A Chinese auto company said on Sunday it had adopted Tai Shan, a much-loved panda that has just arrived in China from its birthplace in the United States, in a US$60,000 (S$85,308) corporate deal.

The animal arrived in southwestern Sichuan province on Friday from Washington – where its departure nearly five years after it was born at the National Zoo drew tears from the crowds – to join China’s panda-breeding programme.

Cao Guodong, deputy general manager of the Sichuan Auto Industry Group, said the firm, which makes hybrid cars, had decided to adopt Tai Shan to initiate an ‘environmental protection philosophy’ for the company. He denied the deal was for advertising purposes, but added the company would organise activities centered around Tai Shan at its businesses around China at key moments, such as the panda’s birthday.

‘Four hundred thousand yuan (60,000 dollars) is the basic fee, but that doesn’t include money we might donate in the future,’ he said.

Hen Yi, a spokesman for the Wolong panda base in Sichuan’s Bifengxia, where Tai Shan is currently staying, told AFP the panda would not be disrupted by the deal and would never be moved from its feeding centre.

Meanwhile, unaware of the excitement, Tai Shan, a male panda, was adapting well to life at the centre, but still had to get accustomed to its new Chinese handler, Mr Hen said. ‘He doesn’t understand either Chinese or English, but he needs to get familiar with the voice of his new handler,’ he said.

中文

50万美元包机护送留美熊猫“泰山”
还有谁会受到如此高规格的追捧？回个娘家，竟有人免费提供波音777作为直飞专机；虽然身在国外，已经被终身认养，还有送上的越野车当座驾；为了看它一眼，异国粉丝已经提前在川驻守……它就是集万千宠爱于一身的“ABC”（American-born Chinese）熊猫“泰山”。昨日中国保护大熊猫研究中心宣布，已经做好一切准备迎接“泰山”回家过年。如果熊猫也有江湖，或许“泰山”算得上其中的大佬。如果这个尚未成年的大佬有心声想要表达，或许会是：不要迷恋哥，哥只是传说。

明天回来 专机是波音777

“泰山”要回国了，包括本报在内的国内外诸多媒体都争相报道。期待了这么久，明天它就要坐专机回来了。美国联邦快递公司决定，在一切费用全免的情况下，起用波音777作为熊猫专机（不过该公司将花费50万美元）。预计明天下午4点20分，专机将抵达成都双流机场。届时四川省林业厅将出面在机场举办一个隆重的欢迎仪式。

安排好了“保姆” 精通英语

咱这边的准备情况怎么样呢？据了解，中国保护大熊猫研究中心动管部和兽医院为“泰山”准备了专门的隔离检疫圈舍和饲养圈舍，并安排了经验十分丰富的饲养专家吴代福、兽医王承东专职照顾“泰山”。“两位专家都精通英语，便于与美国的专家进行交流。”考虑到“泰山”从美国回到中国要面临气候及食物的差异，研究中心专家为“泰山”准备好了新鲜竹子及可口的窝窝头。

老外当义工 只等伺候它

据悉，“泰山”将到雅安碧峰峡安家。记者昨日在碧峰峡熊猫基地看到，两个金发碧眼的老外穿着饲养员的服装到处忙活，一问才知，他们分别来自瑞典和爱尔兰，要在这里当一个星期的义工，就为了伺候“泰山”。

考虑到国内也有很多“泰山迷”在关注它的一举一动，卧龙中国保护大熊猫研究中心昨日也向全球发起志愿者征集活动，志愿者可以来看望“泰山”，并参加“泰山”搬新家庆祝活动。

已被“包养” 终身40万

虽然尚未动身，“泰山”在国内的生活开销已经被某企业包干。昨日，我省某企业出资40万元终身认养“泰山”，另外还赠送了一辆越野轿车！“泰山”从机场到雅安碧峰峡的路上，还将有10辆充电的新能源汽车沿途护送。该企业负责人表示，此举是为了宣传低碳环保，“当然这也因为‘泰山’的影响力不容低估！”

“泰山”回国之重任——娶妻生子

泰山并非在美国出生的第一只大熊猫，在它之前，还有“华美”“美生”。按照相关约定，它2岁时就该回国，由于在美国的超人气，它被挽留到如今已经4岁半的年纪。

为何“泰山”拥有绝对人气？中国保护大熊猫研究中心有关负责人表示，“泰山”的优势在于出生在美国首都国家动物园，而“华美”“美生”均“偏安”圣地亚哥，为私人动物园。“因为地理位置和国家动物园的号召力，到那的游客非常多，久而久之，很多游客在与泰山宝贝的互动和交流中，就产生了越来越深的感情。”当然熊猫之间也有性格上的差异，像“泰山”一个不经意的动作被游客捕捉到（比如睡梦中栽跟斗之类），更加拉近了它和世人的距离。

之所以不让“泰山”再留在美国，是因为即将成年的“泰山”是时候回国娶妻生子了。而让美国民众稍感安慰的是，今年年初，“泰山”的父母已经再次发情并成功交配，有望在今年添一个“小泰山”呢！

The original English text is from:   Chinese firm adopts panda.
The original Chinese text is from: 50万美元包机护送留美熊猫“泰山”.

China’s top universities could soon rival Oxford, Cambridge and the Ivy League, the president of Yale University has warned.

Professor Richard Levin, speaking to the Guardian on a trip to the UK, said Chinese institutions would rank in the world’s top 10 universities in 25 years’ time, squeezing out some of the west’s elite campuses.

At the moment, British universities dominate the top 10 rankings, with Cambridge coming second to Harvard, University College London fourth and Oxford and Imperial College London joint fifth. The rest of the top 15 are US universities. China’s highest-ranking institution is Tsinghua, at 49.

But the Chinese government now spends billions of yuan – at least 1.5% of its gross domestic product – on higher education with the aim of propelling its best institutions, such as the universities of Tsinghua and Peking, into the top slots, Levin said.

“In 25 years, only a generation’s time, these universities could rival the Ivy League,” said Levin, the Ivy League’s longest-tenured president. He was speaking before giving a lecture on the rise of Asia’s universities to the Royal Society in London on Monday evening.

Levin said: “China and India … seek to expand the capacity of their systems of higher education … and aspire simultaneously to create a limited number of world-class universities to take their places among the best. This is an audacious agenda, but China, in particular, has the will and resources that make it feasible. It has built the largest higher education sector in the world in merely a decade.”

China has more than doubled the number of its higher education institutions in the last decade from 1,022 to 2,263. More than 5 million Chinese students enrol on degree courses now, compared to 1 million in 1997.

Chinese scholars are increasingly leaving their posts in US and UK universities to return home, Levin said.

The growth of Chinese higher education comes as English university leaders fear they may not be able to maintain their world-class reputation for higher education, with savage government cuts of 950m pounds over the next three years.

Commenting on the cuts, Levin said it would be “a shame if the British government didn’t recognise the status of Oxford and Cambridge as global leaders”.

He pointed out that it had taken centuries for Harvard and Yale to match Oxford and Cambridge. And while China had a large pool of talent to draw on, it was currently seen as less attractive to scholars from across the world than the US and the UK, he said. China’s universities lack “multidisciplinary breadth” and “the cultivation of critical thinking”.

