Fayetteville Private School Offers New Chinese Classes

If area grade-school students get tired of studying French and Spanish, they might consider taking a Mandarin Chinese class at The New School in Fayetteville.

The private school added the Chinese language class to its lineup this fall. Both sessions of the weekly after-school course are open to all area grade schoolers for $40 per month.

New School Director Bill Mandrell said the course has been so popular that he thinks it will probably be offered again in the future. Mandrell said Mandarin is the most common dialect of the Chinese language.

About 25 students are enrolled in the classes that were made possible in part by a $1,000 Procter & Gamble Community Involvement Grant.

The New School began offering the course after several requests from the parents of more than 400 of its students.

Andy Jett, general manager of P&G’s International Wal-Mart Division, said he helped the school get the grant because he sees the Chinese language playing a larger part in the U.S. economy in the coming years. His daughter, Madeline, 7, attends the school and is taking the Chinese class.

“The benefit for me is that she may never become fluent in Mandarin Chinese, but at a minimum, she will have some exposure to it,” said Jett, who speaks fluent Mandarin and Cantonese.

Jett moved to Northwest Arkansas six years ago from China, where he had spent 10 years working for P&G.

“If you take the last five years, and take China’s influence on the economy in the last five years and move that forward, look at those numbers,” Jett said.

He said China’s growing economy will affect how we do business here in the U.S. China is replacing the United States as the world’s largest consumer of goods.

The Earth Policy Institute of Washington, D.C., reported that in 2000, China had more television owners than the U.S. The tally was China, 374 million; U.S., 243 million.

China has overtaken the U.S. in consumption of commodities, except for crude oil. It leads in grain and meat consumption, with 382 million tons of grain and 63 million tons of meat consumed versus 278 million tons of grain and 37 million tons of meat last year in the U.S.

However, the EPI reported China is far behind the U.S. in per capita consumption with a 2004 per capita income of $5,800, versus the U.S. with $38,000.

“China is no longer just a developing country,” wrote Lester Brown of the EPI. “It is an emerging economic superpower, one that is writing economic history. If the last century was the American century, this one looks to be the Chinese century.”

Tradition

The Chinese class is just part of a rich tradition of languages at The New School, which integrates French and Spanish into the curriculum from the first grade onward. It employs one full-time and part-time Spanish teacher and a part-time French teacher.

Mandrell said the emphasis on language produces several educational benefits for New School students.

“We want to give them the opportunity to study other cultures,” he said.

Mandrell said research indicates that students who learn a second language before the age of 11 are more likely to retain the sound of the language easier. He said there is also research that shows if the language center of the brain is damaged after age 12, it is difficult to learn the language again.

“You can really see it in the classes when they are pronouncing the words,” Mandrell said. “It’s amazing how well they imitate.”