Guest post by Principal Kevin Lewis of Mandarin World

Mandarin World is a newly opened Chinese language school in Shanghai - Pudong. We are offering group classes, online classes and also one on one tutoring. We can also aide people in getting student visas if they wish to study for a longer period of time in our school.

Our brand new school has five classrooms, two language clinics, a lecture room and an activity room, that also doubles as a TV room. We also have a beautiful lounge for students to chat in, a computer room for students to do self study, as well as a quiet study room. We have an English language DVD and Book swap service for our students and also a growing library of books on learning Chinese, as well as about China in general. Follow the link for some complimentary Chinese Language Learning Resources.

 
The whole idea of Mandarin World is that we don’t only provide students with a chance to study in the classroom, but also plenty of resources to learn outside of the classroom. I hope that students who come to our school will want to stay after their classes to make use of our facilities and to ‘hang out’ with fellow students and staff.

 
I have been told that there are approximately 200 schools in Shanghai offering Chinese language however I believe we have a few strengths that help us stand out from the crowd.  

• Firstly thanks to our contacts with many local universities we can supply student visas.

• Secondly we are foreign run so that we can try to offer foreigner friendly classes for our students.

Also when you are new like us, quality is the main focus - we care about every student - we’d be foolish not to! After hearing about many students’ complaints in relation to unhappy language learning experiences in other schools and colleges, I’ve taken those complaints to heart and we have tried to do our best to provide the best Chinese language service that we believe our students will be happy with.

However more importantly if you are not happy with our school, work with us to make the learning experience work for you.

To learn more about our school visit our website at Mandarin World

Want to know more contact Mandarin World 

Are Australians too slow to understand others?

Quite a mixed bag of language related stories this week. All saying much the same thing. It seems that government is good at producing reports about learning languages and the media is good at reporting the same information in a slightly different way. 

"The pledge from Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in his Budget reply speech last month to lift the study of foreign languages dramatically, particularly Asian languages.

He said exposure to foreign languages should begin at preschool. And he committed to having at least 40 per cent of Australian Year 12 students taking a language other than English within a decade if he wins government."

Only 12% of Australian students study a language.  Australia Education is one of the worst in the world at teaching schoolchildren second languages. We are far worse than European or Asian countries.


There is a popular argument that our students must learn to speak and write English first before starting a foreign language. Research has found that second language learning can enhance skills in their first language.


Language teaching requires specialist teachers.  To achieve Mr Abbot's universities need to train a new generation of language teachers. Australia is not isolated from the rest of the world, we need to do more than talk about language learning.


Australians too slow to understand others

Right now Australia has approximately 6700 language teachers in secondary schools. A recent survey was intended to show if there were language teacher shortages. Questions have been asked in parliament about the current supply of language teachers, the past supply of language teachers and Tony Abbott's promise of language teaching in the future. 

Dilemmas of language teacher supply

Under a Coalition Government the following would happen;

"If elected, the Coalition says it would work "urgently'' with the states to make sure at least 40 per cent of Year 12 students take a language within a decade. The proportion doing so now is about 12 per cent; about 6 per cent study one of the four Asian languages."

 Our current Federal Government has recently done the following;

"Last week school education minister Peter Garrett announced funding of $870,000 for the Asia Education Foundation to help put into practice Asian literacy elements of the national curriculum."

Bernard Lane explains why Australia's tertiary institutes are falling behind with their foreign language policies.  Australia's Language Problem Video 

Highlights include;

• 60 or more reports of past years about language learning in Australian education.
• Policies keep chopping and changing
• Australian students do poorly in learning languages
• 12% Year 12 students are currently learning a language other than English
• Only 6% are currently learning an Asian priority language, Chinese Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and Indonesian
• Only 3% of year 12 students are learning Chinese Mandarin
• Of that 90% of those learning Chinese Mandarin are of a Chinese heritage background
• Mandarin hardly exists as a mainstream language in Australian education
• Mixed messages are being received by parents and students
• It is important to learn a language, however in schools language learning is not taken seriously.  This is confusing everyone.
• Language teachers are often running part-time language programs across different schools
• Streaming is a problem
• Students learning Chinese are often discouraged by competing with Chinese heritage speakers
• A profound cultural change is necessary to improve current language teaching

When will serious teaching of Asian languages in Australian schools happen?

