By Janese Silvey, Columbia Daily Tribune Sunday, October 9, 2011
Third graders at Grant Elementary will soon start learning Chinese language and culture thanks to help from a new center on the University of Missouri campus.
The Confucius Institute, which opened in April to provide Missourians a better understanding of China, is providing a visiting scholar from China to teach the twice-weekly classes. Those lessons will be embedded into social studies, giving children a chance to compare Chinese communities with Columbia's culture, Principal Kristin Matthews said.
The scholar has been working with Grant's before-school Language Club for several weeks, however, not every child participates in that program.
"I love the idea of the Language Club, and I love the fact we are exposing different cultures to students," Matthews said. "I wanted to expand that to all of our students."
Students will spend half of each 30-minute lesson on some sort of Chinese cultural experience, such as hands-on activities or presentations, 10 minutes learning the language and five minutes learning about the fine arts of China, Matthews said.
She envisions expanding those lessons to both third and fourth grades next year, although that hasn't been finalized yet. The lessons come at no cost to families or the district.
Columbia Independent School also is relying, in part, on the Confucius Institute to offer Mandarin Chinese to elementary school students.
"It fits into CIS's global mission as we understand that there cannot be global understanding without the primary component of the language of the world, which is why CIS also puts language instruction at the forefront of its curriculum," Viviane Ducret, chair of modern languages for the private school, said in an email.
Eventually, Wen Ouyang, co-director of the Confucius Institute, hopes more schools reach out to the center to help get Chinese education into more Missouri classrooms.
"There are some needs and demands," she said, noting that several Columbia middle schools have asked for presentations on Chinese culture.
Top administrators from the state's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education have asked to partner with the MU institute to create language teaching programs and exchange opportunities to schools statewide, Ouyang said. Details are being hashed out.
Next year, Ouyang hopes to roll out some local programming - crash courses for those planning to visit China and classes in cultural arts such as Tai-Chi, Chinese dance and painting.
Education is part of the center's mission but not the only goal.
Since opening, the institute has been involved in a number of different activities. The center hosted its first lecture this summer with keynote speaker Guohui Sun, a visiting scholar in the Trulaske College of Business.
In August, the Confucius Institute announced its first scholarship for business students who want to spend four months studying at Shandong University of Technology.
The Confucius Institute was supposed to provide some translation services related to the proposed Mamtek sweetener plant in Moberly, but those services have not yet been needed, Ouyang said. The center also will be available for translation as plans for a China Hub in St. Louis move forward.
The week of Oct. 24, Ouyang will accompany Gov. Jay Nixon to China for an agricultural seminar and a visit to Shanghai Normal University - the Confucius Institute's partner. |