Levin said: “I don’t see the rise of Asia’s universities as threatening. Competition in education is a positive sum game. Increasing the quality of education around the world translates into better informed and more productive citizens.”

中文

耶鲁大学校长提醒道，中国的顶尖学府很快就会追上牛津剑桥和长春藤联盟。
理查德•利文教授在去英国的途中跟《卫报》谈到，中国的大学会在25年内跻身世界前10，而西方一些精英学校会被挤下来。
目前，英国的大学在前10排名中佳绩屡创。有剑桥大学排名第二，仅次于哈佛，伦敦大学第四，牛津和帝国伦敦大学并列第五。其余的前15都是美国的大学。中国排名最高的是清华大学，位于49名。
然而，中国政府现在在高等教育上投资占国内生产总值1.5%的巨款，为了提升像清华北大那样的著名学府的世界排名。
作为长春藤联盟任期最长的校长，利文说道：“只需25年，一代人的时间，这些学校可以超越长春藤。”
他说：“中国和印度……进行大学扩招……同时把大学挤进世界前列。这是大胆的计划，但是中国有这个决心和资源去实现。在过去不到10年的时间内，中国已经建立起了世界上最大的教育部门。”
在过去的10年，中国高等学府的数目从1022所增长到2263所。超过500万的学生能攻读学位，在1997年人数才达100万。
利文提到，越来越多的中国学者放弃英美大学提供的职位选择回国。
中国高等教育的发展，加上自己政府在过去的三年减少了9亿5000万英镑的教育拨款，英国的大学领导人开始担心他们的大学难以维持其世界声誉。
在谈到教育裁款时，利文说“如果英国政府没有意识到剑桥牛津现在的世界地位的话，这会很糟糕。”
他指出，哈佛跟耶鲁用了一个多世纪去追上牛津剑桥。虽然中国有很多人才，但是相对于英美的学校，中国的大学现在还是缺乏吸引国际人才的魅力。中国的大学缺乏“跨学科的广度”和“批判性思维的培养”。
利文说：“我不觉得亚洲大学的崛起是一种威胁。教育机构之间的竞争是一件好事。提高全球的教育质量有利于培养更有常识和更具创造力的公民。”

The original text is from:

China’s top universities will rival Oxbridge, says Yale president | Education | The Guardian.

JIUZHAIGOU, CHINA — By noon, the tour buses that ply the length of this U-shaped limestone valley are packed tight. Elbows are up. People are pushing.

“Are you going to walk?” someone hollers.

“Don’t bump!” comes the reply.

It’s a common scene in any major Chinese city, but here in northern Sichuan Province, 10 hours by bus from Chengdu, the crowds are surrounded by karst peaks and turquoise pools, not high-rise buildings and freeways.

Each day, tens of thousands of Chinese tourists board buses to visit the pine forests and mock-ethnic villages of Jiuzhaigou, a Unesco World Heritage Site. Admission costs 320 renminbi, or $47. For 25 renminbi more, visitors can rent a bejeweled, Tibetan-inspired costume and have their pictures taken by a local.

These sightseers, clad in Gore-Tex and Gucci, are fueling a boom in China’s domestic travel sector. Spurred by a mix of middle-class money, government support and interest in rediscovering China, the market is beating predictions and bucking global trends.

While the industry lost ground in Europe and the United States, China’s tourism sector posted a 9 percent jump in revenue 2009, to 1.26 trillion renminbi, thanks to domestic demand.

In 2010, total tourism revenue is expected to rise 14 percent, totaling 1.44 trillion renminbi, according to figures released Jan. 24 in state media reports.

“There is clearly an upward trend, a huge upward trend,” said Nancy Cockerell, a policy adviser at the World Travel and Tourism Council. “For the next 10 years, China will be leading the way.”

Though Chinese people have been on the move for centuries — as explorers, migrants and traders — leisure travel is relatively new to the People’s Republic. The post-Mao era afforded little time for holidays, and for most, money was scarce. The state regulated travel between provinces, so would-be wanderers needed papers and permission, in addition to cash.

As China’s economy began to gain momentum in the 1990s, the travel industry benefited. The number of domestic trips jumped 54 percent from 1996 to 2006, according to figures released by the China National Tourism Administration.

Higher incomes have driven up leisure travel, but the government has helped, too. As average incomes climbed, the state eased travel restrictions and increased the number of mandatory public holidays to 11 to drive demand.

Since 1999, Chinese workers have enjoyed “golden weeks,” a set of mandatory national holidays. There are now two per year, one held in autumn and one in winter.

The purpose is to get people spending — a strategy that seems to be working. During the National Day Golden Week holidays from Oct. 1 to Oct. 8 last year, 19.6 million tourists visited Sichuan Province alone, generating 7.7 billion renminbi in revenue, according to state media.

Nationally, tourism revenue has been climbing for more than a decade, and more people than ever are traveling.

The National Tourism Administration said domestic tourists had made 1.9 billion trips in 2009, an increase of 11 percent over the previous year, and generated 1 trillion renminbi of revenue, up 15 percent from the previous year.

But Ms. Cockerell of the World Travel and Tourism Council said the sector still had room to grow.

“For China, two billion trips is small,” she said. “When they start traveling like Americans, the numbers will be phenomenal.”

The world’s largest travel Web site, Tripadvisor, shares her optimism. In October, it said it had purchased Kuxun.cn, a Chinese flight and hotel search engine, as part of plans to invest $50 million in China through 2011.

Peripheral industries stand to benefit as well. With the rise of mass tourism comes the development of what Tim Winter, editor of “Asia on Tour: Exploring the Rise of Asian Tourism,” calls “travel culture.”

In China, travel culture means big money, he said: “People want the travel uniform; they want the gear.”

For sightseers who want more gear, the shops are ready to help. Visitors to the gift shop near the main cafeteria of the Jiuzhaigou National Park can purchase fox fur stoles (1,400 renminbi), faux fur hats (80 renminbi) or plastic back scratchers (30 renminbi).

Outside the park gates, rows of shops sell high-end travel equipment, including brand-name jackets, digital cameras and the latest in luggage.

Suitably attired, visitors to this once remote region can choose from dozens of hotels, including a Sheraton and an Intercontinental. At night, charter buses ferry guests to Tibetan shows, where, for about $25, they are treated to live music, dancing and food.

Leading the spending spree are China’s young urbanites. Overworked, wealthy and worldly, they have the means to travel and the desire to get away from city life.

“There are skyscrapers everywhere in Shanghai, but here there is natural landscape,” said Allen Zhang, a newlywed touring the park with his wife, Christine Xiong.

“Travel is a completely new lifestyle for us,” he added. “My father’s generation didn’t have the opportunity to travel.”

Mr. Zhang does, so he and Ms. Xiong flew to Sichuan to shoot their wedding pictures at Swan Lake, an algae-green pool famous for its glassy surface.

She stood by the water’s edge in a gauzy, white wedding gown; he beheld his bride through the lens of a tripod-mounted digital SLR.

They plan to travel every season, they said, and explore the country’s far reaches. “China is just a pretty, beautiful place,” Mr. Zhang said.

