

Some Georgia Schools Make Mandarin Mandatory - vibrunazo
http://www.npr.org/2012/09/08/160028396/looking-to-future-ga-schools-require-mandarin

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learc83
I took some Mandarin in college, my younger brother is a linguist, and my
_much_ younger 8 year old sister has been in a Spanish immersion program since
she was 5 (in a Georgia public school). I completely support more language
education in public schools.

However, this superintendent really seems stuck on this "China as the future
of the world" idea. It seems a bit short sighted to base policies solely on
extrapolated trends.

If this were 1995, he'd be insisting that student's learn Japanese or they'd
be suffering in a future economy dominated by Japan.

From personal experience, the majority of students just aren't going to get as
much use from Mandarin as they would from Spanish. Furthermore, Mandarin is
_much_ harder for native English speakers to learn than Spanish--It takes much
more instruction and practice to get to an equivalent level of competence.

~~~
grose
I agree 100%. I've had lots of foreign language learning experience. I love
studying languages and I think that kids should have as much opportunity to do
so as possible.

I have strong doubts that Chinese will ever become the lingua franca of
business. It has language features that make it difficult for us Westerners to
learn (mainly, tones that carry semantic meaning)... I think that Chinese
people will be more motivated to learn English instead.

Also, who's to say China's economy won't crash and burn in the next 50 years?
Forcing Mandarin on everyone is putting all your eggs in one basket. Learning
a foreign language is a difficult thing, and one good way to keep motivated is
to be truly interested in the culture of the country whose language you're
studying. I'm all for mandatory foreign language education, but I think people
should be able to choose a language they care about. They shouldn't have to
take Chinese because it _might_ be a big deal in the future. Learning any
foreign language can open doors, not just Chinese. Take it from me, an
American living in Japan.

~~~
nandemo
I don't think linguistic features are very relevant. Historically, languages
have become lingua franca primarily due to political and economical factors,
and secondarily cultural factors. E.g. people living in the Soviet republics
and communist Eastern Europe had to learn Russian, no matter how hard Russian
was for them. Nowadays people all over the world learn English; for many of
them, English is as hard as Chinese is to a native English speaker.

But I agree that it's not a given that China will be _the_ superpower, and
even if gets there, it's not clear that Mandarin will immediately become that
important.

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w1ntermute
I think China's ascendancy is a foregone conclusion, but not the dominance of
Mandarin.

~~~
dageshi
I think the easy part of China's ascendency has just about finished, a lot of
very hard economic, political and demographic problems are about to kick in, I
wouldn't presume that their continued meteoric rise is guaranteed.

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squonk
Not sure about the logic of this: "They will live in a world where China and
India will have 50 percent of the world GDP. They will live in a world where,
if they cannot function successfully in the Asian culture, they will pay a
heavy price."

Today, the US + EU have about 50% of the world's GDP. Do Chinese kids pay a
'heavy price' because they cannot function successfully in the Western
culture? It seems more like the heavy price is paid due to lack of economic
integrity and opportunity in China. The importance is in getting a solid
education. There will be plenty of work to do here in the US and in China.

Related topic: The Hong Kong Chinese don't want their kids to learn about
about China: [http://news.yahoo.com/hk-drops-china-education-plans-mass-
pr...](http://news.yahoo.com/hk-drops-china-education-plans-mass-
protests-143452268.html)

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ssong
For what it's worth, English is a mandatory subject for students in China.
It's hard to predict what the political and economic climate will be like a
few decades from now, but I'm pretty sure the number of Mandarin speakers will
increase and Asia will still be a major influence on global economics.

I'm not sure if I agree with this decision given the circumstances of this
particular school district, but I won't be surprised if we start to see other
schools strongly encouraging Mandarin studies.

Let's not jump too quickly to politics. Mandarin is a language, and will be
spoken by the Chinese regardless of politics. It is also spoken in many places
outside of mainland China.

~~~
droithomme
> English is a mandatory subject for students in China

Few of them learn it well enough using their rote methods to be of much use
though. It's good to learn english as it is currently the lingua franca of the
world. In europe German teens talk to their Swedish friends in English, just
as Italians talk to the Croatians in English. It's used universally for
communication.

