Growing up, I have always had an interest in learning things about other cultures. I know as a young child I thought it would be pretty cool to have the opportunity to also learn a second language. Although, for me this chance never came until high school, and when I did decide to learn Spanish as a second language, I was distracted by thoughts other than studying for that. So today, I can’t remember enough of it to have it be much of a use to me, other than potentially making it easier for me to relearn it.

Along the lines of this, a phenomenon that seems to be rising in popularity is the interest in Chinese culture and language. Many parents seem to want to get a jump start on getting their kids involved in this. In a world where China is becoming a big part of the international economy, parents view this as an opportunity to make their children a bit more marketable.

“It’s going to be a big advantage for them,” Mrs. Carlson said. “I think no matter what you do in life, if you have some kind of specialty that sets you apart from other people, that makes you more marketable.”

This particular quote came from an article out of the New York Times talking about the popularity of parents enrolling their students in classes to teach them Mandarin Chinese. This overall experience allows the students to learn a little bit more about a culture other than their own, as well as involving the parents to some degree.

Ms. Chiang, the school’s spokeswoman, said parents like Mr. Patterson gamely participated in celebrations like the Mandarin speech festival, public speaking contests in which students read in Mandarin something they have written or an excerpt from a book. “The parents sit and patiently listen,” she said, “supporting their children even though they don’t understand a word.”

 Overall, I think that allowing students this opportunity gives them the chance to become more aware of cultures outside of themselves and what they know and to have some strong experiences interacting with that culture, and maybe ultimately becoming more sensitive to dealing with various cultures.

Non-Asians Show a Growing Interest in Chinese Courses 

By NATASHA DEGEN

Published: November 29, 2006

full article

Hi! my name is Dana, and this is a blog that I will keeping up for two of my classes this semester. I am  an english major for secondary ed, and hope to get a lot out of these classes that will help me in classroom. As far as where my interests lie in what I want to focus this blog around, I’m not quite sure yet. So that will have to wait to be seen in my next entry and what articles I find interesting.

edit:

So topics have been decided on…for my Eng 310 class, I think I want to find information and views of technology in the classroom. Thinking about new approaches to it and such. And for Eng 311, I’m leaning towards writing on diversity issues in schools. Hopefully I will find soem good articles on these topics from the New York Times and the Grand Rapids Free Press.