2 St. Mary's Schools Add Chinese Classes

When St. Mary's County public schools administrators decided to start a Chinese language program, they went straight to the source.

St. Mary's is one of 34 school districts across the country that will host a guest teacher visiting from China for the next 18 months. Zhijun Peng, an English teacher from Kunming, in southern China, will teach Mandarin to eighth-graders at Leonardtown Middle School and ninth-graders at Leonardtown High School next year.

"We've recognized the importance of the Chinese language in the world, and we want our students to be able to compete on a global level," St. Mary's Superintendent Michael J. Martirano said. "But in the U.S. we do have a shortage of teachers qualified to teach Chinese, so we're absolutely thrilled to be able to host a native speaker as a teacher."

Peng arrived in the United States on Friday and has spent the last few days designing a curriculum and talking with school administrators about their goals for the program. In her spare time, she has been adjusting to life in a country that she had never visited.

"I think there are a lot of misconceptions about America in China," she said. "Before I came to America, I said, 'I don't like American food because it's all sweet.' But then I learned that's not true, and it's actually quite good."

At the top of her American culinary list, Peng said, is crab soup -- a choice Martirano told her would make her very popular in Southern Maryland.

But Peng added that misinformation about her home country is prevalent in the United States as well, a problem she hopes she can help address during her time in Leonardtown. She will teach about her culture as well as providing language instruction, she said.

St. Mary's efforts to create a Chinese program began last summer, when gifted and talented education supervisor Laura Carpenter traveled to China with about 400 U.S. educators. Soon after Carpenter returned, she began filling out the application to host a guest teacher this year.

"We want to build this up to where we're offering AP Chinese," Carpenter said. "At some point, we'll look at hiring another teacher after Zhijun leaves."

Selena Cantor, director of Chinese language and culture initiatives for the College Board, which is sponsoring the visiting teachers program, said schools were selected based on plans they had developed to launch Chinese language programs. The College Board, which administers Advanced Placement exams in high schools, will debut tests in Chinese and Japanese in May.

More than 200 million Chinese students study English, while about 24,000 U.S. students study Chinese.

"We saw an off-the-charts interest in AP Chinese at schools we surveyed, but we quickly realized many of these schools didn't teach even beginning Chinese," Cantor said. "We think of this program as a short-term, interim solution to jump-start Chinese language programs."

Peng will stay at Carpenter's home during her time in Maryland, an opportunity she said she appreciates because both educators have 5-year-old children. Peng's husband and son will stay in China while she is teaching abroad.

"I feel completely at home," Peng said.

When she's not teaching, Peng plans to go sightseeing in Washington and explore Southern Maryland. She will even accompany Carpenter's family on a trip to Walt Disney World.

"This is also an opportunity to build friendships," Carpenter said. "Learning about someone else's life is a very important part of this."