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Hello all,

I am a student of Linguistics at PSU, and have studied Mandarin myself. For a native English speaker learning this language poses a number of difficulties, particularly the writing system and tonal pronunciation. I had to work very hard, with a high degree of interest, to even get a meager amount of communicative ability. In my mind, this only furthers Mr. Porter's point of view. I attended high school at Sprague High School in Salem and, at the time, there was no Mandarin Chinese program there. I doubt that there is one in place there today, let alone most of the other schools in the state. Because the language is so difficult to write and pronounce, and because of the rising prominence of China on the world stage, Oregon needs to have a solid Mandarin Chinese program at the high school level to give its students an advantage.

As to what one learns when one learns a language...well...that is a terribly dense question. I doubt that we could even really begin to answer that question in this format. Many people have dedicated their life's work to finding that out. I can state my opinion about what people learn, though. To me, it seems that language is a kind of operating system, similar to that of a computer. Each language has a unique way of conveying information. Differences in syntax, or sentence structure, may lead to slight differences in the way that individuals process information. For instance, when a sentence is in the past tense in German, the verb moves to the end of the sentence. So the English sentence "He went to the store to buy some eggs" would literally translate to "He is to the store some eggs to buy gone". Though the difference in time is minimal, the German speaker has to wait until the end of the sentence to know what the actual action that took place is. There is something to be said for our ability to predict what another will say, but despite that, it seems to me that there is a difference in the processing of information which may belie a different feel or meaning for each language, even though the content of the message is the same.

I don't think that one can learn a language without learning the corresponding culture. Part of how we communicate is the quality of what we hear and say. This is most readily perceivable in forms of politeness. If one ignores the social rules of a given culture, communication is likely to suffer as a result. Another example from German is the discrepancy between the address forms "du" and "Sie", which very roughly translate to "you" and "sir". It is expected in normal discourse that if one is speaking with a superior or elder, that the inferior person will address the superior as "Sie". The first time that I met the head of the German department at PSU, I made the unfortunate mistake of addressing him as "du". It was a mistake that I doubt I will ever live down without some profuse apologizing. ( "Also, ob Sie diese Sendung anhoeren, bitte verzeihen Sie mir!") In a way this sets up a cultural idea of superior and inferior, which definitely plays a role on the psyche of a speaker. This is only a small taste of cultural ideas that are imbedded within language.

There is also the idea within language learning circles that at the advanced levels of learning, one must choose a kind of character for oneself in the target language. In a way this is like an entrance into the culture. To what degree it is possible to become apart of another culture, though, I am not sure.

I hope that some of these examples will help the discussion along. If we can increase the number of good Mandarin Chinese programs in our public schools, our students will be more likely to later get jobs where both English and Mandarin are needed. Given that China will continue to play an important role in the world, it would be foolish to not pursue Mr. Porter's ideal. It would also aid in lessening the cultural divide both internationally and within the United States.

If I may, there is a side issue that should be addressed, in regard to Oregon's language policy. There is currently a measure that is coming up on the next ballot that would limit the amount of non-English education to the first two years of schooling. As can be predicted this would mostly effect students who speak spanish as their first language. In several studies, it has been shown that children that do not receive eight years of education in their first language do not develop the conceptual skills to perform at a high school level. In places where a similar program has been put into place, high school drop-outs for non-English speaking students has gone through the roof. I implore you all to defeat this ballot measure when it comes up for a vote. The proponents of this measure will likely make it sound like it will help these students, but I assure you it will not.

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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