Old Orchard classes expose students to Chinese culture

First-grader Aaliyah Brown gets some help writing a Chinese word from teacher Tana Bai at Old Orchard Elementary School in Toledo. THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Oranges made Old Orchard Elementary students pucker their lips Thursday, but it wasn't because students didn't like the tart taste -- they were just pronouncing the word wrong in Chinese.

A group of fourth graders, in the middle of a lesson on how to write and say fruits, kept pronouncing the word for orange, juzi, as "juicy."

Close your mouths, teacher Tana Bai explained, giving them vocal tips and demonstrating the facial expression. "Don't smile."

The tips worked, as students soon called back correct pronunciations to prompts from Ms. Bai. "Jyew dzuh." Time to move on to grapes and bananas.

For 20 minutes a week, most Old Orchard students take these quick-hit Chinese lessons, taught by instructors from the nearby Confucius Institute program at the University of Toledo. Ms. Bai teaches students to speak the language, how to draw Chinese characters, and about her native country's culture.

Principal Edward Perozek said the program has been a hit. "They are thrilled," he said of parents and students. "They are excited that we are offering a foreign language."

Old Orchard's Chinese program is somewhat unique to Toledo Public Schools. It is the only building housing students in kindergarten through eighth grade that offers Chinese instruction, district officials said. Start High School long has offered the class as a foreign language elective, and the district's new distance-learning labs allow high school students throughout Toledo to take classes.

Old Orchard's program isn't meant to develop fluency in the language; it's more of an introduction to Chinese and the country's culture.

Because students who remain at the school take it year-after-year, they can develop a basic understanding and be ready to take classes at Start.

Fourth-grader Ernijah George has taken Chinese for three years, and proudly demonstrated how to count to 10 and say hello, or ni hao (pronounced knee-how).

For 20 minutes each week, many students at Old Orchard learn to speak and write Chinese. THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Confucius Institutes are nonprofit public institutions affiliated with the Chinese government that aim to promote the country's language and culture. Institute instructors teach at a handful of other city schools, such as Central Catholic High School, along with courses at the university. Instructors serve at Old Orchard on a volunteer basis.

Not every class at Old Orchard participates in the Chinese instruction. The school added grades in the recent districtwide switch from elementary only to K-8 buildings, and seventh and eighth grades do not take Chinese because they already faced so many transitions, Mr. Perozek said.

Teachers in the other grades had the opportunity to decide whether to have the program in their classrooms -- and most do, he said.

Ms. Bai, who is from Hohhot, capital of China's Inner Mongolia region, previously taught English at a university in China.

Since the classes are short, Ms. Bai keeps the lessons simple, especially for her younger students. First-grade teacher Dawn Brakefield said the short format works well for foreign language classes, especially for young students who have shorter attention spans.

"I'm surprised how much they can learn in 20 minutes," she said.

Contact Nolan Rosenkrans at: nrosenkrans@theblade.com or 419-724-6086.