Warsaw Offers Students More Opportunities To Learn World Languages
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Mandarin Chinese is being offered at Warsaw Community High School for the first year ever, and both Edgewood and Lakeview middle schools are offering Mandarin Chinese, French and Spanish to eighth-graders for the first time.
Edgewood Principal JoElla Smyth said of her 257 eighth-graders, 120 of them are taking one of the world languages. There are three Spanish classes, with more students on a waiting list, one French class and one Mandarin Chinese.
Lakeview Middle School Principal Dr. Jon Lippe said about 100 to 105 students are taking one of the world languages at his school.
“Spanish is popular with our kids because a lot of their friends are Spanish speaking and want to have interaction with their classmates,” Lippe said.
Smyth said it’s amazing to her that so many students signed up for the language courses because they are a year-long academic commitment. Middle school students earn high school credit for the course.
“Once you start, it is part of your permanent transcript and grades,” Smyth said.
She said she was surprised that so many middle school students wanted a language course in their schedule. She’s received no calls from parents wanting to take their student out of a course because of difficulty.
“I’m anxious to see how the grades turn out,” Smyth said.
Christopher Hindsley teaches French at Edgewood, and Michelle Trzynka teaches Spanish. At Lakeview, Betsey Vastbinder teaches Spanish and Ann Slaughter teaches French. Dr. Shu-Chun Tseng teaches the Mandarin Chinese at both middle schools and the high school.
“She has a hard schedule,” Smyth said, referring to Tseng. “She’s in all three of our buildings and she teaches six classes a day.”
Smyth’s own daughter, who is Chinese but has never spoke a word of Chinese in her life, is taking Tseng’s class. Smyth said her daughter was already singing “Happy Birthday” to her brother the other day in Chinese. Her daughter told her it wasn’t that hard to learn.
Smyth’s daughter isn’t the only one who has found learning Mandarin Chinese easy.
Edgewood student Noah Ault said he signed up for the class “because if you can speak Chinese, there’s a lot more job opportunities. It’s not that hard. It’s in between. It’s easier than I thought it was.”
Ault and classmate Haley June both may continue taking Mandarin Chinese in high school.
“It’s more interesting than Spanish and French, I think,” June said. “And it’s fun.”
June also said, “It’s not to say it as much, but way harder to learn the characters.”
Noah Fayed, WCHS sophomore said, “I just wanted to try something new. I wasn’t taking any Spanish or other foreign language class, so I wanted to try this class.
“The writing is kind of hard and it’s a really fun class so far,” he said.
Lippe said when he sat in on the Chinese classes, it gave him a great snapshot of what it’s like for the school’s diverse language learners. Often, non-English speaking students are embarrassed when they first arrive that they can’t speak the language so are initially quiet. Lippe said he felt that same way when he sat in on the Mandarin Chinese class.
Along with the languages, Smyth said they are also trying to teach the cultures. Next week, students will celebrate the Chinese Moon Festival and will get to try Moon Cakes.
One of the advantages of offering world languages to eighth-graders is that by the end of their high school career, they can have five years of a language, Smyth said. That will help them test out of courses in college and be more marketable for jobs.
Smyth said the world is so small and companies are international. The fastest-growing language in the world is Mandarin Chinese, so if a student can get five years of the language under their belt, they’ll have a very marketable job skill.
“After five years, if we do this well, hopefully we’ll have opportunities for (Advanced Placement) courses,” Smyth said.
Lippe said the OrthoWorx study last fall had a big impact on the middle schools offering world languages. The orthopedic industry not only wants a diverse work force, but also wants educational opportunities for the children of its employees it brings to Warsaw, Lippe said.
“I don’t know if we would have done something like this without the OrthoWorx study,” Lippe said.
People were cynical when the idea of offering Mandarin Chinese came up, but with it being the growing world language, Lippe said that’s where it’s at. The question was if they could find someone to teach it.
“You need a Chinese teacher. A good Chinese teacher,” Lippe said.
The Confuscious Institute put out some feelers for Warsaw Schools, and got more than four responses. In the end, Warsaw courted Tseng for six months before they could interview her, Lippe said. She turned out to be a great teacher, he said.
Smyth said the world language courses did affect some of the school’s other electives. With so many students taking a world language, other electives saw their number of students drop.
Lippe said the same thing happened at Lakeview.
“There’s a little competition that’s going on there. That’s growing the whole school and it’s going to make us better,” Lippe said.
“They’re excited,” Lippe said of the students’ response to the world languages courses. “There’s a lot of excitement.”
He said Warsaw is a pretty diverse community for its size. The world language classes will help break down the cultural barriers.