中文

九寨沟，中国——中午，在这个U型的石灰岩山谷里挤满了旅游大巴和游客。
“你究竟走不走啊？”有人喊道。
“别撞我！”有人回答。
这个景象在中国大城市很常见，但是在四川北部这个需要从成都坐10小时才能到的地方，人们不是被高楼大厦和高架桥围绕，而是喀斯特山尖和绿松石水池。
每天，成千上万的中国旅客乘车来到九寨沟参观松树林和少数民族村落。这个联合国教科文组织承认的世界遗产地点收费320元人民币，约合47美金。加多25元，参观者可以请当地人为他们穿上藏服拍照。
这些穿着哥的斯和古琦的游客现在成为了中国国内旅游的一大动力。这个国内旅游市场吸收着中产阶级和政府的资金，其增长速度之迅速打破了预期，并引发全球趋势。
正当旅游业在欧美失去立足之地的时候，中国的旅游市场得益于国内需求，在2009年带来了一个9%的收入增长，也就是1.26万亿元人民币。
根据1月24日国家媒体报告的数字显示，在2010年，总的旅游收入估计能上升14%，也就是1.44万亿元人民币的收入增长。
世界旅游业委员会的一位政策顾问南茜•科尔雷尔说：“这增长明显很快。在接下来的10年，中国会在旅游业一马当先。”
虽然中国人民在历史上作为探险者，移民，和商人经历过无数次的旅行，度假旅游对于新中国人民来说还是一个新概念。毛泽东年代之后假期很短，人民收入不高。于是国家制定了省份之间旅游的法规，使得旅行者有了保障。
随着中国经济在90年代飞速发展，旅游业也由此得益。根据中国国家旅游局的数字显示，国内游的旅游人次在1996到2006年间增长了54%。
人民收入的提高有力地推动了度假旅游，同时政府资助也起了推波助澜的作用。随着工资的上涨，国家放松了旅游的限制，把国家法定假期增加到11天，以增加内需。
自1999年以来，中国工薪族开始享受黄金假期。现在一年有两次，分别是国庆和春节。
这样做的目的是刺激消费，而且现在已经有了成效。据国家媒体称，去年国庆假期仅四川省就接待了1960万游客，带来了77亿人民币的收入增长。
国家旅游局称，国内旅游在2009年有19亿旅游人次，比去年同期增长11%，带来了1万亿的人民币收入，比去年同期增长15%。
周边产业也因此的得益。《亚洲旅游：探索亚洲旅行的崛起》的作者提姆•温特认为，随着大众旅游业的增长，旅游文化也开始发展起来。
在中国，旅游文化意味着赚大钱。他说：“游客喜欢买纪念服。”
既然游客想要纪念服，商家就摩拳擦掌。到九寨沟国家公园附近的纪念品店里可以购买狐狸毛袈裟（1400人民币），人工皮草毛（80人民币），或者塑胶背部抓扒工具（30人民币）。
在公园门外，成排的商店销售高端旅游设备，包括品牌夹克，数码相机，和最新款的行李箱。
穿着光鲜的游客来到这个偏远地区可以选择不同的酒店，包括喜来登和洲际酒店。晚上，专用游览车载旅客去看藏民表演。在那儿，25美金可以看到现场表演的音乐，舞蹈，和品尝美食。
艾伦•张与他的新婚妻子来到九寨沟国家公园旅游，他说：“上海到处都是高楼大厦，但是在这里有的是自然风光。”
“旅游是一种全新的生活方式。我父亲的年代就没有这个机会。”他补充道。
他们打算每个季节都去旅游，并打算走遍中国的边远角落。张先生说：“中国真的很漂亮。”

The original text is from:

China’s New Travelers Aren’t Far From Home – NYTimes.com.

A photographer shoots up close a replica Terracotta warrior coated with chocolate powder during a press event for the World Chocolate Wonderland theme park in Beijing, China, on Friday.

Chocoholics, rejoice!  A chocolate theme park opens next week in Beijing that will feature life-size replicas of the Terracotta warriors and a slice of the Great Wall of China.

The 215,000-square-foot “chocolate wonderland” opens Jan. 29 near the Olympic stadium.

“Even though chocolate in China is not as popular as it is in Western countries, we hope to promote the chocolate culture and market in China,” Zheng Yaoting, general manager of the firm running the park, tells the Global Times.

The newspaper says the chocolate items will be displayed at five temperature-controlled indoor areas and two outdoor sites.

Park organizers hope to lure a million visitors before April, when warm weather can be downright discouraging for chocolate products. It will reopen in January with new displays.

中文

拥有一个由巧克力构成的世界是许多人的童年梦想,现在梦想就要变成现实了。占地2万平方米,由80吨巧克力精心打造的中国首座巧克力主题公园——”世界巧克 力梦公园”29日将在”鸟巢”北侧正式对外开放。在梦公园的世界巧克力馆,14只白盘子错落于墙面,浓稠的巧克力顺着盘口缓缓流下,最终流淌进几平米的巧 克力池内,形成一组香浓华美的巧克力瀑布,叫人不由垂涎三尺。据了解,这些巧克力浆足有1.5吨。

在这个巧克力构成的世界中,满眼都是巧克力制做的艺术品,到处散发着巧克力独特的香甜味道。用近8吨巧克力构筑的长达十米的长城,蜿蜒的城墙上每一块城砖都由巧克力做成,栩栩如生。等比例的巧克力版清明上河图铺展开来,薄薄的画卷上生动地描绘着热闹喧嚣的市井风貌。

在华夏文明展区里,无论是典雅的清花瓷瓶、粉彩斗碗,还是幽暗的青铜鼎,无一不是用巧克力做成。在现代时尚展厅里,一组现代家居作品格外吸引眼球,欧式红沙发前的茶几上,摆着巧克力制作的手机、笔记本和咖啡壶,旁边还有一个等比例巧克力轿车。

据巧克力梦公园总策展人林正宗介绍,主题公园的筹划从两年前便开始了。耗资千万打造的巧克力糖果王国,是目前国内第一个也是最大的巧克力主题公园。全部巧克力展品原料均来自比利时和瑞士,预计约80吨巧克力。

据了解,整个公园总占地面积近2万平 方米,由世界巧克力馆、梦公园主题馆、甜蜜体验馆、甜蜜礼品馆等5个室内场馆和甜蜜舞台区、甜蜜商业街2个室外活动区所组成。今年梦公园的主题是”中国骄 傲,中国腾飞”,展品中融入了很多中国元素,凝聚了独特的创意。在长达3个月的开放期中,市民不仅可以观赏巧克力展品,还可以体验品尝、制作巧克力的过程。

世界巧克力梦公园发起人郑瑶婷说,”巧克力不仅仅是一种吃的文化,同样也是一种艺术。在北京建造这座主题公园就是希望人们能在这里体会轻松、浪漫、甜蜜与巧克力的艺术美。”

巧克力梦公园的全部展品由台湾的工艺 师与苏州一所烘焙技术学校合作完成。乔金波在展厅里娴熟地用巧克力表演铲花,几毫米厚的巧克力轻轻一铲便成了一片卷卷的花瓣。几分钟的时间,一朵娇艳的巧 克力鲜花便出现在手中。乔金波在苏州的烘焙学校做老师已经9年了,对巧克力的加工颇有研究。

目前,位于”鸟巢”东北角的世界巧克力梦公园布展已经进入最后收尾阶段,等待游客的光临。主办方总经理郑瑶婷希望巧克力梦公园能够成为北京冬季的品牌旅游 项目。林正宗表示,展览结束后,几十吨的巧克力不会浪费。主办方正在与相关部门,希望能寻找一个固定的场馆长期展示这些巧克力艺术品。

The English text is from:

New chocolate theme park in China will include replica of Great Wall .

