A church basement filled with squirming children on a weekend morning usually means bible stories and hymns, but on Sunday, September 12 the Wellesley Congregational Village Church played host instead to the beginning of a language-learning journey.
Seventy-five students, grades K-6, gathered in the church basement for the official opening of the Wellesley Chinese School. A mix of first- and second-generation Chinese immigrants and people from other backgrounds, the group included Wellesley natives, as well as visitors from Sherbourne, Needham, Framingham, Natick, and Weston.
James Sours, 9, was preparing for his first day of basic Chinese. “The characters are really interesting, so I want to learn about them” he said. His mother added, “It used to be that kindergarten and first grade in Wellesley included foreign language, but now that begins in 7th grade. This is a head start for him.”
A few seats down, a small boy pouted about the prospect of school on a Sunday. His father, Chris Chan, also of Wellesley, is not a native Chinese speaker and will be studying along with his son. “You gotta love the location. It’s so convenient. [Framingham, where there is another Chinese school] wasn’t very far, but it was farther than I wanted to go,” Chan said.
As staff members passed out silly bands to students, some of the school leadership spoke about the school’s path to existence and its goals for the future.
Jianmei Kochling, co-chair of the board of directors, outlined the school’s goals, saying “The premise is that everyone can learn Chinese… We seek to educate, challenge, and inspire our community.”
In her own remarks, school principal Xiaoyun Wu added, “We are obligated to provide an opportunity for our kids to learn the language spoken by one third of the world.”
The two women then introduced the school’s language teachers, all of whom have Master’s Degrees and teaching experience.
“This is a very different school from existing schools, in terms of quality,” Kochling said. “This is the first school in the area where we advertised and did full rounds of interviews looking for teachers. They aren’t just parents of students—in fact, none of the teachers are students’ parents. Some of them are professors. They really prepare for their classes.”
After a ribbon cutting ceremony and remarks by Wellesley State Representative Alice Peisch, students were dismissed to their classrooms, with classes separated into two groups.
One quarter of the students are ‘monolingual’ and have no Mandarin background, while the remaining ‘heritage’ students have some language exposure and are divided by level. While the monolingual class will follow a more conventional learning process, heritage students will use the Ma Li Ping system, which emphasizes reading and speaking at a time when students may not yet be writing comfortably in their first language.
“With Ma Li Ping, we can have them reading materials they’re interested in quickly,” said Helen Fang of the school’s board of directors. “Without this kind of system, young learners often lose interest by grade three.”
After the ceremony, teacher Shuxia Liu went around her Ma Li Ping kindergarten class asking simple questions to check comprehension. “How old are you? How many people are in your family? What do your parents call you?” she asked each small face in succession. Down the hall, the monolingual class practiced the basic Mandarin vowels.
Later on, the students would round out the day with other pursuits: along with language courses, the school will offer classes on Chinese classical performing arts, painting, and chess.
The Wellesley Chinese School’s next term will begin in January. Anyone interested in registering for classes should contact the school beginning in late November. Visit www.wellesleychineseschool.org for more information.
Alissa Greenberg is a Sampan correspondent.