Chinese in San Lorenzo
5-29-13
My commentary of last Wednesday May 22nd was on
the excellent experience my wife Pinky and I had upon visiting San Lorenzo with
the Fondo de Mejoramiento. My only constructive criticism was that the
excellent museum did not have the description of the exhibits in English. As
you know from past commentaries, I have been harping on the need for Puerto
Rico to be a bilingual society in which our young and old feel comfortable in
both Spanish and English.
In Monday’s El Nuevo Día, there was an interesting article
on a recent program at the Municipality’s new virtual library that brought a
Chinese professor to teach 20 public high school students Mandarin over a ten
week period. At the end of the ten weeks, the students had to write a 70 word essay
in Mandarin explaining their experience with this new language.
What I found particularly interesting was that the Chinese
professor does not speak Spanish and so the course was in English and Mandarin.
The students, therefore, received a very practical experience on the importance
of English.
The experience was a complete success and the course will be
offered again in August and extended to 10th graders..
One has to applaud the Mayor of San Lorenzo for this bold
initiative that utilizes three languages to open horizons for its students. Bilingualism
should be our very doable goal; trilingualism should be our dream. Que tengan
un buen día!.
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