The Chinese text is from:
中国首座巧克力主题公园即将亮相北京

WASHINGTON — Thousands of public schools stopped teaching foreign languages in the last decade, according to a government-financed survey — dismal news for a nation that needs more linguists to conduct its global business and diplomacy.

But another contrary trend has educators and policy makers abuzz: a rush by schools in all parts of America to offer instruction in Chinese.

Some schools are paying for Chinese classes on their own, but hundreds are getting some help. The Chinese government is sending teachers from China to schools all over the world — and paying part of their salaries.

At a time of tight budgets, many American schools are finding that offer too good to refuse.

In Massillon, Ohio, south of Cleveland, Jackson High School started its Chinese program in the fall of 2007 with 20 students and now has 80, said Parthena Draggett, who directs Jackson’s world languages department.

“We were able to get a free Chinese teacher,” she said. “I’d like to start a Spanish program for elementary children, but we can’t get a free Spanish teacher.”

(Jackson’s Chinese teacher is not free; the Chinese government pays part of his compensation, with the district paying the rest.)

No one keeps an exact count, but rough calculations based on the government’s survey suggest that perhaps 1,600 American public and private schools are teaching Chinese, up from 300 or so a decade ago. And the numbers are growing exponentially.

Among America’s approximately 27,500 middle and high schools offering at least one foreign language, the proportion offering Chinese rose to 4 percent, from 1 percent, from 1997 to 2008, according to the survey , which was done by the Center For Applied Linguistics , a research group in Washington, and paid for by the federal Education Department .

“It’s really changing the language education landscape of this country,” said Nancy C. Rhodes, a director at the center and co-author of the survey.

Other indicators point to the same trend. The number of students taking the Advanced Placement test in Chinese, introduced in 2007, has grown so fast that it is likely to pass German this year as the third most-tested A.P. language, after Spanish and French, said Trevor Packer, a vice president at the College Board.

“We’ve all been surprised that in such a short time Chinese would grow to surpass A.P. German,” Mr. Packer said.

A decade ago, most of the schools with Chinese programs were on the East and West Coasts. But in recent years, many schools have started Chinese programs in heartland states, including Ohio and Illinois in the Midwest, Texas and Georgia in the South, and Colorado and Utah in the Rocky Mountain West.

“The mushrooming of interest we’re seeing now is not in the heritage communities, but in places that don’t have significant Chinese populations,” said Chris Livaccari, an associate director at the Asia Society.

America has had the study of a foreign language grow before, only to see the bubble burst. Many schools began teaching Japanese in the 1980s, after Japan emerged as an economic rival. But thousands have dropped the language, the survey found.

Japanese is not the only language that has declined. Thousands of schools that offered French, German or Russian have stopped teaching those languages, too, the survey found.

To prepare the survey, the Center for Applied Linguistics sent a questionnaire to 5,000 American schools, and followed up with phone calls to 3,200 schools, getting a 76 percent response rate.

The results, released last year, confirmed that Spanish was taught almost universally. The survey found that 88 percent of elementary schools and 93 percent of middle and high schools with language programs offered Spanish in 2008.

The overall decline in language instruction was mostly due to its abrupt decline in public elementary and middle schools; the number of private schools and public high schools offering at least one language remained stable from 1997 to 2008.

The survey said that a third of schools reported that the federal No Child Left Behind law, which since 2001 has required public schools to test students in math and English, had drawn resources from foreign languages.

Experts said several factors were fueling the surge in Chinese. Parents, students and educators recognize China’s emergence as an important country and believe that fluency in its language can open opportunities.

Also stoking the interest has been a joint program by the College Board and Hanban , a language council affiliated with the Chinese Education Ministry, that since 2006 has sent hundreds of American school superintendents and other educators to visit schools in China, with travel costs subsidized by Hanban. Many have started Chinese programs upon their return.

Since 2006, Hanban and the College Board have also sent more than 325 volunteer Chinese “guest teachers” to work in American schools with fledgling programs and paying $13,000 to subsidize each teacher’s salary for a year. Teachers can then renew for up to three more years.

The State Department has paid for a smaller program — the Teachers of Critical Languages Program — to bring Chinese teachers to schools here, with each staying for a year.

In the first two years of its Chinese program, the Jackson District in Ohio said it had provided its guest teacher housing, a car and gasoline, health insurance and other support worth about $26,000. This year, the district is paying a more experienced Chinese guest teacher $49,910 in salary and other support, in addition to the $13,000 in travel expenses he receives from Hanban, bringing his compensation into rough parity with Ohio teachers.

Ms. Draggett visited China recently with a Hanban-financed delegation of 400 American educators from 39 states, and she came back energized about Jackson’s Chinese program, she said.

“Chinese is really taking root,” she said. Starting this fall, Jackson High will begin phasing out its German program, she said.

Founders of the Yu Ying charter school in Washington, where all classes for 200 students in prekindergarten through second grade are taught in Chinese and English on alternate days, did not start with a guest teacher when it opened in the fall of 2008.

“That’s great for many schools, but we want our teachers to stay,” said Mary Shaffner, the school’s executive director.

Instead, Yu Ying recruited five native Chinese speakers living in the United States by advertising on the Internet. One is Wang Jue, who immigrated to the United States in 2001 and graduated from theUniversity of Maryland.

After just four months, her prekindergarten students can already say phrases like “I want lunch” and “I’m angry” in Chinese, Ms. Wang said.

