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Anonymous.
AnonymousMax (my son and a fifth grade LAUSD teacher) is taking a Korean class offered by the district at Wilton Place Elementary. The class is free and he'll get 3 salary points. And I'm fairly sure there are Cantonese classes offered too.
Here: http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/lausd/offices/instruct/mpttp/#LANGUAGE
It says here that if they get enough students, they'll teach Vietnamese, Armenian or Tagalog.
AnonymousI agree about the classes for teachers. Hopefully in the future this will expand because it will be informative and useful.
AnonymousI think this sounds like a great way for teachers to expand their knowledge. If more classes were offered for points maybe it would be an incentive for us to take on some new languages. I personally find it difficult with all the other things we have to do in order to keep up our credential. CLAD, CLEAR, CSET, etc. I propose the state require us to learn new skills instead of jumping through hoops.
AnonymousIf AP Asian language courses are not available at specific school-sites, we as educators should come up with better ways to teach languages to our students. Through on-line coursework, and perhaps regional language labs and tutoring centers, resources could help to better prepare our students for the world. I know that many ethnic Asian-American groups offer language courses for their children and community, but for the majority of kids in L.A., Spanish is the only reality. I remember when churches, often because of their international missionary work, often held language courses for parishioners. It is obvious that Asian language instructors are a few with proper credentialing. But it is not for the lack of people with necessary language skills in L.A.. Exposure at an early age I think is the key. Younger students are sponges so I could see why immersion programs work for various languages. But how do we get students to keep practicing their newly acquired language skills beyond family and ethnic community???
I remember reading about Mr. Maximilian Berlitz's son's obits and his life when he was young. The same Berlitz that started the language programs and books. Both of his parents, when he was young, spoke different languages to them. His family's housekeeper, driver, gardener all spoke different languages as well. Yes he had an upper class lifestyle... But he was quoted as saying how he accepted the various languages as the reality of his world. He did not know any another way, so his young mind picked up many languages as a way to community to the people in his world. That is one thing I wish I had more time and appreciation for now: the skills to use multiple languages. I know the 3 years of French I learned in LAUSD is fading, not because of the instruction I received, but because of the lack of use in my life... But I am always thankful for my teachers to giving the ability to read French... I did help me in a museum in Japan, when the signs were only in Japanese Kanji and French. The irony was that I understood more in French than I did in my birthright language Japanese... If there was an AP Japanese at NHHS back then, or my mom made me go to Japanese school at Little Tokyo like some of my friends???...
AnonymousFrom an article in Newsweek: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7693591/site/newsweek/
1. The most recent data show that only 24,000 students in grades 7 to 12 study Chinese, a language spoken by 1.3 billion people worldwide. (More than 1 million students learn French, a language spoken by 75 million people.)
2. In U.S. homes, Chinese has eclipsed French, German and Italian to become the third most commonly spoken language, after English and Spanish.
I teach in the Bilingual Business and Finance Academy at Venice High School. While over 85% of the students are of Hispanic origin and study Spanish at school, the academy focuses on business and finance, two areas in which the U.S. has growing relations with China. How many of my students study Mandarin? That would be zero. Several take Italian (because they say it will be easy because it's a lot like Spanish). Some take French, but as can be seen above, a comparatively small percent of the world's population speaks French. And just a few who couldn't fit any other language into their schedules (last semester it was two eleventh grade students) study Japanese. It seems like now is the time for my academy to step up and start advising these students with international business aspirations to study Chinese. What a great way of directing them toward more global opportunities, and a great way to add to the number of students in our school's Mandarin program. I believe, sadly, that last semester there were only between 8-13 students enrolled. It's going to have to start with us teachers to get kids motivated and truly able to understand the importance of studying Mandarin. We can't hold our kids back any longer--we need to give them all the tools the need to get ahead in the world! They need to be more connected in order to become leaders.
[Edit by="juliedavis on Jul 31, 2:11:34 PM"][/Edit]
Anonymoushttp://www.askasia.org/chinese/handbook.htm
There is great information on starting Chinese Language programs at your schools at Ask Asia's site above.
There are also several articles about why it is so important for students to start studying Chinese in greater numbers. http://www.askasia.org/chinese/news.htm
From the website:
Why Chinese?
The rise of China presents new economic, political and social realities that demand greater U.S. engagement at every level. As the foundation of that engagement, we urgently need to raise the number of Americans who can demonstrate a functional proficiency in Chinese.
