The Student News Site of Westborough High School

The Lobby Observer

The Student News Site of Westborough High School

The Lobby Observer

The Student News Site of Westborough High School

The Lobby Observer

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Have a Wonderful Break!

Secret Agent 007

by Michael Fisher

In February of this year a former Boeing engineer was arrested for allegedly stealing space shuttle secrets for China.  One month previously American counter intelligence officials told Congress that Chinese espionage posed a significant threat to national security.  The CIA and FBI are now recruiting more multilingual agents than ever before, including Chinese speakers.

And Mandarin Chinese has come to Westborough High School.

Mandarin is one of the oldest written languages, dating back 5,000 to 6,000 years.  It is the most commonly spoken language in the world and the official language of China, Taiwan, and Singapore.  According to Mrs. Carol Cheung, the Mandarin teacher, it takes about four times longer to learn proficiently than the Romance languages, such as Spanish and French, because it includes pinyin, tone, and characters.  Pinyin refers to the transliteration of Chinese characters into the English alphabet, the tone is the pitch at which the words are spoken, and each character represents one word.  The Mandarin language does not require verb conjugation and its words do not have gender associated with them.  In addition, there are no articles, no noun-adjective agreement, and no capital letters.  Mrs. Cheung explains that learning the language is “not exactly that difficult, it’s just a matter of more time.”  She predicts that in four years an average student will be able to master basic phrases like greetings, knowing members of the family, and asking people how old they are.

There are currently about 1.5 billion people who speak Mandarin and it is one of the fastest growing languages in the United States.  Mandarin is considered a critical language for national security and, as such, people who speak it are in high demand.  The growing global strength of China economically, politically, and militarily makes Mandarin of even greater consequence.  Therefore, someone fluent in Mandarin would get paid at least double for being a diplomat or working for large businesses, the state department, the CIA, or the FBI.

Mrs. Carol Cheung was born in Southeastern China in the Guangdong Province.  At the age of 9, she was sent by her parents to British-controlled Hong Kong.  There, she attended a missionary school where she began learning English and took Bible classes.  After turning 13 Mrs. Cheung came to America and was reunited with her parents.  She went to the University of Maryland as an undergraduate and then to Dowling College to obtain her Master’s Degree.  Following graduation she went from an examiner to a substitute to a full-fledged teacher, becoming one of less than 1,000 certified Mandarin teachers in the United States.  Over this period she taught students from Afghanistan, the Ivory Coast, Vietnam, Morocco, Cameroon, and Haiti.  In addition, Mrs. Cheung lived in Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington D.C., New York, and Massachusetts.  She continues to make annual visits to China in order to stay current on the language.

Mrs. Cheung enjoys running a very interactive class.  She recalled observing many classes in China where each day students would spend hours reading from their textbooks.  Mrs. Cheung explained that “I would never do that to my students.”  Instead, she has them play games like bingo, jump rope, and chess in order to bolster their knowledge of the language.  Mrs. Cheung also has one culture class each week to teach her students about Chinese leaders, religions, and ethnic groups.  For this, she takes out souvenirs and pictures from her trips to China.  She sometimes brings in Chinese food like lo mein noodles and rice.  Mrs. Cheung has the students sing songs and watch occasional movies as well.  In a few weeks she plans to begin teaching them the ancient Chinese art of calligraphy.

Mrs. Cheung’s new Mandarin class is a valued addition to Westborough High School and may become as popular as Spanish, Latin, and French in the years to come.

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