中文

美国学校不再教授外语——除了中文以外根据一项政府财政报告显示，在过去的十年，许多公立学校已经停止了外语教学。这对于一个需要更多研究全球经济和外交的语言学家的国家来说，是一桩不好的消息。
然而，一股相反的趋势使得教育家和政策制定者们都议论纷纷。这就是席卷全美的中文学习风潮。
一些学校自己掏腰包请老师教中文。但是还有很多学校需要帮助。中国政府正向全球派送中文老师，同时给予老师们一些资助。
面对现在紧张的预算，很多美国学校十分欢迎中国政府的做法。
粗略计算，全美有大概1600所公立和私立学校在教授中文，这在十年前也就300多所。现在这个数目在不断增长。
在美国，大概27500所中学提供至少一门外语课，提供中文课的比例在1997到1998年间从1%上升到4%。这个调查结果根据应用语言学中心提供。这是一个由联邦教育部门资助的研究小组，基地在华盛顿。
还有另外一些现象在说明这个趋势。参加高级考试中文测试的学生人数在2007年考试被采用之后快速上升，今年有可能会超过德语成为第三个最多学生参加的语言考试，前两个分别是西班牙语和法语。
十年前，开中文课的学校多数集中在东西海岸。但是在最近几年，中部各州，包括中西部的俄亥俄州，伊利诺州，南部的得克萨斯州，乔治亚州，落基山西部的科罗拉多州和犹他州都开展了中文课程。
之前美国也有过学习外语的风潮，但最后都只是昙花一现。在80年代日本经济腾飞的时候，很多学校开展了日语课程。但是后来大量学校放弃了这门语言。
日语不是唯一失宠的外语。很多学校本来开展法语，德语，或者俄语课程的，都不再上课了。
专家认为，有几个原因引发中文学习热。家长，学生，和教育者都看到中国的崛起，学习其语言有助于增加机遇。
另一个刺激中文教学热的原因是，美国大学理事会自2006年派遣教育厅长和其他教育者到中国视察，其合作对象，由美国大学理事会和中国教育局合作的语言机构，“汉办”支付考察费用。很多考察者回国之后就开办了中文课程。
自2006年以来，汉办和大学理事会已经派遣325位志愿中文教师到美国初试教学，每位教师每年获得13000美元的津贴。每位老师最多可以停留三年。
美国国务院资助了一个小项目，名曰“重要语言教学”。这个项目邀请中文老师前来美国教书一年。
俄亥俄州的杰克逊区在其中文教学计划的头两年，给客座老师提供住宿，车，医疗保险，和其它总体算起来有26000美元的资助。今年，这个区给一位更有经验的中文教师49910美元的薪金和其他支持。这位教师还能另外得到汉办13000美元的旅行资助。他的酬劳已经比得上俄亥俄州本地的老师了。

The original text is from:

Schools Stop Teaching Foreign Languages — Except Chinese – NYTimes.com.

BEIJING — China’s top leaders bid a final and sombre farewell Wednesday to the eight nationals who died in last week’s devastating earthquake in Haiti, where four of them had served as UN peacekeepers.

In a ceremony broadcast on state television, the eight were buried at the Babaoshan cemetery in western Beijing, where revolutionary heroes and the ruling Communist Party’s top officials are laid to rest.

The nine members of the Politburo standing committee — the party’s top leadership, wearing black suits and white paper flowers in their buttonholes — filed past the coffins draped with the national flag.

President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and the other leaders also saluted family members of the victims.

Beyond the four peacekeepers, the four others killed had just arrived in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince as part of a delegation to hold talks with UN officials when the 7.0-magnitude quake struck.

Between 100,000 and 200,000 people are thought to have died.

The bodies of the Chinese victims were given a hero’s homecoming on Tuesday in Beijing, and they were officially declared “revolutionary martyrs.”

State television and newspapers have devoted non-stop coverage to the victims, and kung fu star Jackie Chan has even recorded a song in tribute to them with Chinese singer Tan Jing entitled “Send You Home”.

China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council that does not have diplomatic relations with Haiti, has nevertheless been present in the country since 1997 with a trade bureau and is active in the UN peacekeeping force.

The Caribbean country is one of 23 nations that still officially recognises the self-ruled island of Taiwan, where the nationalists fled in 1949 after the communist victory in a civil war on the mainland.

China has sent a 60-strong rescue team to Haiti and allocated 30 million yuan (4.4 million dollars) in aid.

On Tuesday, foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu angrily denied accusations that Chinese rescuers were searching only for Chinese nationals missing in Port-au-Prince as “false” and “made out of ulterior motives.”

“The Chinese rescue team departed China immediately after the quake. They not only found the bodies of the Chinese peacekeepers, they also found the bodies of UN officers in Haiti and many others,” Ma told reporters.

“These actions are not selfish and brook no accusations. The accusers should be accused,” he said, after media reports about China’s contribution to the humanitarian operation in Haiti.

The original text is from: AFP: China mourns eight ‘martyrs’ killed in Haiti quake.

中文

法新社：中国八名烈士在海地地震中丧生

中国最高领导人于星期三对在海地地震丧生的八名国际援助人员作最后的道别。八名国际援助人员中有四名是联合国维和部队成员。
在国家电视台转播的葬礼上，八名烈士被埋葬在位于北京西郊的八宝山革命公墓。
胡锦涛主席，温家宝总理和其他领导人均向烈士家属表示慰问。
除了四名维和部队成员外，四名遇难者是在前不久到达海地首都太子港与联合国官员进行会议的时候遭遇7级地震的。
据预测，大概有10到20万人在地震中丧生。
中国烈士的遗体在星期二抵达北京时受到英雄的接待。官方追加他们为革命烈士。国家电视台和报纸不间断地追踪烈士的最新情况。功夫明星成龙和歌手谭晶为烈士们写了一首歌，名为《接你回家》。
中国作为联合国的常任理事国之一，和海地并没有外交关系。然而，自1997年以来，中国在海地设立了贸易局，并积极参加当地的联合国维和工作。
这个加勒比海国家是目前23个承认台湾独立的国家之一。
中国向海地派遣了60支救援队伍，同时拨款3000万元人民币（折合440万美金）作为救助资金。
外交部发言人马朝旭在星期二愤怒地回击对中国救援队只救助中国人的指责。他说所谓的指责是“完全错误”和“别有用心”的。
马朝旭告诉记者：“中国救援队在地震第一时间作出行动。他们不但发掘出中国维和人员的遗体，还有很多联合国的官员的遗体。”

Lingo Media Corporation (TSX VENTURE: LM)(OTCBB: LMDCF) (”Lingo Media”) a leader in online and print-based English language learning products is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Speak2Me Inc. (”Speak2Me”), a state-of-the-art online English language learning community, has achieved its 1,000,000th registered user.

Michael Kraft, President & CEO of Lingo Media, commented, “We are delighted and gratified by the response to our www.speak2me.cn portal. Having achieved this milestone, we look forward to the accelerated growth that normally follows this level of user uptake. This success further reinforces our brand strength in China. The decade long publishing presence has transitioned well to digital media in our quest to advance English learning across China.”

About Speak2Me

Speak2Me (www.speak2me.com/advertising) is an online English language learning community that incorporates Lingo Media’s proven pedagogy with fun, interactive lesson modules to address the rapidly growing need for spoken English worldwide. Speak2Me’s groundbreaking service uses proprietary speech recognition technology to teach spoken English online through more than 350 targeted lessons that engage users in interactive conversations with a virtual teacher. A unique social-networking infrastructure that allows students to form study groups and offers contests, prizes and other incentives, creates a learning environment that engenders cooperation and competition, just as in a conventional classroom. Speak2Me’s patent-pending Conversational Advertising(TM) platform and premium content development services allow Speak2Me to provide its innovative offering to end-users at no cost. Speak2Me is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lingo Media Corporation (TSX VENTURE: LM)(OTCBB: LMDCF). For more information about Speak2Me and its business offerings, please visit www.speak2me.com/advertising.

About Lingo Media (TSX VENTURE: LM)(OTCBB: LMDCF)

Lingo Media Corporation (www.lingomedia.com) is a diversified online and print-based education products and services corporation focused on English language learning (”ELL”) on an international scale through its Lingo Learning Inc. subsidiary, a print-based publisher of ELL programs in China, Speak2Me (www.speak2me.com/advertising), an online ELL community, and Parlo, which today is an integrated language and cultural immersion portal (www.parlo.com). Lingo Media has formed successful relationships with key government and industry organizations, establishing a strong presence in China’s education market of 300 million students. The Company continues to broaden its presence in China as well as other major English language learning markets, to provide access to world-class English learning solutions on a global scale.