I wonder though - are all English classes in China taught by american
government representatives whose salaries are paid for by the United States?
Do they also introduce American values as part of the classes?

I noticed the article said the classes, throughout the future, will be free to
the schools because the Chinese Government (which is as we know run by the
Communist Party) is paying for them and the teachers are being sent from
mainland China.

Nothing seems odd about that to you?

I know, I know. I must be some "conspiracy nut" just to be asking whether the
Chinese Communist Party completely financing and sending trained and educated
Chinese Communist Party members to the US to teach poor american children to
speak Chinese and understand modern Chinese perspectives defined by their
government in order to "prepare for 2050" is a strange thing. It's safe to
disregard these "crackpot ideas", right? Or is it.

~~~
vidarh
> Nothing seems odd about that to you?

No. Many governments have or have had programs to spread understanding of
their language, including paying for teachers at times, as well as paying for
radio stations, TV channels, web sites.

Some of these are or have been blocked by various countries at various times
because they didn't like the political views espoused, sure, so it's not like
one should assume that there are never political motives (and that goes for
all "sides" - the US has done this as much as everyone else).

But it is also important for commerce, diplomacy etc. to ensure a good supply
of people with an understanding of language, and "seeding" interest for later
language studies by introducing it earlier is a good solution.

> I know, I know. I must be some "conspiracy nut" just to be asking whether
> the Chinese Communist Party completely financing and sending trained and
> educated Chinese Communist Party members to the US to teach poor american
> children to speak Chinese and understand modern Chinese perspectives defined
> by their government in order to "prepare for 2050" is a strange thing. It's
> safe to disregard these "crackpot ideas", right? Or is it.

Do you for a second believe that the curriculum won't be read by someone in
these schools prior to use? Someone who is pretty much guaranteed to hold
viewpoints sufficiently far from any devout supporter of the Chinese regime to
react quickly to blatant misrepresentations?

It's not like these teachers will be let free on a class with no follow up. I
very much doubt the Chinese regime is interested in risking their promotion of
Chinese language and culture by adding controversial political content. Not
least because ideology has long been a secondary priority for the Chinese
leadership after economic growth.

What do they care if American school children agree with their policies? What
they do care about is that American school children grow up to be useful when
Chinese companies want to do business with American companies and need people
who understand both languages and cultures.

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talloaktrees
I started taking Mandarin in college ten years ago. I have lived in Taiwan for
six years, and I now speak and read near-native Chinese, an accomplishment I'm
somewhat proud of.

Now I am teaching myself programming to prepare for a career when I return to
the US.

Take from my anecdote what you will.

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sciurus
Wow, my old hometown makes HN. Both of my parents have taught public school in
Bibb County, so I've followed this with some interest. You can read the entire
"Macon Miracle' plan at <http://bibb.k12.ga.us/stplan2.html>

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zachwill
On a side note, Macon is actually a Code for America city this year
(<http://codeforamerica.org/2012-partners/macon/>) and I'm one of three
fellows working with the city. The speech superintendent Dallemand gave
earlier this year detailing his plan was great (we spent all of February in
Macon) — especially when you consider just how much scrutiny it's been under.

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stretchwithme
My experience learning languages in high school left me feeling that its a
waste of time to learn a language for an hour a day.

Its much better to be immersed in a language for a month than spend three
years learning it that way. And it takes less time altogether.

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tzm
I think there's a huge cultural education gap in the US regarding China.
Requiring Mandarin at a basic level would help mitigate this while opening
opportunities for students.

People should get their heads out of the sand..

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adinb
Requiring a tonal language for young children is a great thing–typically
adults that speak only non-tonal languages have a much, much harder time
learning the tonal structures. I put this in the same category as teaching
music to younger children (higher plasticity)

Besides, isnt this the first step to the Mandarin-English pidgin language
spoken in Firefly? ;)

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jakeonthemove
It doesn't even really matter if China will become a superpower bigger than
the US - since most of the production of physical products is there, it makes
a lot of sense to teach children the language - it will make it so much easier
to work in the future. I also still think that somewhat advanced economy
classes in schools would be a great addition...

