Say “Ni Hao” to Mandarin at SHS

Chinese has been spoken by great Emperors, valiant warriors and revolutionary thinkers throughout history. This year, Chinese is being offered  at Scituate High School, and students have the opportunity to immerse themselves into one of the most important world languages.

China has emerged as a major economic superpower, and its affairs have intrigued the world ever since the nation was put in the global spotlight during the 2008 Summer Olympics. Scituate has followed the path of other schools across the country by incorporating a Mandarin Chinese program into its foreign language department.

Setting up a Chinese course required approval by the Scituate School Committee. Adjusting the budget to include a new language and finding a Mandarin teacher would only be worthwhile if there were enough students willing to sign up for the course.

Ms. Jiang, the new Chinese teacher at Scituate High School, received her undergraduate in investment and business and a master’s degree in education from Boston College. When asked about her students so far, she replied with a grin, “They are good. They are nice students. They follow my directions, and they are very curious about the Chinese language and also culture.” She said that when learning Chinese, “the idea is terrifying, but once they get to know the language, it’s not the different or difficult.”

Over 50 students are currently enrolled in the Chinese program at Scituate High. Junior Natalie Meyerson described the language as “very interesting and different from any other language I’ve learned before.” Jackie Medici, another junior taking the class, decided to take Chinese because she hoped it would look good on her college application and her knowledge of Chinese would benefit her in the future. According to both students, the biggest obstacle is “the characters are very challenging to learn and how they pronounce vowels differently.” They both strongly recommended that more students enroll in the class for next year.

 “We are always looking for ways to expand offerings and expose students to a variety of courses, activities, instructional approaches,” saidd Ms. Ciulla, the Foreign Language Department Chair at SHS. She went on to describe how Mandarin was a logical expansion choice as it is already spoken by 1.3 billion people. With China being the second largest economy, Chinese is very useful for students who are looking to pursue careers in business.

Since Mandarin is currently the fastest growing high school language, it is no surprise that Scituate High decided to open this door for students looking for a new challenge. Ms. Ciulla was adamant when exclaiming that the benefits of learning a new language like Mandarin is that it teaches Scituate High students that “our way is not the only way and that there are worlds and cultures out there that can really broaden our perspectives and help us be active members of a global society.” She praised the efforts of both the students and Ms. Jiang as they both embark on a new and interesting challenge.

Superintendent John McCarthy is excited about the addition of the Mandarin program. When asked about future plans for the language program, he said the high school is currently trying to develop a relationship with a school in China. Principal Wargo is currently in China working to create an exchange between Scituate High and a Chinese school. Scituate is also looking to bring Chinese students to Scituate for a full year. Chinese students would pay tuition and come here for their senior year of high school to prepare for enrollment in American universities. There are plans to have at least five Chinese students enrolled at Scituate High next year.

Expanding the Mandarin program could entail offering a course at Gates Intermediate School next year. With the construction of the new middle school and the addition of 6th grade to the middle school, McCarthy plans to have students try each language for half a semester in 6th and 7th grade and then choose a language to study for a full year and into high school at the beginning of 8th grade. McCarthy stated, “As our world gets smaller, everybody thinks that people in other countries should learn English, and many of them do, but we should also learn those languages as well. And to learn languages, you really have to start learning at a younger age. We can’t just begin it at Gates.” In the long term, McCarthy hopes to expand the foreign language department to the elementary schools in an effort to increase their exposure to new cultures and languages at a younger age.

Mandarin Chinese has taken the high school by storm, but it might not be that long before people can expect to hear this language at the elementary and middle schools. Despite it being early into the first year of the language, Mandarin Chinese seems to be here to stay.