Mandarin Is Coming To EGHS

It's been more than a year since parents were invited to take a survey on foreign language offerings at East Greenwich schools. The results showed wide interest in the addition of Mandarin Chinese. Now, East Greenwich High School is poised to offer an after-school course in Mandarin in the fall. 

Parent Chris Perrett was behind the survey and she has done much of the legwork required in setting up the Mandarin course. She found that Middlebury College, together with Yale University, has a web-based course that's run by Middlebury Online. She then contacted URI to see if they had any students capable of helping teach such a course. 

Her work paid off. URI has assigned a native-Mandarin speaker to meet with EGHS students twice a week next year to help them in their independent study of Mandarin. The university is not charging the school for use of the teacher because that teacher will be getting credit.

"URI has been extremely generous to us in providing this teacher to us for no cost," said School Superintendent Victor Mercurio at a School Committee meeting Tuesday night.

There is a cost – $178 dollars for the year to cover the cost of the online program – but Perrett is hoping there will be scholarships available for those students who need them.

All that's needed now are interested EG students. It's not necessarily an easy sell. Students will not get high school credit for the course work. Barrington is the only other public school in the state to offer Mandarin, which it does during the school day and for credit. Mercurio said an after-school program is a first-step toward expanding language offerings at EG schools.

Some parents who heard about the program at a recent high school PTG meeting wondered if students – the vast majority of whom participate in some team sport – would be able to take the course, much less manage the course work. Success will depend on individual effort, Perrett said.  

"I think it’s very exciting. As long as you can access the Internet, you can do it. You don’t have to be there," she told them. "The lessons keep going, they are on your own time – it can be quite flexible, I think."

There is an informational meeting for students interested in the program at the high school on Tuesday, May 14, at 2:05 p.m. Cole eighth graders will get an opportunity to learn about the program at a later date.