Portions of this press release may include “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of securities laws. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made pursuant to the safe harbour provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary materially from management’s expectations and projections and thus readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Certain factors that can affect the Company’s ability to achieve projected results are described in the Company’s filings with the Canadian and United States securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE

Contacts:
For Lingo Media
Michael Kraft
President & CEO
416 927 7000 ext. 23 or Toll Free Tel: 866 927 7011 ext 23
416 927 1222 (FAX)
investor@lingomedia.com
To learn more, visit www.lingomedia.com

中文

加拿大灵通传媒集团是英语学习网络和印刷产品的领头羊，属下的“跟我说”英语在线学习社区，达到了一百万个注册用户的纪录。

灵通传媒集团的主席兼首席执行官迈克尔•科夫特评论说，“看到对我们网站www.speak2me.cn的评论，我们很高兴，很满意。过了这个里程碑，我们展望未来能加快这个增长。这个成功加深了我们品牌在中国的形象。在这十年，我们从传统印刷制品转型到电子媒体，我们在中国推广英语教育的探索不断在进步。“

关于“跟我说”
“跟我说”（www.speak2me.com/advertising）是一个在线英语学习社区。它融合了灵通传媒集团经受考验的快乐学习法，使用互动学习模式以适应全球英语口语的快速增长需求。“跟我说“的创新服务使用声音辨别技术在线教授英语口语，其350个目标课程鼓励用户与一名虚拟教师互动对话。社区创造一个独特的社交基础，学生在其能组建学习小组，接受测试，奖励，和其他激励项目。社区的学习氛围能激发合作和竞争精神，就如传统的课堂教学。“跟我说”的专利，会话广告平台，和优质内容发展服务允许“跟我说”向终端用户免费提供其创新的服务。

Four Manalapan High School students and science teacher Heather Sullivan have returned from a 15-day trip to China, where they studied kung fu at a martial arts school, rode in rickshaws, and scaled the Great Wall of China.

The all-expense paid trip was organized by Discovery Student Adventures, the Discovery Channel’s new division that coordinates international travel for students in grades 5-12.

Sullivan and two other teachers were chosen from more than 170 educator applicants nationwide to pilot the program’s excursion to China. Each teacher was asked to select four students to experience the adventure as well.

Sullivan chose students Cory Bolotsky, 17, Kim Gennaro, 17, Caitlyn Silk, 17, and Drew Regino, 16. The other two teachers and eight students were from Wisconsin and California.

The Manalapan students are all starting their senior year of high school this week.

Sullivan applied for the trip because of her involvement in the Discovery Educator Network, which connects teachers who are passionate about integrating technology into the classroom to other educators.

“I never believed I would get picked to go abroad,” Sullivan said. “I didn’t tell anyone else that I applied for the trip either. Once I found out we were picked in March, things started happening very quickly. I had to choose which students I wanted to bring, ask their parents’ permission, and secure our passports and visas.”

Sullivan said Bolotsky, Gennaro, Silk and Regino were selected because they are good ambassadors for Manalapan and for America. They are confident, well-spoken, and able to absorb and communicate their cultural experiences with others, she said.

As part of the pilot program, the students were required to use the Internet to write daily about their activities, using blogs and Twitter, a microblogging service.

Silk blogged, ” … We made dumplings in different shapes … I can’t wait to show everyone my cooking skills when I get home!”

The students’ blogs and tweets can still be read at http://dsachina.blogspot.com.

Bolotsky concurred, saying, “Chinese food in China is nothing like Chinese food in America.”

The students said their most memorable moments including sampling duck brain and scorpion.

“Scorpion tastes like a crunchy french fry,” Regino reminisced.

Other culturally enlightening experiences included visiting the “Bird’s Nest,” which was the Olympic Stadium that played host to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; experiencing a day in the life of a Shaolin monk; and visiting the home of a Chinese family to learn about culture and calligraphy.

The students also learned how to sing the song “Shaolin, Shaolin” in Chinese and presented it to their kung fu instructors and warrior monks.

The guests from the United States were surprised as to how different the Chinese education system is from the American education system. After visiting a school, the Americans learned that most Chinese students attend boarding school year-round and only return home for a spring holiday.

“I feel really grateful for my education … that I get such a good education,” Silk said.

Bags have been unpacked and passports have been put away, but the students said their experiences in the Far East will stay with them forever.

Their teacher, Sullivan, said, “I have much more legitimacy when teaching 21st century skills in my classes. Anywhere you can go outside of your own comfort zone helps you. When you understand more, you can share better.”

Gennaro agreed with Sullivan, saying, “I appreciate everything I have more now. I’m much more culturally aware.”

The students want to share their enthusiasm about their trip and Chinese culture with others. They encourage any school or group that is interested in hearing about their trip to contact Sullivan at hsullivan@frhsd.com to schedule a presentation.

Sullivan said, “We want people to know that if you keep connections with others who are excited about the same things you are, you can go far.”

中文

四名玛拉兰帕高中的学生和他们的科学课老师希瑟•苏利文在中国度过了为期十五天的旅程。他们在一所武术学校学习功夫，坐了黄包车，和攀登了长城。
这趟旅程由发现频道属下的新栏目“学生发现之旅”组织，支付五到十二年级参加节目的学生旅费。
苏利文和另外两名老师是从全国范围内170多名的申请者中脱颖而出，成为中国之旅的领队。每位老师都从他们的学生中挑选四名来参加这趟旅程。
苏利文老师选的学生是17岁的克里•保托斯基，金•根纳罗，凯特林•斯克，和16岁的德鲁• 雷吉诺。其余两名老师和他们的八名学生是来自威斯康星州和加州。
来自玛拉兰帕高中的学生都在这个星期开始高中的学习。
苏利文之所以申请这个旅程是因为她参加了发现频道的教育者系统。这个系统连接各地的老师，让他们交流教学方法。
苏利文老师说四名入选的学生能很好的代表玛拉兰帕和美国。他们自信，口才好，能吸收和与他人交流他们的文化经历。
作为发现之旅的一部分，学生们在网上用博客和推客来写他们每天的活动。
学生们的文化之旅包括参观北京奥运的主场馆“鸟巢”，在少林寺度过一天，在当地中国家庭学习文化和书法。
这些美国来客对中美教育的差别之大感到惊讶。在参观了一所学校之后，这些美国学生才知道很多中国学生上寄宿学校只能一年在春节的时候回一次家。
旅行结束之后，苏利文老师说道：“只要你能走出自己的舒适区，你就能学到东西。当理解得更多，你就能更好地分享。”

Adventures in China remain with students | newstranscript.gmnews.com | News Transcript.

The classes are made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to Texas State’s Center for International Studies. The grant is in support of courses with an emphasis on Southeast Asia and China.

Mandarin Chinese is spoken by one-fifth of the world’s population and functions as the official language of the People’s Republic of China.

“Mandarin Chinese is a language of the future, given the fast development of the Chinese economy,” said Jennifer Ching-hui Hsiao, who will instruct the classes. “By learning Mandarin Chinese, students will gain access to a world of international business; international relations; Chinese art, history and culture; Eastern philosophy; martial arts; natural wonders; fine cuisine; cool tattoos and much more.”

