A visit to a Chicago high school was on the agenda as Chinese President Hu Jintao wrapped up his visit to the United States. Walter Payton College Preparatory High School is one of dozens in the U.S. that offers Chinese language and cultural instruction through a program called "Confucius Classrooms," which is partially funded by the Beijing government.
中国国家主席胡锦涛1月21号结束美国之行前访问了芝加哥的沃尔特·佩顿高中。佩顿高中是美国几十所通过一个叫作“孔子课堂”的项目教授汉语和中华文化的高中之一。孔子课堂得到北京政府的部分资助。记者走访了参加这个项目的第一所美国学校--俄勒冈州梅德福市的圣玛利学校。
The first U.S. school to take part in the program was St. Mary's School in Medford, Oregon, where an 11th-grade class is running through a list of words for traditional Chinese instruments. The 16 and 17-year-olds are in their fourth year of learning Mandarin Chinese.
在俄勒冈州梅德福市圣玛利学校，11年纪的一个班正在学习传统中国乐器的名称。这是这些16、17岁的学生学习汉语的第四年。尽管他们的词汇量仍旧有限，但用汉语自我介绍已经非常自然了。
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Carly Irvine is not sure when she'll use her Chinese language skills outside the classroom. But she figures that day will come. "Since China and America are working so closely and our relationship is growing more and more," she says. "I think it will be very important in the future to know Chinese."
卡尔利·欧文还不能确定她什么时候会在课堂以外的地方使用汉语。不过她想那一天会来到的。她说：“中国和美国现在这么密切地合作，我们的关系日益发展，我觉得懂汉语，将来会非常重要。”
Confucius classroom is expanding rapidly around the world. St. Mary's added Mandarin to its foreign language curriculum in 2005, and three years ago, became the first school in the country to sign up for the Confucius Classroom program.
圣玛利学校是一所私立高中。学校2005年在外语课里增加了汉语，并且在三年前成为美国第一所报名参加孔子课堂项目的高中。
Here's how it works: The Chinese ministry of education sends a teacher to a school in the United States, pays about half of that teacher's salary and living expenses, and supplies educational materials such as books and computer programs.
孔子课堂由中国教育部派遣一名教师前往美国一所学校，支付这名教师一半的工资和生活费，并提供课本和电脑软件等教材。
St. Mary's principal, Frank Phillips, says some parents of students at the private college-prep school were skeptical at first.
圣玛利学校的校长弗兰克·菲利普斯说，学校刚刚开设汉语课的时候，一些学生家长持怀疑态度。
"It was so off-beat and weird then," says Phillips. "We got a lot of feedback from parents, 'Why would you teach Chinese off all things? Why not Spanish?'" St. Mary's does offer Spanish, along with German and Latin. But Phillips says knowing Chinese will give his students an advantage in a world where China is fast becoming a global economic superpower.
他说：“这事当时看上去特别不合拍，显得非常怪。很多家长问，这么多东西，你们为什么偏要教汉语？为什么不教西班牙语？”圣玛利学校实际上有西班牙语课，另外还有德语和拉丁语。但是菲利普斯校长说，中国正迅速成为一个全球经济超级大国，如果他的学生懂得汉语，在这个世界上就会占有一点优势。
Lingering questions
The idea of accepting money from the government in Beijing raised eyebrows in his southern Oregon community.
"The question I always get is, 'Is this a gigantic propaganda move, is this an evil Communist plot on the part of China?'' says Phillips. "That's the number one kind of lingering Cold War suspicion about this program. From what I can detect, having been involved in it for two years, I see none of that."
In fact, the Chinese language education program has the support of the community's representative in the state legislature as well as the attention of neighboring public school districts. Nearby Ashland High School looked to St. Mary's for assistance in bringing a teacher from China to teach Mandarin. A hundred students signed up for the course.
实际上，汉语教学项目得到了州议会议员的支持，并且吸引了邻近公立学区的注意。附近的亚什兰德高中希望圣玛利学校协助从中国聘请一位汉语教师。学校已经有100名学生报名学汉语。
Ashland superintendent Juli Di Chiro says the skills they're learning will be valuable if, as many advocates of teaching Mandarin say, China plays an even bigger role on the global stage in the future.
亚什兰德高中的校长朱利·迪-奇罗说，假如像许多提倡教汉语的人所说的那样，中国未来在世界舞台上将发挥更加重要的作用，那么学生掌握这个本领，就非常重要。
"Obviously kids mastering a second language, whatever that language is, is important," says Di Chiro. "But just given the changes in what's going on globally with China, I think it's important that our students have an opportunity to study the language and culture of China as well."
他说：“孩子们掌握一种外语，不管是那种语言，显然都是重要的。但是考虑到全世界和中国有关的变化，我认为，让学生有机会学习中国的语言和文化，很重要。”
Chinese expansion
Chiro says the school hopes to bring in a second teacher next year so that even more students can take the classes. Ashland officials are even inviting about two dozen Chinese teenagers to come study at the school. The goal is to give Ashland students the chance to experience diversity.
迪-奇罗校长说，亚什兰德高中希望明年能再聘请一位教师，让更多的学生能够学汉语。学校官员甚至邀请大约20多名中国少年到亚什兰德学习。迪-奇罗说，他们的目的是让亚什兰德学生有机会经历多元文化。
"For our students to be able to be comfortable in multi-ethnic, multi-cultural situations which will be their worlds as they're entering the work force, we have to figure out ways of kind of making that happen," says Di Chiro.
“我们必须找到一种方法，让我们的学生能够适应多元族裔和多元文化，因为这将是他们未来进入职场时世界的样子。”
The Confucius Classroom program is expanding elsewhere, too. The program is now offered in more than 50 other schools and universities across the United States and around the world, in more than three dozen countries including Argentina, Pakistan, Kenya and Russia.
孔子学院和孔子课堂项目在其他地方不断发展。中国政府资助的这个项目现在遍布美国各地50多所学校和大学。在世界范围内，从阿根廷、巴基斯坦、肯尼亚到俄罗斯，大约40多个国家现在都有孔子学院项目。 |