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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