美國人亞洲擇鄰居 只爲孩子學中文大綱

Michael Roemer had never lived abroad before he took a one-year leave of absence from his job as an attorney, rented out his family's Orinda, Calif., house, and moved to Chengdu, a city in western China, in 2010 with his wife and two children.

邁克爾•羅默(Michael Roemer)是一位律師，2010年他請了一年的假，把加利福尼亞州奧林達(Orinda)的房子租出去，然後帶着妻子和孩子來到了中國西部城市成都。之前他從來沒有在國外生活過。

Mr. Roemer's goal: to give his kids, Erin and Conor, an up-close look at China and an edge in what is fast becoming a must-Learn language. "Speaking Mandarin is important," says the 57-year-old Mr. Roemer.
羅默的目的是讓他的一雙兒女埃林(Erin)和康納(Conor)近距離了解中國，併爲他們學習正在迅速成爲一門必學語言的漢語創造更好的條件。現年57歲的羅默說，會講普通話是很重要的。

The Roemers are among a growing group of Westerners going to great lengths to give their kids a leg up in Mandarin. With China's rising global influence, these parents want their children to be able to communicate fluently with the country's 1.3 billion people. The phenomenon is similar to what happened in the 80s, when Japan's economy boomed and there was a rush to learn Japanese.
不僅是羅默夫婦，越來越多的西方人正不辭辛苦幫助孩子學說普通話。隨着中國在全球的影響力越來越大，這些父母希望孩子能夠與這個國家的13億人順暢溝通。這種現象與上世紀80年代日本經濟繁榮時期人們爭先恐後學習日語的情形非常相似。

But this time, after-school classes aren't enough for some people. Families are enrolling their children in Mandarin-immersion programs that are springing up from California to Maine. They are hiring tutors, Skyping with teachers in Beijing and recruiting Chinese-speaking nannies. Some are stocking their playrooms with Disney videos in Mandarin岸not to mention the iPhone apps aimed at making kids into Mandarin speakers.
不過這次，上補習班對一些人來說已經不夠了。家長們把孩子送進了從加州到緬因州不斷冒出的純普通話課堂。他們聘請家庭教師，通過Skype與北京的老師交談，還僱用講中文的保姆。一些人在娛樂室裏放滿了普通話版的迪士尼影碟──更不用提那些旨在教孩子學普通話的iPhone應用程序。

Of learning Mandarin, Mr. Roemer says,"mastering that challenge gives [the kids] a great deal of confidence." Learning Chinese, he adds, is "good for the brain." Still, he says it was stressful watching his children struggle in a place where at first they didn't understand much of what was happening at school.
羅默說，克服學說普通話的挑戰會讓孩子變得非常自信。他還說，學習中文對大腦有好處。不過他也說，孩子們一開始上學時對所處環境一片茫然，自己看着也很有壓力。

Now back in the U.S., the Roemer kids say they value that year in China learning Mandarin, even if they can't quite keep it up now. "It was cool living in a foreign country" for a year, though achieving command of Mandarin's tones remains difficult, says Erin, age 9. Her 11-year-old brother Conor says he likes being able to switch into a different language when he doesn't want other people岸like his father岸to understand. "Sometimes my dad doesn't know as much as we do, so if we're talking about his birthday present we can keep it from him," Conor says.
已經回到美國的兩個孩子說，即使現在無法完全堅持學習普通話，他們也很看重在中國學習的那一年。九歲的埃林說，雖然掌握普通話的聲調還是很困難，但在另外一個國度生活一年還是非常棒的。11歲的哥哥康納說，在不想讓其他人──比如父親──聽懂自己的話時，他能改說另外一種語言，這讓他感覺很好。康納說，有時候爸爸知道的東西沒有我們多，所以在商量送他什麼生日禮物的時候，我們可以不讓他知道。

