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Feature News | Friday, March 20, 2015

They're speaking Chinese

Cultural exchanges and Mandarin classes among offerings for high school students

Archbishop Edward A McCarthy High School students and chaperones visited China in July 2014 as part of a new international educational and cultural awareness exchange program. Here, the McCarthy students are shown at the Great Wall of China.

Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO

Archbishop Edward A McCarthy High School students and chaperones visited China in July 2014 as part of a new international educational and cultural awareness exchange program. Here, the McCarthy students are shown at the Great Wall of China.

MIAMI | Here is what other South Florida Catholic schools are doing to better prepare their students for the global economy:

Marianist-owned Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory School in Hollywood began its International Education Program in 2012, partnering with the Cambridge Institute of International Education to enroll five students from China. That number has now grown to 34, with four graduating last year and 11 this year.

“This year we admitted the largest class of new students with a very competitive waiting list of students trying to be accepted into the International Studies Program,” said Richard Pulido, senior director of advancement. “We are very proud of this — it’s really created a quite unique aspect to our school.”

The Chaminade-Madonna students seek to attend college in the United States and want to improve their English and assimilate.

Click here for related story: Catholic schools look East, toward China

“Our administration felt we would benefit by expanding our ministry to regions of the world where often times we may not be welcomed. And we thought it would be immediately beneficial for our domestic population to bond with students from China,” said Pulido. “The world is no longer isolated. Through technology we’ve turned into an international melting pot especially in South Florida. This is a wonderful opportunity to expose our students to this very unique and rich culture with thousands of years of history.”

Archbishop McCarthy students pose for a photo in Tiananmen Square in July 2014.

Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO

Archbishop McCarthy students pose for a photo in Tiananmen Square in July 2014.

Archbishop McCarthy students pose in front of original gate at Beijing No. 4 High School in China. Chinese students from Beijing No. 4 High School International Campus spent a mini-semester in January 2014 at McCarthy High.

Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO

Archbishop McCarthy students pose in front of original gate at Beijing No. 4 High School in China. Chinese students from Beijing No. 4 High School International Campus spent a mini-semester in January 2014 at McCarthy High.

Likewise, the many non-Christian Chinese students are open to attending Mass, theology classes and retreats.

“They are receptive. They are here to learn about our culture,” Pulido said.

Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy High School in Southwest Ranches hosted 11 students for a cultural exchange in January 2014 and then sent five to visit their friends in China last July.

Student exchange coordinator Gloria Garcia said that Beijing No. 4 High School International Campus approached them about the exchange as part of its effort to introduce students to regions across the United States.

As South Florida is “very popular” among the Chinese, the Southwest Ranches high school was unable to host the large group of Beijing students this year.  Instead, they sent exchange students to Italy. But the school hopes to continue the China partnership.

“It was a tremendous experience for the visitors and our students,” Garcia said. “This is a wonderful way to expose to different countries and ways of life in a very safe environment.”

In Coconut Grove, Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart hosts two Taiwanese exchange students for eight weeks. They are enrolled in a Sacred Heart school in Taipei, to which Carrollton has also sent students for a quarter.

The all girls’ school also leads a middle school trip to Taiwan each year around Holy Week and Easter.

“They celebrate Easter in a culture very different than ours at a Catholic school in a non-Catholic country. It’s so different and yet the universality of the Catholic faith and celebration of Easter is something they experience,” said Carrollton’s headmistress, Sister Suzanne Cooke of the Religious of the Sacred Heart.

With five Chinese teachers on staff, Carrollton starts early in preparing its girls to become global citizens: All kindergarteners receive an introduction to Mandarin; first graders choose between it and Spanish, with about half choosing Mandarin. Students choose again in sixth grade and can continue through high school.

“They can graduate from Carrollton fairly fluent in reading, writing and articulating of ideas across academic disciplines,” said Sister Cooke. “The Mandarin program has matured to the point of being included in the International Baccalaureate diploma program…

“We’ve got a really solid team of Mandarin teachers and we are really happy with the program,” she added. “We have one of the largest Mandarin programs in Miami-Dade County.”

Sister Cooke had gone on a Sacred Heart vocations trip to Asia where she first became convinced of the need to also offer an Asian language.

“One out of five people living today speaks Mandarin,” she said. “It’s obvious to be an effective global citizen one needs to be bilingual,” and since South Florida students generally have English and Spanish “given to them,” it made sense to offer an Asian language, she said.

“We have to provide for their future and Mandarin seemed the logical choice.”

FIND OUT MORE

Becoming fluent in Mandarin hardly seems a passing trend: It is classified by the U.S. State Department as one of 13 critical need languages — and the world’s most widely spoken, by over a billion people.

The United States also is China’s largest export market: China is the third largest for U.S. goods, and two-way trade between the two nations grew from $33 billion in 1992 to $562 billion in 2013.

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