[net-gold] Chinese Language, Asia Society, Teaching Chinese in Your Classroom
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Net-Gold <Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Temple University Net-Gold Archive <net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Temple Gold Discussion Group <TEMPLE-GOLD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Net-Gold <net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Sean Grigsby <myarchives1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Educator Gold <Educator-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Educator Gold <Educator-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, K12AdminLIFE <K12AdminLIFE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Net-Platinum <net-platinum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, NetGold <netgold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Net-Gold @ Nabble" <ml-node+3172864-337556105@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, K-12ADMINLIFE <K12ADMIN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, MediaMentor <mediamentor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Digital Divide Diversity MLS <mls-digitaldivide@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:07:50 -0500 (EST)
.
Chinese Language, Asia Society,
Teaching Chinese in Your Classroom
I gave a short answer to the question
of Chinese languages. It was based on
my experiences in a 28 city trip to
China.. and I remember fumbling in
Chinese, because I did not know the
variations and the different languages.
Fortunately we have the Asia Society
which has initiatives that will help you
to learn some Chinese language and to
teach it in your class if you like.
( see below)
There were cited to me 57 groups of
diversity in China. Even while on a
cruise there were so many groups and
languages I had never heard of,
I had to think really hard about the
answer. But the Asia Foundation has
great answers and resources.
At a recent GAID meeting, a United
Nations gathering, I felt handicapped
because I was not fluent enough in
more than one language, well not to
present anyway. I had a Fulbright to
study in China and feel that that is
the ultimate experience for a teacher.
It was an incredible experience.
America is so young comparatively.
My husband's father was a missionary to
China, and my mother was very interested
in the Pearl Buck Foundation. Before she
died , she traveled to meet a penpai she
had written to over a 30 year period.
What I remember most from childhood was
that the Chinese did serve minorities in
their eating places. China is a wonderful
place to travel and learn about. Start
with the Asia Foundation.
Bonnie Bracey Sutton
ASIA SOCIETY
<http://www.asiasociety.org/
education-learning/
chinese-language-initiatives>
The Chinese Language and the Languages of China
Asia Society
<http://www.asiasociety.org/
education-learning/chinese-language-
initiatives/chinese-language-and-languages-china>
There are an incredible number of
stereotyped perceptions of China that
pervade Western culture, from the myth
of the model minority to that of
the dragon lady. Breaking these
stereotypes is crucial to opening
students to a more pluralistic worldview.
While some people may find China's true
diversity overwhelming or confusing,
it can certainly be a point of
fascination and engagement for students.
After destroying the myths that Chinese
people eat sushi, practice karate, and
make Godzilla movies (all misconceptions
my students have had over the years!),
it's time for us to take aim at the myth
of China's homogeneity.
Let's start with language. It goes
without saying that Chinese is a
unique language, and it has been the
stuff of legend for the Western
imagination since medieval times.
European poets and philosophers for
centuries longed for the exotic East of
Arabia, Persia, India, and China with
their inscrutable ways, incomprehensible
tongues, and indecipherable scripts.
The seventeenth century philologist and
failed decipherer of Egyptian texts
Athanasius Kircher saw Chinese as a
corrupted form of hieroglyphics and
thought the Chinese were a long lost
tribe of Israel. The philosopher
Gottfried Leibniz was fascinated by
Chinese characters and drew inspiration
from them in his search for the perfect
written language that could transmit
thoughts directly without the messy
intermediary of phonology. Then there is
the ongoing and lively debate on whether
Chinese characters function as ideograms,
pictograms, logograms, or some other
hyphenated gram or graph. Although it
shares some properties with both
cuneiform and hieroglyphics, the Chinese
language is singular among current world
scripts.
Advocates of the Chinese script often
point to its uniqueness and, at
the same time, its unifying function.
S. Robert Ramsey, whose book
The Languages of China is one of the most
engaging introductions to the subject,
quotes the pioneering Swedish sinologist
Bernhard Karlgren (1929): The Chinese
script is so wonderfully well adapted to
the linguistic condition of China that it
is indispensable; the day the Chinese
discard it they will surrender the very
foundation of their culture. After all,
speakers of all Chinese dialects can read
the same characters and communicate in
writing even when they struggle to
understand each other's speech.
In this sense, China is an incredibly
unique linguistic region, distinct from
most others in the world. What are often
called the dialects of China are in fact
a series of related languages, many
mutually unintelligible, that are as
distinct from each other as any of the
languages of Europe. The languages of
China are all called varieties of Chinese
because they are unified by a single
written script, a common culture, and a
shared political identity, while
politically fragmented Europe has a
multiplicity of distinct national
languages. As the old adage says,
a language is really just a dialect with
an army and a navy. India presents yet
another fascinating case--a country that
is politically unified but in which
different regional languages enjoy
official status. Latin America and the
Middle East are different cases still,
in which multiple countries use the same
language (Spanish or Arabic).
