card games, and collaborate together to respond to different kinds of grammatical construction.

At one point, I made the mistake of asking how everyone learned to write so many characters. Given my own faults, I wondered how scary it would be to write Chinese characters with sloppy handwriting. Without asking, I was suddenly being thrust in front of the class to be taught how to write characters by one of our students. Having created something that I was told was legitimate; I am now a true believer that anyone can learn how to write Chinese.

One myth that hovers around Chinese instruction is that it is just way too hard. In fact, I think this is a major reason our enrollment levels are still fairly small in the Upper School (larger numbers are making their way up through the Middle School). I am here to tell you that Mandarin at Berwick is fun. Really. People are playing games, taking trips to Chinatown, and laughing as they try to create inflections in their vocal tones that are entirely foreign. All the while, I believe these students are learning a marketable skill that might open some unexpected opportunities for them in the future.

       
I hope you might get a chance to visit one of these classes and have a go at “Go Fish” in Mandarin. You might be lucky enough to get the fly swatter for a day. However wacky the experience might strike you, there is one thing I know for sure: you will certainly learn something.

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