“It’s just going to be a positive for everybody,” Lippe said.[[In-content Ad]]
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Mandarin Chinese is being offered at Warsaw Community High School for the first year ever, and both Edgewood and Lakeview middle schools are offering Mandarin Chinese, French and Spanish to eighth-graders for the first time.
Edgewood Principal JoElla Smyth said of her 257 eighth-graders, 120 of them are taking one of the world languages. There are three Spanish classes, with more students on a waiting list, one French class and one Mandarin Chinese.
Lakeview Middle School Principal Dr. Jon Lippe said about 100 to 105 students are taking one of the world languages at his school.
“Spanish is popular with our kids because a lot of their friends are Spanish speaking and want to have interaction with their classmates,” Lippe said.
Smyth said it’s amazing to her that so many students signed up for the language courses because they are a year-long academic commitment. Middle school students earn high school credit for the course.
“Once you start, it is part of your permanent transcript and grades,” Smyth said.
She said she was surprised that so many middle school students wanted a language course in their schedule. She’s received no calls from parents wanting to take their student out of a course because of difficulty.
“I’m anxious to see how the grades turn out,” Smyth said.
Christopher Hindsley teaches French at Edgewood, and Michelle Trzynka teaches Spanish. At Lakeview, Betsey Vastbinder teaches Spanish and Ann Slaughter teaches French. Dr. Shu-Chun Tseng teaches the Mandarin Chinese at both middle schools and the high school.
“She has a hard schedule,” Smyth said, referring to Tseng. “She’s in all three of our buildings and she teaches six classes a day.”
Smyth’s own daughter, who is Chinese but has never spoke a word of Chinese in her life, is taking Tseng’s class. Smyth said her daughter was already singing “Happy Birthday” to her brother the other day in Chinese. Her daughter told her it wasn’t that hard to learn.
Smyth’s daughter isn’t the only one who has found learning Mandarin Chinese easy.
Edgewood student Noah Ault said he signed up for the class “because if you can speak Chinese, there’s a lot more job opportunities. It’s not that hard. It’s in between. It’s easier than I thought it was.”
Ault and classmate Haley June both may continue taking Mandarin Chinese in high school.
“It’s more interesting than Spanish and French, I think,” June said. “And it’s fun.”
June also said, “It’s not to say it as much, but way harder to learn the characters.”
Noah Fayed, WCHS sophomore said, “I just wanted to try something new. I wasn’t taking any Spanish or other foreign language class, so I wanted to try this class.
“The writing is kind of hard and it’s a really fun class so far,” he said.
Lippe said when he sat in on the Chinese classes, it gave him a great snapshot of what it’s like for the school’s diverse language learners. Often, non-English speaking students are embarrassed when they first arrive that they can’t speak the language so are initially quiet. Lippe said he felt that same way when he sat in on the Mandarin Chinese class.
Along with the languages, Smyth said they are also trying to teach the cultures. Next week, students will celebrate the Chinese Moon Festival and will get to try Moon Cakes.
One of the advantages of offering world languages to eighth-graders is that by the end of their high school career, they can have five years of a language, Smyth said. That will help them test out of courses in college and be more marketable for jobs.
Smyth said the world is so small and companies are international. The fastest-growing language in the world is Mandarin Chinese, so if a student can get five years of the language under their belt, they’ll have a very marketable job skill.
“After five years, if we do this well, hopefully we’ll have opportunities for (Advanced Placement) courses,” Smyth said.
Lippe said the OrthoWorx study last fall had a big impact on the middle schools offering world languages. The orthopedic industry not only wants a diverse work force, but also wants educational opportunities for the children of its employees it brings to Warsaw, Lippe said.
“I don’t know if we would have done something like this without the OrthoWorx study,” Lippe said.
People were cynical when the idea of offering Mandarin Chinese came up, but with it being the growing world language, Lippe said that’s where it’s at. The question was if they could find someone to teach it.
“You need a Chinese teacher. A good Chinese teacher,” Lippe said.
The Confuscious Institute put out some feelers for Warsaw Schools, and got more than four responses. In the end, Warsaw courted Tseng for six months before they could interview her, Lippe said. She turned out to be a great teacher, he said.
Smyth said the world language courses did affect some of the school’s other electives. With so many students taking a world language, other electives saw their number of students drop.
Lippe said the same thing happened at Lakeview.
“There’s a little competition that’s going on there. That’s growing the whole school and it’s going to make us better,” Lippe said.
“They’re excited,” Lippe said of the students’ response to the world languages courses. “There’s a lot of excitement.”
He said Warsaw is a pretty diverse community for its size. The world language classes will help break down the cultural barriers.
“It’s just going to be a positive for everybody,” Lippe said.[[In-content Ad]]
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