Classical Chinese Story in which each syllable is pronounced "shi"

A story in which each syllable is pronounced "shi"

施氏食狮史

石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。

氏时时适市视狮。

十时，适十狮适市。

是时，适施氏适市。

氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。

氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。

石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。

石室拭，氏始试食是十狮。

食时，始识是十狮，实十石狮尸。

试释是事。

« Shī Shì shí shī shǐ »

Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.

Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.

Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.

Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.

Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.

Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.

Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.

Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.

Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī, shí shí shí shī shī.

Shì shì shì shì.

« Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den »

In a stone den was a poet Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten.

He often went to the market to look for lions.

At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.

At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market.

He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die.

He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den.

The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it.

After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions.

When he ate, he realized that these ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.

Try to explain this matter.

Listen to the story

Social Mandarin Excellent Website

Recently I found an interesting Chinese learning website.  Social Mandarin 

Social_汉语

The site's aims are;

Social Mandarin is a social bookmarking site that aims to collect and bring together the best Mandarin learning resources online. In doing so, it enables other learners to share the same resources with each other. An online Mandarin resource, can be anything from a music video to a word list. It is defined, by how you learned Mandarin from it. So as long you can let us in on how you learned something from it, you can post it here. So join in!

It certainly does all this and more. There are four main content sections, Beginner, Elementary,  Intermediate and Advanced.

Other divisions of the site include;

1. Speaking
2. Vocabulary
3. Learning Tools
4. Culture
5. Writing
6. Listening
7. Reading
8. Grammar
9. Pinyin
10. Characters
11. Music
12. Film
13. Art
14. Other
15. General

The site certainly includes every sort of content a Chinese learner could need. There seems to be something for everyone on Social Mandarin. 

Skritter + Wacom Tablet = Faster Hanzi Learning

Just over a month ago I bought two new Chinese learning resources. These are a subscription to Skritter and a Wacom Touch Tablet.

   += Faster Hanzi Learning

Things I like about learning with Skritter:

• Keeps me interested and motivated 
• Allows me to track progress and time spent learning 
• Makes learning Hanzi enjoyable 
• Allows me to focus on words I need or want to learn 
• Integrates with MDBG allows lookups and adding 
• Allows me to add new words from websites with one click 
• Helps me revise 
• Gives a sense of satisfaction and achievement 
• Has ready made sets of vocabulary for NPCR texts 
• Can work on computer or iPad 
• iPad App allows offline practice and syncs when connected Am able to use my Wacom tablet to write hanzi with a pen
• Plus many more reasons to use Skritter

The Wacom tablet allows me to write hanzi with a tablet pen. I feel that this to be better than writing with a mouse. I can also use the tablet to write hanzi in Evernote, Windows journal, Photoshop and other programmes that use ‘Ink’ input.


The only disadvantage the tablet is quite sensitive and I feel it makes my hanzi 不好看Bù hǎokàn (unattractive) Looking at my sample tablet written hanzi below I think you will agree. 

我的汉字不好看。Wǒ de hànzì bù hǎokàn. 

Still it gives me satisfaction to be able to use technology to learn and practice hanzi.


I am interested to know how others are using Skritter. It is has many features and I am not sure that I have found them or use them all yet. I know that Skritter is a very popular hanzi learning tool. I wonder how many people are using it?


It would be good to know if anyone else is using a tablet to hand write hanzi on computers.


Does anyone use iPads for hand writing hanzi? I have not been able to find a satisfactory App to do this properly.

