Editor:

Mandarin for BC Schools (Richmond Committee) would like to thank the Richmond School District and residents for participating in the discussion on early Mandarin learning.

Our goal is to prepare our children for a world in which they will assume economic, political and societal leadership. Our support is broad. Parents in English, Russian, Spanish, Cantonese, Japanese, French and Mandarin speaking homes wish for their children to become fluent in the world’s two most spoken languages—English and Mandarin.

We honour English and French as Canada’s official languages, but they need not be learned at the exclusion of all other languages. Canada has fallen behind in preparing our children linguistically; European youth are finishing high school fluent in multiple languages. We should begin adopting best practices in language learning to give our children every advantage in a competitive global environment.

Top marks go to Edmonton Public Schools for offering bilingual programs in seven languages: Arabic, American Sign Language, Mandarin, German, Hebrew, Spanish and Ukrainian and the Calgary Board of Education for offering bilingual programs in three: Mandarin, Spanish and German. Both of these program, as with our proposal, include English and French.

Our committee is concerned about the current budgetary issues facing our schools. We have children in Richmond schools and understand first-hand the results of budget cuts. Over the next few months, school staff will research the feasibility of various program options—full immersion, bilingual, language arts. Then, with estimated program expenses, we can look for creative funding solutions that will not erode existing programs. An early-start Mandarin program, if approved, would likely not be available for a couple of years. Hopefully, the economy will rebound and we will have more funding sources.

Let’s continue the discussion, Richmond. But as we talk, we respectfully ask that there be no negativity aimed at our city’s new immigrants from China. This proposal was not of their initiative. And, of the 120 positive respondents to our e-survey, the majority do not speak Mandarin at home.

Our new immigrants are a valued part of our community, contributing in many ways. A secondary and valuable benefit to learning language is that it leads to a deeper understanding of culture. Our proposed program would only serve to strengthen cross-cultural understanding between Richmond’s cultural groups.

If you wish for your children to have the competitive advantage of fluency in English and Mandarin, please learn more at our website at www.mandarinforbcschools.org/richmond.php and fill out our e-survey to help demonstrate program demand to the Board of Education.

Teresa Pan and the Mandarin for BC Schools (Richmond Committee)

Richmond