Chinese Language School and TAFSD/TACC

Chinese Language School and TAFSD/TACC

Reported by Edward Cheng, Planning Committee, TAFSD, May 16, 2007

To operate a language school, there are at least three important factors to consider: (1) facility, (2) teachers, and (3) students. Of these factors, the number of students and their needs is the most important factor to consider since the other two factors depend on the number of students and their needs.

A Chinese language school can teach all dialects spoken in Asia in the territory currently occupied by the Han Chinese in the two countries, People’s Republic of China and Taiwan (Republic of China). These languages include dialects spoken in PRC such as Beijing (Peking) dialect, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Taishanese, Fujianese, etc, and dialects spoken in Taiwan such as Beijing dialect, Holok, Hakka, etc. The languages offered in the Chinese schools in San Diego, however, depend on the needs of the students whose parents are mainly from these two Asian countries, or students who are pursuing their various language interests. Because of the immigrant background, the most offered Chinese language in San Diego is the Beijing dialect, or Mandarin. Due to the geopolitical difference, the writing system has evolved separately into a traditional Chinese and a simplified Chinese system. The tradition Chinese is a well established language in Taiwan and the simplified Chinese is a common language in PRC as well.

My understanding of the Chinese schools in the Greater San Diego area is based on a discussion on May 8, 2007, with Ms. Tracy Chang who is a former principal of one of the Chinese Language Schools in San Diego, North County Chinese School, operated by the San Diego Chinese Cultural Association.

I. Chinese Schools in San Diego

There are at least seven Chinese language schools in the Greater San Diego area (see attachment). Three of them are focusing on teaching Mandarin on Saturdays or weekends, three are dealing with all kind of Chinese languages, and one offers an after school class that teaches Chinese languages. The report is mainly on the three schools focusing on teaching Mandarin on Saturdays or weekends.

The three schools are (1) North County Chinese School北郡中文學校, (2) San Diego Chinese Academy聖地牙哥中華學宛, and (3) San Diego Hua Xia Chinese School聖地牙哥華夏中文學校.

I.1. Students and their needs. Currently enrolled numbers of students and languages taught in these schools:

·  North County Chinese School – 500 students, mainly teaching the traditional Chinese繁體中文, and using the phonetic spelling symbols注音符號 and hanyu pinyin 漢語拼音for the pronunciation. An increasing trend is also to teach simplified Chinese 簡體中文and hanyu pinyin漢語拼音.

·  San Diego Chinese Academy – 200 students, mainly teaching the traditional Chinese, and using the phonetic spelling symbols, As the North County Chinese School, teaching simplified Chinese and hanyu pinyin is also an increasing trend.

·  San Diego Hua Xia Chinese School – currently over 1,000 students, mainly teaching simplified Chinese and hanyu pinyin.

The numbers of students in the North County Chinese School and San Diego Chinese Academy are reduced gradually due to the lack of students whose parents are from Taiwan. To increase the number of students these two schools begin to offer classes teaching simplified Chinese and hanyu pinyin. On the contrary, the San Diego Hua Xia Chinese School has experienced increasing number of students. Due to recent immigrants from PRC, the number of students has increased from 45 in 1998 to over 1,000 in 2005, according to a December 12, 2005 report on The San Diego Union-Tribune.

I.2. Facility (Classrooms). The number of classrooms needed to operate a language school is completely determined by the number of students a class can take and the total number of enrolled students. The number of students in each class is 10 to 30 depending on the levels and other requirements of students. The number of classrooms for these schools is from 20 to 40. The only facility that can offer this large number of classrooms seems to be an elementary school, a high school, or a college. All these three Chinese schools in San Diego have classes only on Saturdays, so they are able to rent classrooms from the neighborhood high school and college. In addition to paying the classroom rents, they also have to purchase separate liability insurance and hire security guards to guarantee the safety of all students, teachers, and parents during Saturday school hours. The classes are offered only for the regular semesters. During the summer time, however, the number of students is greatly reduced. Because of the reduced number of classrooms, renting classrooms from a high school or college does not appear to be attractive financially to run a summer language school.

I.3. Teachers. Quality of teachers is an important factor. The teachers have to be native speakers of the language, and require some level of teaching experience if the school is to be certified to offer credit-earning Chinese language classes for high school students in San Diego. Currently, of the North County Chinese School, about one third of the teachers are PRC immigrants. The remaining teachers are immigrants from Taiwan.

II. Findings:

Based on the above investigation, I find it not practical for the future TACC to operate a full-scale Chinese language school because of the following reasons: (1) the number of classrooms in the future TACC facility may not be enough, and (2) the total number of students whose parents are immigrants from Taiwan is reducing, the presently existing Chinese language schools, namely North County Chinese school and San Diego Chinese Academy, appear to be enough to serve the purpose of Chinese language education.

However, as suggested by Tracy Chang, cooperation can be established between the TACC and the existing two Chinese language schools, when the TACC has the new facility. The TACC can offer its available classrooms to these schools for their summer programs. This will then enhance the visibility of the TACC and attracts the Chinese school students and their parents and relatives to the other TACC programs.

III. Recommendations:

(1) The TACC does not need to operate a full-scale Chinese language school.

(2) The TACC cooperates with the existing Chinese language schools by offering classrooms for the summer school programs.

(3) The TACC continues to offer the Taiwanese languages classes, since the TACC has the unique expertise and experience in these languages in the Greater San Diego area.

Attachment: Chinese language Schools in San Diego

Chinese Language Schools in San Diego

North County Chinese School, San Diego Chinese Cultural Assn., P.O. Box 720352, San Diego, CA 92172-0352. (Contact: Ms. Theresa Chuang, 15351 Ridgeview Place, Poway, CA 92064, (619) 679-0251.)

San Diego Chinese Academy, P.O. Box 910093, San Diego, CA 92191-0093, (619) 484-5045. (Contact: Ms. Lucia Yau, 4626 Wellston Point, San Diego, CA 92130, (619) 793-3672.)

San Diego Hua Xia Chinese School, 8895 Towne Centre Dr., #105, San Diego, CA 92122. (Contact: Li Jian-Jun, Principal, 4377 Eastgate Mall, San Diego, CA 92122, (619) 457-2635.)

Chinese Friendship Association, BAC-AC Chinese School, 3876 50th Street, San Diego, CA 92105, (619) 528-0765(Contact: Ms. Sue Jing Wang, 2141 Brickellia Street, San Diego, CA 92129, (619) 484-2184.)

Chinese School of San Diego, 1750 47th Street, San Diego, CA 92102. (Contact: Ms. Sally Wong, Principal, 4932 Cannington Dr., San Diego, CA 92117, (619) 565-8008.)

Yat-Sen Chinese School, Indo-Chinese Association, 4536 University Avenue, San Diego, CA 92105, (619) 265-1745. (Contact: Ms. Lydia Chen, 13947 Carriage Road, Poway, CA 92064, (619) 679-7018.)

San Diego American Chinese School, 3337 Industrial Ct., San Diego, CA 92121 (858)-245-9665. 4-6PM, Monday-Friday