China ’s tremendous economic growth creates new opportunities and challenges for U.S. businesses. Between 1978 and 2002, China's annual GDP growth reached 9.4%, three times the world's average, and in recent years (2001-2004) China accounted for one third of global economic growth.
China is an immense market for American goods and services, and a vital supplier to American manufacturers and consumers. U.S. trade with China exceeded $245 billion in 2004 (second only to trade with Canada and Mexico).
China ’s political importance in the Asia-Pacific region is broadly acknowledged and, particularly since 9/11, its help has been sought on difficult issues like North Korea and terrorism. Collaboration with China is increasingly deemed essential for solving a range of global issues, from nuclear proliferation to the environment, from currency exchange to trade laws.
As the most enduring world civilization, China has a major international cultural presence, in literature and cuisine, in music and film, dance and art, religion and philosophy, drawing on its tremendous heritage to enrich our present.
An official language of the United Nations, Chinese is the most widely spoken first language in the world, extending beyond the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan to Indonesia , Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, to the Philippines, and to Mongolia.
Chinese will top English as the most-used language on the Internet by 2007, according to forecasts by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
In the United States the Asian and Pacific Islander population is projected to grow 213 percent, from 10.7 million to 33.4 million, in the next 50 years, a substantial demographic shift. Their share of the nation’s population will double, from 3.8 percent to 8 percent.
AnonymousI know that CSUN and CSULA both have great Japanese language and linguistic classes. CSUN's professors I know are Dr. Hirota and Dr. Snyder and CSULA's Japanese department has Dr. Kato. Dr. Kato is kind of a strict instructor, but when my son took the class several years ago, he learned a great deal in how to write some kanji and read simple Japanese. It was a 3 unit summer class, but I was amazed how much one can learn foreign language in such a short time, especially Japanese language. The program includes: get acquainted with Japanese university visitors (exchange students from Japan), field trip to Japanese cultural institution and so on. The program seems quite rigolous, but it's also designed to have a lot of fun with it too. CSUN's professors are also wonderful ones. Dr. Snyder is a caucasian linguistic instructor, but speaks fluent and proper Japanese, more so than some "Japanese in America."
Many community colleges now offer Japanese course, such as Glendale College and Pasadena City College.
There is an institution called "Kyodo System" which originally established for Japanese children in U.S to keep up with their language and with elementary, middle and high school core subjects. But they now offer adult classes for Japanese language that receive some kind of government fund and programs. There are several of them (schools). I know there is one in Passadena, San Fernando Valley, L.A (downtown), and Orange Hills (?). It is a Saturday school and I know that the tuition is very reasonable (affordability and convenient access factors are fulfilled). They also train government trainee for jobs in Japan too. I don't know much about the details, but here is a website if you are interested.
AnonymousIf anyone is interested in teaching English in Japan for a year or two, there is a wonderful program called "JET." All you need is a Bachelor's degree and you can apply. My nieces have done it and they both got hooked on it. I mean, they had so much fun and experiences that they stayed (one is still there) more than two years. They pay you enough to live there. Something like $3,000 equivalant per month and health/accident insurance. According to my nieces, they treat you very well. One who came back a couple of years ago had saved up enough money that when she came back, she went to South America for 6 weeks and came back to the states and bought a used car. They have traveled to China, Hong-Kong, India and Thailand while they worked in Japan. They also experienced hot springs vacation, snowboarding, and party, party and parties. The only thing is that you cannot pick a certain city. You have to leave it to them. So, sometimes, you have to travel to major cities to party. 😐 😐 :~
I would have definitely done that if I was a single. 
Good Luck!!
