Chinese-language school draws variety of students
Six months after Marta and Victor Waddell’s first child was born, they decided she would learn Mandarin, the national language of China.
“We want her to speak Mandarin by the time she finishes high school,” Marta Waddell said. “China is now the big player in the world. With any field she goes into, knowing Mandarin will be a plus.”
That was seven years ago. The Tempe couple now have three daughters enrolled in the Chinese Linguistic School of Phoenix — Niamh, 7, Maeve, 6, and Lily, 3. “I wouldn’t call them fluent, but they are learning an awful lot,” Marta Waddell said.
The Chinese Linguistic School began 32 years ago as an informal language-tutoring program for children of parents from China.
Over the years, it has evolved into a non-profit organization that now offers formal language classes on Sunday afternoons through Mesa Community College’s non-credit community-education program.
This spring, 160 preschool through 11th-graders were enrolled in classes ranging from basic Mandarin conversation to high-school-level classes in reading and writing Chinese. Students mainly come from the southeast Valley, but over the years some families have driven to the school from as far as Yuma, Maricopa and Fountain Hills.
Two-thirds of the students are children or grandchildren of native Mandarin speakers. The rest come from English-speaking homes, like the Waddells, or families that speak Cantonese, the primary language of Hong Kong.
Gilbert mom Tammy Berg’s mother was born in China. Her dream is for her children, Sophia, 8, and Zachary, 6, to learn enough of the language to communicate with their relatives in Taiwan.
“We are going to go back next year and I want them to be able to speak to their grandparents,” she said.
Teachers at the school are all native speakers of Mandarin.
“Students who graduate from our program will be proficient in reading, writing, listening to and speaking Chinese at the level equivalent to students who graduate from high school in Asia,” said Edmond Tse, chairman of the school’s board.
Interest in studying Chinese also is growing in Valley public schools. Mesa, Scottsdale, Phoenix Union and Higley are among the districts that offered Mandarin.
But few Chinese Linguistic students feel the need to take any additional classes, according to school Principal Grace Lee. Plus, the Sunday program frees them to focus on other studies during the week, she said.
Students who graduate from the school typically start out in preschool classes for 3- and 4-year-olds in which they learn Mandarin word sounds, or phonetics, and basic conversation.
By age 6, the students begin learning to write Chinese characters. By graduation, students typically are able to read and recite Chinese poetry and write short essays.
On a recent Sunday, teacher SheauYann Liang sat on the classroom floor surrounded by preschoolers chattering comfortably in Mandarin. They had brought in dolls and toy cars to share and students were encouraged to describe their toys as carefully as possible.
“He is very good as far as speaking and listening,” Tempe engineer Don Briner said about his son, Dylan, 4, who is in the preschool class.
Briner’s wife, Ahua, is a native Mandarin speaker and the couple also have two daughters, Joanne 11, and Billie, 9, enrolled at the school. Briner said his children speak Mandarin nearly as well as they speak English.
“If I make a mistake when I read a Chinese storybook to Dylan he corrects me now,” he said.
A few doors away, members of the Chinese Linguistic 2013 graduating class were practicing speeches and poetry to recite at a May 5 ceremony with their teacher, Chen-Ling Lu.
Cody Chang, 15, a student at Desert Vista High School in Ahwatukee Foothills, spoke so fluently it sounded like he didn’t even need to be at the school.
The aspiring computer engineer has lived part of his life in Hong Kong and attends the classes so he won’t forget how to read and write Chinese. “Plus, it’s fun,” he said.
Angela Fu, a 16-year-old junior at Corona del Sol High School in Tempe, has never lived in China but her parents are native speakers of Mandarin.
“At first, I thought it was a little boring coming here every Sunday,” said Fu, who has been studying Mandarin since age 3. “But as I grew up, I realized how important it is to be here. We’re becoming more economically connected with China all the time.”