Australian Funding for Asia Literacy - AEF $870,000

Australian Minister for School Education, Peter Garrett announced additional funding of $870,000 to support the work of the Asia Education Foundation.

The funding for the AEF includes:

The Leading 21st Century Schools: Engage with Asia project which will receive $500 000 to support principals and school leaders develop strategies and resources to support the implementation of the Australian Curriculum and encourage students to engage with Asia.

The School to School Partnerships with Business project which will receive $170 000 to help link businesses, students, teachers and school communities within Australia and internationally, building upon the success of the Asia Literacy Ambassadors project.

The Asia Literacy Curriculum Forums project of $200 000, which will deliver forums for teachers and school leaders to share strategies, identify resources and develop best practice to support the implementation of the cross-curriculum priority of Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia in the Australian Curriculum.

Excellent news indeed. I wonder if we shall see an increase in the uptake of Asian LOTE across Australian schools, colleges and universities? 

Source of information:  Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

 

What Africa can learn from China

Meanwhile in Africa...

“As one of three African countries attracting the most Chinese investment‚ South Africa is extremely privileged‚” he says. “Apart from the trading and investment potential of our relationship with China‚ we have the opportunity to learn first-hand from its success story.”

This article outlines how China had a small insular economy and has now risen to a new world power.  African nations can learn from how China boomed.

1. Chinese take long term views, setting goals and objectives that may take decades to achieve.
2. They do a lot of background work before making decisions.
3. Chinese take pragmatic but ideologically difficult decisions.

More here  What Africa can learn from China

Vietnam to hire more Taiwanese teachers as interest in Mandarin grows - CNA ENGLISH NEWS

Meanwhile in Vietnam....

Vietnam to hire more Taiwanese teachers as interest in Mandarin grows

Never too early to learn Chinese?

Meanwhile in Naselle, Washington...

"Instead of “Dick and Jane” and “See Spot Run,” the morning curriculum at Naselle for kindergartners next fall will be entirely in Mandarin Chinese ..."

"The district is considering implementation of dual-immersion education to kindergarten students whose parents choose to participate in the Mandarin Chinese program next year."

"If adopted by the school board, the program will be taught by a teacher from China and the students who voluntarily enroll will speak nothing but that language exclusively during their morning classes..."

I find "the sooner the better" trend being reported often across the globe. It is interesting that our opposition government in Oz has seized on this and made an election promise  Preschoolers to learn a second language .  While many places are implementing it is schools immediately.

In my humble opinion it is never too early or too late to learn Chinese Mandarin.

Never too early to learn Chinese?

Unemployed American Airline Workers Should Learn Chinese

This is bound to cause some controversy with airline workers in America. This is a controversial idea from an article in Forbes.

"Unemployed American Airline Workers Should Learn Chinese"

"To the hundreds of young and unattached American Airlines workers threatened with lay offs: consider taking some classes in basic Mandarin Chinese."


Unemployed American Airline Workers Should Learn Chinese 

As I prepare for my looming CHIN201 exam...

Dropbox

As I prepare for my looming CHIN201 exam I am using every moment of my time to prepare. Something that is helping me a great deal is a free app called Dropbox. This is helping me automatically sync my flashcards, study notes, books, audio, video and other Chinese resources. It is able to sync between my home and work. It is also syncing all my files between my computer, iPod and iPad. If you sign up and install Dropbox you have 2GB of free online storage. So as long as I have placed things in my Dropbox folder I have access to my study material. I think this has helped me a great deal as I have no excuse not to study. 

Have a look at Dropbox.

我每天使用Dropbox的。

Wǒ měi tiān shǐyòng Dropbox de.

Try Dropbox

Dropbox

新实用汉语课本 New Practical Chinese Reader 3

I have just started a new text book 新实用汉语课本 New Practical Chinese Reader 3. This is a sort of milestone in my learning. I think this is the last in the series that my University uses. Having started learning the first lesson there doesn't seem to be the sudden rise in difficulty that I found between the first and second text. Perhaps I have just become used to the methodology in the texts.