AnonymousAbout a month ago, I was perusing iTunes podcasts page. I was looking for class lectures about the Renaissance when I saw a plethora of podcasts on languages...Italian, French, Spanish, etc. Then I saw Chinese and Japanese. I think this is pretty cool. I clicked on a Japanese podcast (introduction to Japanese--mainly for tourists) because I wanted to understand some Japanese broadcasting, and of course to watch anime. I learned some key phrases instead; restaurant phrases, how to greet people, etc. It was very hard for me to just listen and try to memorize. I read a brief summary of the podcast and found out that the CIA or some government organization labeled Japanese as one of the hardest languages to learn. Where am I going with this...er
Anyway, you can visit iTunes podcasts to learn some languages! 😀
AnonymousThere are a lot of very good classes in various places for Japanese and Korean, and presumably Cantonese or Mandarin, although I am not familiar with them. While courses are very important, I picked up most of my Korean from simply spending time with Koreans while I lived there. One thing that courses often do not teach you is when and how to use certain phrases. For example, there are several ways to say the simplest introductory phrases in Korean, yet if you choose the wrong one at the wrong time you risk coming across as disrespectful, rude, or plain dumb. Also, I saw many English-Korean phrase books with examples of "Korean conversation" and, frankly, they were plain wrong. In one example, as two recent aquaintances take leave of one another, one says, "Tashi popeshida" (phonetic spelling- please excuse) to the other. Simply translated this means "I'll see you again my friend." In our culture that is no big deal, but if you were to say that to a Korean, they would most likely think you are very forward. Also, these guides do not tell you when it is appropriate to look directly at someone, and when it is considered polite and proper not to do so- very, very important! Do they explain how to address a group (there is a method)? No. That is the biggest shortcoming of many academic courses and other related study materials. I used to travel around Seoul with my friend Han, and I would practice the newest phrases and things I had learned. While I would eventually be able to speak well enough to be understood, he would often shake his head in dismay at my 'ignorance'. The problem was that the unwritten rules eluded me for some time. You actually need to see it done properly. Most people would cut me a lot of slack, as I was a foreigner, but not always. I was once chased down the street by a very irate old man who was incensed at me because I made a glaring error in speaking order....It shocked me. When it was explained to me what I did, I was very embarassed.
I met many foreigners who spoke excellent Korean, and they concurred that it was best to simply immerse yourself completely and not dwell on the books so much. Food for thought.
AnonymousThis is in response to whereyou might be able to learn Japanese. For a cost freindly education, you may want to go to a Japanese thnice enclave like Torrance or Gardena and check too see what kind of cultural centers they have. Normally cultural centers are run by volunteers where the sole purpose is to maintain the culture. Often times they offer the language classes for free or for a very fair price. I used to teach for Berlitz which charges about 500 a session to learn a foreign language. In my case I work at the croatian cultural center. You can learn croatian in beverly hill berlitz location and pay 500, or you can take it at out center 150 hours for fifty dollars, quite teh deal. And dont be mistaken and assume that just because Berlitz costs more it offers better trained people. Debatedly maybe to a point, but in my opinion not enough to justify the cost. Also in response to offering other language other than Spanish, again check out ethnic enclaves. I am pretty sure that Narboone HIgh School in LASUD offers Chinese or Japanese. Languages other than Spanish and French are often offerd depending on the community. In San Pedro they offer Croatian and Italian to serve those residents.
AnonymousI'm originally from the SF Bay Area and it perplexes me on the dearth of Asian (and most other) language courses offered in the So. Cal. public school system including LAUSD where I am now. I used to teach in SFUSD and the high school I taught at offered Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Tagalog as course you can take instead of the "regular" French and Spanish you would find in LA. These are public schools in SF. I grew up in Oakland and the public high school I went to offered Chinese as an option. This was many many years ago. (I will not disclose my age) I think LAUSD needs to do more to start offering new course subjects. AP or not.
AnonymousUnforturnately, LAUSD cannot be everything to everyone without sufficient funds. SFUSD has a high Asian student population so one will see more offerings and choices in Asian languages. Much is driven by the ecology of population. Of course, there are numerous local afterschool programs that offer language programs--for a price.
AnonymousKevin,
I just read a short article in NEAToday about how Chinese language courses are becoming more and more popular, considering the growing importance of China. It said that the College Board gave its first AP exam in Chinese last year. I bet it's only offered in districts with more money or districts with large Chinese populations, which is too bad. It continues to amaze me how limited Americans are in their language abilities.
On a side note, LAUSD offers language classes for teachers in Korean and Cantonese, if anybody is interested.
AnonymousJudi,
I agree that money can be an issue, but if the students are already taking a foreign language class, why not offer a different language instead. In other words, instead of offering 20 sections of French, have just 15 sections of French and 5 of Chinese. This would not be a budget item other than books. Albeit, it may be a difficult to find a Chinese language teacher who also could teach french and spanish, but I dont see why that really should be a problem. The Korean teacher where I taught in SF also taught German. The Chinese teacher also taught French. I teach chemistry, but also have taught physics. What's the difference?
Kevin