Our Children Must Learn Chinese

By Hongyi Zhou, reprinted from CCC Newletter, 12/1/2001

Every Sunday afternoon, we come to Shaker Junior High for CCC Chinese School. Over years this has become a natural part of Sunday's life. Often times I still ask myself why learning Chinese is on the top of our Sunday's agenda.

Admittedly, most of our kids do not like to learn Chinese, and they are not to be blamed for. Our kids actually enjoy being bilingual, and most of them chose to study a second language in middle school. However, Chinese is not a learner-friendly language, and its special characters, pronunciations and grammatical rules are very distant from English. Kids are also filled with many other activities, such as playing musical instruments, participating in math contests, or focusing time to excel in school. From their perspective, they will be just fine without learning Chinese.

However, we as parent see two reasons that our kids must learn Chinese. The reasons are simply for past and for future. As the most resilient civilization, our past was filled the richest history of mankind. Such a history has always been a great heritage for Chinese, and it would be plain shameful if we do not pass it onto our next generation. Sadly our history has not been given enough attention in American education. Therefore, we are responsible to instill it into the minds and sprits of our kids. Without a doubt, learning Chinese is the most efficient way to do so.

What is more important to the next generation is future. It is obvious that Chinese will be the dominant world demography in the coming decades. It is widely believed that demography is a deciding factor in future growth of this globe. From this perspective, there is no question that China will be the hub of opportunities in future. In 2001, two landmark events happened in China - winning the bid for 2008 Olympic Game and entering the World Trade Organization. Both events, although being heavily debated for their motivations and consequences, have made it clearer that the Showtime for China has started. "If the 19th century belonged to Britain, and the 20th century to the United States, then the 21st Century will surely belong to China", said Wall Street legend Jim Rogers. And he concluded: "My advice: Make sure your kids learn Chinese".

I spent much time learning English when I was a kid, and I fell lucky that I can make use of it today. Millions of kids in China are learning English, and they are assured that they will benefit from it in future. Our kids in America have a chance of being trilingual in English, Chinese and another language. I believe that this will be a great advantage no matter what they do - compete job opportunities in global economies as well as enjoy personal life in diversified cultures.

In August 2001, the state of New Jersey passed a law, which states "A pupil.... may complete and receive credit toward high school graduation for a foreign language course offered by a religious organization or any other non-public school organization or entity". I hope that someday the state of New York also pass a similar law so our CCC Chinese School can be recognized.


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