Perceptions of language or dialect differ
greatly and clearly have much to do with
national, ethnic, and cultural identities.
The varieties of Chinese can be confusing
for the visitor or foreign learner. Those
of us who have studied Mandarin in Beijing
or North China will often find ourselves
frustrated by the accents we hear in
Fuzhou, Guangzhou, or Taipei. Indeed,
the locals will often discover that the
foreigners speak more precise standard
Mandarin Chinese than they do. Mandarin
is, of course, a linguistic and cultural
construct that was designed as a means of
political cohesion and practical
communication. Like American English,
there is a standard language, but some of
its nuances and details can be difficult
to pin down.
Chinese people who have been raised with
multiple dialects--Mandarin and Cantonese,
for example--will often remark how similar
they are. For Mandarin speakers who have
not grown up with Cantonese, however,
there is no appreciable difference in
intelligibility between that southern
dialect of Chinese and Turkish or Amharic.
Beyond these two languages of China, there
are also the languages of China's 55 or so
minority groups, most of whose native
languages are completely unrelated to
Chinese. We can find China's major
languages of the country's ethnic
minorities on currency, for instance,
including Zhuang, Mongolian, Tibetan, and
Uighur, alongside text in Chinese and
pinyin, the official Romanization system.
The increasing connectivity of the world
means that we share increasingly more of
our interests, habits, and values with
people across the globe. At the same time,
it encourages growing diversity at the
local level. I am a great believer that we
should not just teach the Chinese language,
but also, to use Ramsey's phrasing, the
languages of China. This includes the
contemporary speech of young people in
Beijing as much as Cantonese or the
Classical language of the ancient texts.
We need to teach not just about China, but
about a multiplicity of Chinas that reflect
the diversity of the people, languages, and
cultures. And, by extension, we need to
teach about the many Americas, Japans,
Nigerias, and Brazils of the world.
After all, China is much more than just
pandas, dumplings, and lion dancing.
It is also hip-hop and heavy metal,
experimental art and music, Muslims and
mosques! Although even many Chinese may
be surprised to look at China through some
of these lenses, nothing is more exciting
to our students than to have their worldviews
altered and their eyes opened to a richer
world of new experiences.
Author: Chris Livaccari
Human Capital in US-China Relations
Asia Society
<http://www.asiasociety.org/
education-learning/
chinese-language-initiatives/
human-capital-us-china-relations>
Students in Shanghai listen to
U.S. President Barack Obama discuss
future bi-lateral relations.
Image:
TheWhiteHouse/flickr.com.
Start a Program
by Jeff Wang
NEW YORK, November 25, 2009 --
During his recent trip to China, U.S.
President Barack Obama announced at a
joint press conference with Chinese
President Hu Jintao, that the United
States would commit to dramatic
increase--100,000 over the next four
years--of Americans studying in China.
This is just one highlight for
advocates and practitioners of
international education in both China
and the United States.
The President's agenda--although filled
with issues of great importance
including cooperation on global climate
change, nuclear nonproliferation,
economic recovery--included a prominent
emphasis on people-to-people connections,
particularly among young people, as well
as the critical role that language
competency plays in these exchanges.
This emphasis is evident during a town
hall meeting in Shanghai with local
students. President Obama was introduced
by U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman,
a fluent Chinese speaker. Mr. Obama
greets the audience in the local
Shanghainese dialect, and then praises the
Ambassador's fluency in Chinese language
as a personification of the deep ties and
respect between our two nations. Mr. Obama
also not-entirely-jokingly acknowledges
that his Chinese "is not as good as
[the Chinese students] English.
The complete articles may be read at the URLs above.
Bonnie Bracey Sutton
Outreach GLEF.org
http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/bbracey
My communities
http://www.digitaldivide.net/community/summitforchildren
http://www.digitaldivide.net/community/gendergap
CyberEd Resources : ICT's and Education (owner)
Games and Education (owner)
Science without Frontiers STEM Initiatives K-12 (owner)
http://www.digitaldivide.net/blog/bbracey
Portal Work
http://edreform.net/
Technology Applications for learning in the portal
applications.edreform.net
Technology Applications for Learning
The Technology Applications for Learning Network
is a catalog of technology applications for learning.
http://www.digitaldivide.net/community/STEM
.
Other related posts:
- » [net-gold] Chinese Language, Asia Society, Teaching Chinese in Your Classroom - David P. Dillard