The three courses to be offered include Beginning Chinese I (Chinese 1410), Beginning Chinese II (Chinese 1420), and Intermediate Chinese (Chinese 2310).

In each course, listening, speaking, reading, and writing will be integrated with innovative instructional technology and Chinese culture. For example, Chinese character strokes will be demonstrated through video clips to assist students’ recognition and writing, and Chinese typing will be introduced through free downloadable software. Cultural activities will introduce Chinese festivals, such as Moon Festival and Chinese New Year.

After the successful completion of Chinese 1410, students should be able to correctly pronounce any Chinese character in the written Pinyin. They will have accumulated 350 Chinese vocabulary words and know something of Chinese culture and etiquette.

Chinese 1420 (prerequisite Chinese 1410) continues the first year of study and introduces 350 more characters.

Chinese 2310 (prerequisite Chinese 1420 or an acceptable score from a placement test) will provide advanced training in four Chinese language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Another 350 Chinese characters will be introduced.

Course instructor Hsiao is a doctoral candidate in foreign language education at the University of Texas. She has taught Chinese to college-level students in the United States for more than five years.

中文

这个秋季，得克萨斯州州立大学将公布其最新的课程表，语言系的学生可以选择普通话课作为学分。
这个课程的得以开展是因为美国教育部资助德州州立大学的国际研究中心。资助的重点在于对东南亚和中国的研究。
普通话是中华人民共和国的官方语言，是世界上五分之一人口的母语。
“从中国经济的快速发展来看，普通话将在未来很流行。” 任课老师珍妮佛•清辉•萧如是道。“通过学习普通话，学生会了解到国际商业、国际关系、中国艺术、历史和文化、东方哲学、武术、自然景观、烹调、酷眩的纹身等等。”
大学提供的三个课程包括初级汉语I（汉语1410），初级汉语II（汉语1420），中级汉语（汉语2310）。
课程会把听说读写的基本功和中国文化有机地结合起来。例如，汉字笔画会通过视频辅助教学，中文输入法则用免费的软件来学习。文化活动会介绍中国节日，例如中秋节和春节。
完成汉语1410课程后，学生就可以读出带拼音的汉字。他们将积累350个汉字词汇，同时了解到一些中国文化和礼仪。
汉语1420课程是第一年学习的延续，会增加350个以上的词汇。
汉语2310课程提供听说读写的高级培训。词汇量将再增加350个。
任课的萧老师在德州大学修读外语教学的博士学位。她在美国给大学生上中文课已超过五年时间。

Texas State says ni hao to Mandarin : Newstreamz San Marcos.

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IELTS stands for the International English Language Testing system. It operates on a nine point band, where a nine indicates that the student has a level of English equivalent to a highly educated native speaker, and it tests all four skills ( reading, writing, listening and speaking) in an academic context. Generally speaking, undergraduate students need to obtain a score of 5.5 overall to gain university admission and postgraduate students need a score of 6.5 overall. Some universities will ask for higher grades for all courses, or for specific programmes. The IELTS exam can be taken at centres worldwide and at frequent intervals throughout the year. Candidates pay a fee to take the exam.

For language school owners the preparation courses for the IELTS exam are frequently a major source of income. IELTS is becoming increasingly popular throughout Asia and students usually need to attend a year long preparation course to do well enough in the exam to apply to an overseas university. There is a wealth of preparation material to use on these courses, including plenty of mock exam material. Teachers who are asked to teach IELTS should be given a thorough briefing on the demands of the exam and a brief training course. Details can be found on the IELTS website (www.ielts.org).

Article Source:http://www.eslemployment.com/esl-employers/ielts-toefl.htm

Trainees from a makeup school put on makeup for model brides at the 2009 Central China Wuhan Wedding and Tourism Expo held in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, Aug. 15, 2009. More than 100 companies in photographing, catering, wedding arrangements etc. participated in the expo to provide the “one-stop” services to the newlyweds.

Visitors look into wedding decorations at the 2009 Central China Wuhan Wedding and Tourism Expo held in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, Aug. 15, 2009.

Two visitors look into traditional dolls exhibited at the 2009 Central China Wuhan Wedding and Tourism Expo held in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, Aug. 15, 2009.

Models display bridal dresses at the 2009 Central China Wuhan Wedding and Tourism Expo held in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei

Wedding & Tourism Expo held in Wuhan,  China

Twelve finalists were chosen and readers were invited to vote for their favourite of the 12 images.

The votes have been tallied and the top three entries are:

1. Chris Jephcott’s photo of a cormorant fisherman in China.

2. Brian Walker’s photo of two sea iguanas at the Galapagos Islands.

3. Mark Finlay’s photo of the Louvre in Paris.

All of the three winners will receive a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1 compact waterproof camera.

Everyone who voted for their favourite of the short-listed photos was also entered in a draw to win one of the cameras and the winner of that draw is Kerri Ward.

The text is from: Winners of travel photo competition

中文

《新西兰先驱报》举办的国际旅游摄影大赛现已通过读者投票选出优胜者。2000幅作品中最受欢迎的前三名赢家分别获得松下徕美DMC-FT1袖珍防水相机一台，价值$800。
前三名的获奖者分别是：
1. 克里斯·杰夫科特的《中国的鸬鹚渔夫》；
2. 布赖恩·沃克的《加拉帕戈斯群岛的两只鬣蜥》；
3. 马克·芬莱的《巴黎卢浮宫》。
给最佳相片投票的读者有机会抽奖获得相机，这次的中奖者是凯利·沃德。

Eight graduate students from the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College traveled to China earlier this summer with their instructors and others to learn more about Chinese culture and how schools there teach English as a second language.

The group of 12 visited five cities and three education sites during their two-week trip and spoke with educators there about how they incorporate a second language in their instruction while maintaining their student’s first language.

They saw that schools in China too have their challenges in teaching students English, which is the primary second language taught in the world’s most populous country.

Cynthia Galvan, a teacher with the Mercedes school district and a student at UTB/TSC, said she was surprised to learn that Chinese schools also struggle with teaching students English as a second language.

“They’re teaching them to read and write English but they’re not exposed to the oral language,” she said.

One thing she and other teachers on the trip noticed was that Chinese schools teach children a second language at a much younger age than in American schools.

“They start in pre-kinder(garten). English is their second language. All the signs are in Chinese (with English below it),” Galvan said. “They’re very committed to learning English.”

The schools also teach students culture. During one visit she noticed a class did a lesson on coffee and how coffee is consumed more often in the United States rather than China.

“Part of it is understanding the culture,” she said. “Culture has to be part of the program.”

Weslaco High School Assistant Principal William “Trey” Roach said seeing how the Chinese schools used everyday situations to teach students English made him think how schools in the Rio Grande Valley can use community’s bilingual culture to teach students English.

“I think we need to understand the culture of the students we’re receiving,” he said.

Teachers should also be mindful of the level of education their students received in the countries from which they emigrated, he said.

“Just because a child can speak to us doesn’t mean (that child) can read and write,” Roach said. “We have to make sure they are able to read and write in their native language.”

