In the News

I am always excited when I read about African American youth excelling in school. But I am obviously ecstatic when I learn about Black youth that are excelling in Mandarin also.

Whitley, 16, is on the fast track in school and swimming. In the classroom, his workload includes Mandarin Chinese and advanced courses in chemistry and algebra. In the water, he posted the seventh-fastest time among American men in the 200-meter breaststroke last year to establish himself as a 2016 Olympic hopeful.

Read more here.

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Every Thursday, Reece Whitley’s busy life screeches to a halt. The red light built into his 10-grade class schedule at William Penn Charter School, a private Quaker institution founded in 1689, is a 40-minute meditative period known as “Meeting for Worship.” The period of silence, sometimes broken by students or teachers sharing thoughts when the spirit moves them, was the topic of a lively conversation during a recent Quaker Principles class.

One student said the 40 minutes would be better spent studying. Another dismissed it as the adolescent version of nap time as sleep-deprived students sometimes nod off.

Whitley, wedged into a back-row seat like a Hummer limousine in a parking space for a compact car, raised his hand and said he looked forward to the Meeting for Worship more this year than in the past.

“I can kind of get away from thinking about everything,” he said, adding, “It’s nice.”

Whitley, 16, is on the fast track in school and swimming. In the classroom, his workload includes Mandarin Chinese and advanced courses in chemistry and algebra. In the water, he posted the seventh-fastest time among American men in the 200-meter breaststroke last year to establish himself as a 2016 Olympic hopeful.

NEW YORK—“Ni Hao,” first responders say as they arrive at an old firehouse in Brooklyn. That’s Mandarin Chinese for “hi” or “hello.”

About a dozen firefighters, EMTs and paramedics spend about two hours a week taking the first Mandarin course offered under the auspices of the Fire Department of New York’s Phoenix Society and the New York City Fire Department Foundation.

A recent U.S. Census Bureau report about New York City revealed an increasingly diverse and dynamic population, with immigrants comprising the majority in some neighborhoods. Almost 200 languages are spoken, so knowledge of different languages can become critical, especially if you are a first responder.

The Chinese community is predicted to become New York’s largest immigrant group in the next few years, and will be the largest Chinese community outside of Asia.

Growing need

First responders have to be able to communicate quickly and effectively when an emergency arises, said Lieutenant Steve Lee, president of the FDNY Phoenix Society.

“We’re going into these neighborhoods and in these communities and assisting anybody who’s in need of such assistance regardless of where they’re from,” Lee said. “So a lot of times, we do encounter language and barriers. It’s a vital resource for us to be able to communicate to the people who are calling for our help.”

Discovering the exact location of a blaze without the assistance of a homeowner or renter can be a real handicap, according to Lee.

“So you speak to the people, you say, ‘What building? What’s the address? What apartment?’ and one of the most important things you can find out, especially if it’s an occupant from that apartment, ‘Is there anybody left in there and where?'” Lee said.

The statistics underscore the crucial need for multilingual skills. There currently are 450,000 non-English speaking Asians in New York City. On any given day, only six Asian-American firefighters are working the city streets.

Lifelong teacher

Lily Cheung, who teaches the Mandarin class, is thoroughly impressed with this first group of responders.

“I can see this amazing progress they have made with this language, one of the hardest languages in the world,” she said. “They work long hours, some of them actually work the night shift, and they may not even have enough time to rest, but they come to class.”

Cheung started teaching Mandarin when she was 11 years old. Her mother was a Mandarin teacher before she retired.

Cheung has her own style, which she calls the “Chinglish Way.”

“I would explain it to them like in the English order,” she said. “There’s a Chinese order, and then I would translate, like literally dissect the language part-to-part and then combine them together. So just make it really easy for students to understand.”

High praise

A paramedic for 14 years, Doraun Ellis has had some Mandarin training before, and has high praise for his teacher.

“She goes to each and every single person in this class,” Ellis said, “and goes over the lesson until we thoroughly understand what she’s taught. She really shows us how to use it.”

Ellis added, “The closer I get to being able to complete an interview with a patient on an emergency call, the more successful I am with making them feel at ease.”

The students already have put their language training to use. Jacob Dutton, a 10-year FDNY veteran, responded to an emergency call in the past week involving a report of gas in an apartment.

“We got up there,” Dutton said, “and lo and behold, the two occupants of the apartment only spoke Mandarin. And so I did have an opportunity to speak to them and kind of figure out what was going on.”

He was able to find the gas leak and get the residents to make the necessary repairs.

A second Mandarin class is scheduled for April, along with classes in other languages.

Repost voanews.com

Speaking a foreign language is often a high hurdle for many expats to leap – but what are the world’s most difficult languages to learn?

Expats and human resources managers at multinationals were posed the question and it seems wherever they are based in the world, they all have a similar answer.

Expats from the USA, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific all responded that Mandarin Chinese was the hardest language to get to grips with for non-speaking expats.

Almost 40% of expats and their managers felt M

andarin Chinese was a tough option.

In a tie for second place were Japanese and Arabic, both scoring 18% in the poll by relocation firm Cartus.

Meaning with meaning

Spokesman Patrice Heinzer explained that successful expats need to master foreign languages to make life easier for them and their colleagues.

“Mandarin Chinese is really hard to learn for Westerner because the language has thousands of subtle tones, inflections and characters that subtly change the meaning of words in a way that is unfamiliar to someone from Europe orNorth America,” he said.

Heinzer also argued that expats needed to go beyond conversational language for their jobs.

“Expats need to understand meaning within meaning like a natural speaker of a language,” he said.

“To become an effective negotiator you have to understand and imply the right meaning to your words in everyday business situations.”

Cartus also asked expats which language they felt most comfortable learning – with Spanish topping the list.

Tongue twisting languages

Looking at the question from the Chinese perspective, the list of tongue-twisting languages is not much different.

The Chinese People’s Daily published this list of difficult languages. Top was Chinese – the others were (in degree of difficulty with the hardest last):

• French
• Danish
• Norwegian
• German
• Finnish
• Japanese
• Icelandic
• Arabic
• Greek

The list was published by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) along with explanations of why they were considered tough to speak.

The UN considered many languages were hard to learn because their written form gave no clues to how to pronounce words.

“Where you come from does influence the way you learn and speak a language, but the hardest to learn seem to involve a written form that does not reflect the spoken word,” said a UNESCO spokesman.

The Not Face―that look of boredom or strong disapproval that is many a person’s neutral face―was only certified A Real Thing by scientists in October 2015. Now, new research says the facial expression transcends barriers between different cultures.

via GIPHY

In a study conducted by Ohio State University, native speakers of English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and American Sign Language all interpreted negative feelings with what researchers dubbed the “Not Face.” The study, published in the May issue of Cognition, was inspired by a theory from Charles Darwin, who believed conveying aggression and danger were assets for the propagation of the human race.

Researchers tagged images of students speaking frame by frame to see which facial muscles moved when they disagreed. Then, computer algorithms found commonalities in three distinct muscle movements: furrowed brows, raised chin, and pressed-together lips (a combo of “anger,” “disgust,” and “contempt”). Kinda like this: