China has come to Montclair.
More than a year after planning sessions, community discussions and budget crunching began, the Montclair Board of Education was able to roll out its long-awaited and much anticipated China Initiative.
With lots of fanfare and an elaborate visual presentation, Schools Superintendent Frank Alvarez walked the seven-member board and many interested parents and teachers through the Montclair School District’s newest language program: Mandarin Chinese.
The session, which occurred during the board’s public meeting earlier this week, featured the introduction of Vicky Chang, the district’s new Mandarin language teacher.
Launching into her high-energy style, Chang quickly captivated her audience, demonstrating for them the differences between English and Mandarin. In just a few minutes, she had board members and audience members reciting common phrases in Mandarin and even counting in Mandarin.
The Taiwanese native, who has spent more than two decades in this country teaching her ancestral language, told the board members how excited and proud she was to be working with Montclair’s public school students.
She is working with kindergarten and first grade students at Nishuane School, where officials hope as many as one-third of the students will eventually opt for Mandarin classes.
Chang also teaches a class at the Glenfield Middle School. Next year Glenfield may expand the offering to include two more sections of Mandarin.
Officials say they are pleased with the enthusiasm and interest that the Mandarin Chinese language has generated among parents and students.
Watching the program unfold was rewarding for Alvarez, who proposed adding Mandarin to the Montclair Public Schools’ menu of foreign-language instruction, which also includes Spanish, French, German and Latin.
"With China becoming a more important player in the global economy, I felt it was important for us to be able to offer Mandarin so that our students will be prepared to enter the global workforce of the future," Alvarez explained.
With Chang’s hiring, Montclair joins an elite but growing number of schools systems preparing their students to interact with their counterparts in China. There are currently 16 schools offering Mandarin in New Jersey, including five in Essex County.
Nationwide, more than 500 school districts offer Mandarin and the number is expected to double within a few years. Some experts predict that it won’t be long before Mandarin will outpace Spanish, German and French as the top foreign language study choices in US schools.
Though few Americans may realize it, Mandarin is the world’s most spoken language, exceeding Spanish. It is the most prevalent dialect in the People’s Republic of China, which has other dialects such as Cantonese, Taiwanese and Shanghainese. With more and more American companies using factories in China to manufacture their products, a working knowledge of Mandarin Chinese is becoming an increasing important tool for anyone hoping to enter into a career in international business or banking.
At the same time, China is becoming a big consumer of American goods and services. American automakers, computer manufacturers, cell phone companies and banks are all competing for a share of the world’s largest consumer market.
For Alvarez, the Montclair public schools’ China Initiative is the culmination of a commitment he made publicly last autumn in his annual State of the Schools address.
The annual update of Montclair’s magnet school system came just a few weeks after Alvarez returned home from a summer trip to China. What Alvarez saw was eye-opening for him and many of his American colleagues. Chinese educators were placing greater emphasis on teaching their students English and preparing them with other skills they will need to compete in the global marketplace.
The revelation prompted Alvarez to announce plans for Mandarin language instruction in Montclair. "It was a bit of a gamble," he said. There were critics who questioned the move. Budget cuts also nearly killed the project. But watching the community’s response to the program has convinced him the school district is heading the right direction.