UTB/TSC professors Bobette Morgan and Graciela Rosenberg developed the program to give their students the opportunity to experience another culture and understand better the frustrations some of their students learning English may face.

Usually, students at UTB/TSC are familiar with Mexican culture, which makes teaching foreign students coming to Rio Grande Valley schools — who mostly come from Mexico — a bit easier. But if those educators were to move to other parts of the state or to another state, they would encounter students from all other parts of the world who speak different languages, Rosenberg said.

“You have to be aware of other languages, you have to understand the (students’) cultural background,” she said.

Students received firsthand experience in what it was like to be in a country where they don’t know the main language. Though the group had interpreters during their tours, there were times where they had to rely on the kindness of strangers to translate for them, Morgan said.

“It was a good experience for (our) students to feel that level of frustration,” she said.

中文

美国大学生到中国考察双语教学
美国不是唯一一个绞尽脑汁想让学生多学一门语言的地方。

今夏，8名来自德克萨斯州大学的毕业生和他们的导师来到中国学习中国文化，考察当地的学校如何把英语作为第二语言来教授。

这个12人的考察组在两个星期内参观了5个城市和3个教育基地。他们与当地的教师们讨论，看他们是如何在教外语的同时保持母语的教育。

他们看到中国的学校在教授英语的时候同样有着困惑。英语是这个人口最密集的国家里最流行的外国语。

辛西娅·贾文是梅赛德斯学校的老师，同时也是德州大学的学生，她说她很惊讶地看到中国学校在教授英语的时候也有很多矛盾。

“他们教英语的阅读和写作，不过他们不怎么重视口语，”她说。

在旅途上，她和其他老师都留意到中国学校比美国学校更早地教孩子们外语。

“他们在幼儿园之前就教外语了。英语是他们的第二语言。所有的标示用中文写，但是都有英文注释在下面，”贾文说。“他们真的很重视英语学习。”

学校同时也跟学生讲授文化。在一次的参观她留意到一个课堂在讲咖啡在美国如何比在中国受消费者欢迎。

“这是在理解文化，”她说。“学习外语必须学习文化。”

维斯拉克高中的副校长威廉·罗切说，看到中国学校利用日常生活场景去教授英文，他觉得里约大峡谷的学校也可以利用社区的双语环境来教学生英语。

“我想我们需要理解我们学生的文化背景，”他说。

教师也应当考虑到他们学生来自的国家的教育水平，他说。

“一个孩子能说不代表他能读能写，”罗切说。“我们必须保证他们能用母语阅读和写作。”

德州大学教授波贝特·摩根和格拉斯拉·罗森伯格开展了这个考察计划，让学生去理解其它文化以帮助他们解决学习英语时产生的困惑。

通常来说，德州大学的学生都很熟悉墨西哥文化，这样能让到里约大峡谷学校读书的墨西哥学生学起外语来更简单。但是如果这个地区的老师到了德州其它地方或者美国其它州，他们就会碰到来自世界各地说着不同语言的学生了，罗森伯格说道。

“你必须认识到其它语言的重要性，必须去理解学生们的文化背景，”她说。

通过在中国考察，学生们体会到在一个他们不懂其语言的国家里生活是怎么样的。虽然考察小组有随团翻译，但是有时候他们不得不求助当地友善的陌生人给他们做翻译，摩根说。

“这是一个很好的机会让我们的学生去体现一下学习的困惑，”她说。

Graduate students travel to China to learn more about bilingual education

The opening of the fifth China Shanhaiguan International Great Wall Festival was held in Shanhaiguan on July 29th. Meanwhile, the Museum of the Great Wall Shanhaiguan  also opened its door to the public for free.

The Museum, in which relics in Shanhaiguan – the essence of the Great Wall -  is shown, was first established in 1991. In order to strengthen its patriotic function, the central and the local governments invested RMB 42 million to enlarge the Museum in 2007.

The extended Museum of the Great Wall collected all sorts of unearthed artifacts along the Great Wall. Using contemporary exhibition media, including historical documents, photos, models of landscape, television, the Museum produces a comprehensive view on the Great Wall about its history, construction, military events, sites and artificial scenery. The so far largest and richest in Great Wall content museum in China is considered to be the “encyclopedia of the Great Wall”.

中文

7月29日，第五届中国·山海关国际长城节在山海关隆重开幕。同时，国家级爱国主义教育基地——山海关长城博物馆也于当天正式免费对外开放。

山海关长城博物馆始建于1991年，重点展现了长城的精华地段——山海关长城。为进一步发挥其爱国主义教育和社会教育功能，2007年，国家、省、市投资4200万元再次对该馆进行了改扩建。

改扩建后的长城博物馆汇集了全国长城沿线各地出土的有关长城的文物，辅以翔实的历史文献、照片、模型景观、电视多媒体等多种当代展陈艺术手法， 在原有的基础上全面展示出中国长城的历史与文化、长城建筑的结构与布局、历史上发生在长城内外的重大军事活动及长城沿线分布的历史名胜、人文景观，堪称中 国长城“百科全书”。

该馆是目前全国布展规模最大、展出内容最为丰富的长城博物馆。

第五届中国山海关国际长城节开幕

edited by Fanja

The election result comes as no surprise given Chui was the only candidate. His endorsement was merely a formality by the 300 member selection committee loyal to Beijing. Chui is due to take office on 20 December 2009 for a five year term and replace Chief Executive Edmond Ho.

Macau is the only place in China where casinos are legal and they previously enjoyed explosive growth. Prior to 2009, Macau’s gambling revenue had been sharply rising with an impressive average of 27 per cent during each of the past four years.

However, Macau’s casinos began to suffer heavy losses last year as a result of travel restrictions placed on visitors from mainland China who are their main source of business. According to the government, the number of guests dropped 21.8 per cent in June 2009 compared to June 2008. Unsurprisingly, casino revenue slumped 12 per cent in the second quarter of 2009 from a year earlier. Loss of casino jobs drove Macau’s unemployment to a two year high.

Chui has promised to diversify Macau’s economy so that it is not so dominated by and dependent upon the revenue of the gambling industry and casinos. It is also anticipated that Chui will improve regulations within the gambling industry.

中文

澳门特别行政区行政长官崔世安的走马上任有望给澳门的赌场带来新景象。据悉，崔世安将降低中国大陆游客到访澳门的限制。
作为唯一的候选人，崔世安毫无悬念地当选特首。他将在200年12月20日接任何厚铧的职位，开始五年的任期。
澳门是中国唯一赌博业合法的地区，一直以来都有着快速的增长。2009年以前，澳门赌博业的收入在过去的四年平均每年增长达到27%。
然而，去年对大陆游客的旅游限制导致澳门的赌场遭受大挫，因为大陆游客是他们的主要生意源。根据政府报告，2009年6月的游客数量比2008年同期下降了21.8%。随之以来的是赌场的收入下跌，2009年的第二季度相比前一年同期下降12%。赌场不景气导致的澳门的失业率达到两年来的高峰。
崔世安承诺要把澳门经济向多元化方向发展，而不是只依靠赌场收入。预料崔世安会改善赌博业的规定。

New Macau Leader Sparks Speculation On Casinos

edited by Fanja