New Practical Chinese Reader: Textbook Vol.3

I really have only one crtiticism of these series of text books. I think that sometimes the books are not very practical. Vocabulary and conversations in the set text about Beijing opera, Shaoxing opera and classical novels I personally do not find very practical. I suppose that last sentence makes me sound like a Philistine, however I do not think I will have many opportunities to use 红楼梦 Dream of the Red Chamber (first completed edition 1791) by Cao Xueqin, one of the four great novels. Despite this the text is mostly practical and challenging enough to make learning Chinese interesting.

Why Languages Can Make Us Smarter, Safer, and Better Looking - Global Learning - Education Week

Some important issues are discussed in the Why Languages Can Make Us Smarter, Safer, and Better Looking  from Global Learning blog.

There are two basic arguments for second language learning;


One; learning a language is good for national security and economic competitiveness (this argument is a good one for politicians and business leaders)

"this can make our nation stronger"

Two; learning a language  is good for cognitive and cultural benefits (good for those in the arts and education business and parents)

"this can make my kid smarter"

Both arguments have received media attention in the USA. There seems to be much recent research about learning the language in the early years of school (the earlier the better). It is believed that starting language learning in middle school and high school is too late and not so beneficial. 

Read more details here;  Why Languages Can Make Us Smarter, Safer, and Better Looking 

Language lessons languish in Aussie schools

An Australian Broadcasting Corporation report about the current state and decline in    Asian languages in Australian schools. It highlights our former Prime Ministers goal for Asian language learning and makes comparisons to the current apathy and lack of interest in language.
 
I really wonder how much longer schools in Australia are going to ignore Asian languages. The report makes some very astute observations; lack of investment in Asian languages, now more students study Latin than Chinese, our nation is stubbornly monolingual, SE Asian history was not is is not taught in schools, education departments are unable to stream Chinese students into appropriate classes, there is a growth in private schools teaching Mandarin, Australians remain disinterested in our Asian neighbours.

We seem to be going down the very same path as schools in England.  There schools are seeing rapid declines in French and German Lack of languages in schools concerns unis

A very brief report that says it all. Watch the report or read the transcript here
Language lessons languish in Aussie schools

Study More Chinese

Visit Study More Chinese

Deer Valley schools embrace Mandarin Chinese instruction

Deer Valley Mandarin Chinese Project

"The students spend only half of their school day speaking English and are the driving force behind Arizona's first-ever partial immersion program for Mandarin in a public school."

Deer Valley schools embrace Mandarin Chinese instruction

Deer Valley Mandarin Chinese Project

Get aboard Mandarin bandwagon | Noosa News | Local News in Noosa | Noosa News

Some local news. Getting close to my part of the world.

Get aboard Mandarin bandwagon | Noosa News | Local News in Noosa | Noosa News

Too monolingual for our own good | Fully (sic)

An article about Australian Language Learning

Too monolingual for our own good | Fully (sic)

What is the best way to prepare for my Chinese course in listening & speaking? - Study More Chinese

Answers can be found here.

What is the best way to prepare for my Chinese course in listening and speaking? - Study More Chinese

After reading this I am depressed

After reading this I am depressed --> Record low as students reject HSC languages . Nearly every story or article I read about language learning from an Australian newspaper, tells me that language learning is in decline. This is depressing news indeed for language teachers. The message is that language learning and teaching is not valued. At the same time I keep reading that places Africa, England and America are starting up and actively promoting Chinese language learning in schools. I find it disturbing that Australian schools are so slow to encourage  and promote learning Chinese in schools, colleges and universities. Below is a comment that I think typifies and sums up Australian attitudes to language learning


"Chinese is way too difficult for Australians, our lovable bogan population may breed well but their children struggle at school as it is."

Similar comments to be found in response to  Mandarin in, koala out in bid for Chinese dollar