Mary Laird, Amy Armstrong, Sarah Elliott and six other Dulaney High School students skipped Spanish class Monday to announce they were taking Chinese.
It was with Principal Kyle Patkowski?s approval, part of the first day of school and a media gathering including state Schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick, Baltimore County Superintendent Joe Hairston, Maryland first lady Kendel Ehrlich, a 1979 Dulaney graduate, and Salvatore Zumbo, the foreign language chairman at Towson University. The event also served as new Mandarin instructor Wei Min Hu?s introduction to American high school education. She?ll teach 18 seniors this fall at Dulaney taking part in the first Chinese-language course ever offered in Baltimore County.
Laird, Armstrong and Elliott, who had to apply for admission to the course, it should be noted, are not dropping Spanish, either, they?re just adding Chinese.
“It?s a chance to broaden our horizons,” Laird said. “I?m going to study International Relations at Georgetown, and with the growing influence of China, it?s a great opportunity.”
The groundbreaking language program is coordinated through Towson University, where Hu will be teaching and lecturing this year.
“She taught English at Shanghai University and now she?ll be teaching Chinese here,” Zumbo said of Hu. “We?ve got her doing double duty: teaching at the high school level, which will be a change.”
Patkowski and Parkville Principal Kevin Harahan toured China at Superintendent Hairston?s behest and the hope is the single Dulaney course will be part of a growing relationship for the county school system with China. It could soon include a student-exchange program.
Hu said as China is opening up to the Western World, the West should learn about China, too, and its 2,000-year-old history.
“Understanding each other?s culture is important, and language can be a barrier to cultural understanding,” Hu said.
Patkowski said there are 150 million Chinese students studying English now. In 2001, students were required to start learning English in third grade. He said a third of teenagers he met there already speak English.
Hu said she also intends to introduce Chinese philosophy, such as Confucianism and Taoism, into the class.
“It?s easier to learn the language, if you?re also learning about something in context as well,” she said. “Students need that connection to China and its culture.”
For this week, however, it?s strictly been introductory material such as, “Ni hao” – Hello.