Recruiters say Mandarin gives candidates an edge in the job market. "When it comes to Mandarin speakers, we don't have them [in the U.S.], so does it give you a competitive advantage to have it? The answer is yes," says Michael Distefano, a Los Angeles-based senior vice president at executive recruiting firm Korn/Ferry International. Mr. Distefano's own son is studying Mandarin in high school, with an eye towards possibly working in Asia.
據招聘機構說，會講普通話可以讓求職者在就業市場獲得加分。高管獵頭公司光輝國際(Korn/Ferry International)駐洛杉磯高級副總裁迪斯泰法諾(Michael Distefano)說，美國沒有多少講普通話的人，所以會講普通話是不是一個競爭優勢呢？答案是肯定的。迪斯泰法諾正在上高中的兒子也在學習普通話，並希望有機會在亞洲找一份工作。

Jim Rogers, 69, and his wife, Paige Parker, 43, sold their New York City home and moved to Singapore in 2007, specifically so their children could grow up speaking Chinese. The couple now rent a house across from Singapore's Botanic Gardens. The address positioned them to get their 9-year-old daughter, Happy, into a top local school called Nanyang Primary, where core subjects are taught in Mandarin. Her sister, Bee, 4, attends Nanyang Kindergarten, where instruction is completely in Mandarin for two years.
69歲的羅傑斯(Jim Rogers)和他43歲的妻子佩奇(Paige Parker) 2007年將他們在紐約城的居所賣掉並搬到新加坡。兩人這麼做的目的是希望他們的孩子長大後會說中文。這對夫妻在新加坡植物園(Botanic Gardens)對面租了一套房子。之所以選擇這個地點，是因爲這樣他們九歲的女兒Happy就能夠進入當地頂尖的南洋小學(Nanyang Primary)學習了。在南洋小學，核心課程都是用中文授課的。Happy四歲的妹妹Bee上的是南洋幼小(Nanyang Kindergarten)。南洋幼小兩年的課程完全用中文講授。

Mr. Rogers, who started Quantum Fund with financier George Soros, doesn't know Mandarin and had never lived in Asia. But he says it's crucial for his kids to learn Chinese naturally from the start. "This is going to be the century of China, so we're preparing them," he says.
和金融大鱷索羅斯(George Soros)一同創立了量子基金(Quantum Fund)的羅傑斯並不會說普通話，也從未在亞洲生活過，但他說，讓孩子從小自然地學習中文至關重要。羅傑斯說，這個世紀將成爲中國的世紀，我們要爲孩子做好準備。

Mandarin is notoriously difficult to learn. The language is tonal, and fluency requires mastering thousands of characters. Mandarin competence takes 2,200 class hours, with half of that time spent in a country where it's spoken, according to the U.S. State Department's Foreign Service Institute, whereas Spanish can be learned in 600 to 750 class hours.
中文的難學是出了名的。普通話有四聲，想要說的流利必須掌握數千個漢字。美國國務院下設的外交學院(Foreign Service Institute)說，想要掌握普通話需要2,200個課時的學習，其中一半課時要在說普通話的國家學習。而掌握西班牙語則只要600課時到750課時即可。

Educators say there's no one right way to learn Mandarin. Jeff Bissell, head of the Chinese American International School in San Francisco, says teaching is "evolving" as metrics and standards are established. He applauds efforts to get students to China to learn Mandarin, which he calls "a major strategic priority."
教育工作者說，學習普通話並沒有所謂"唯一正確"的方法。舊金山中美國際學校(Chinese American International School)的負責人比塞爾(Jeff Bissell)說，隨着指標和標準的確立，教學方法也在不斷演進。他贊成讓學生到中國學習普通話的方法。比塞爾將這種方法稱作一個主要的戰略重點。

What happens after moving back from China is another matter. Jim Cashel and his wife, Anne Ching, a fourth-generation Chinese-American who never learned Mandarin growing up, moved from Sonoma, Calif., to Chengdu in 2009 with their two daughters. Their goal: to learn Chinese and experience China.
從中國搬回至美國以後發生的情況則是另外一回事。卡舍爾(Jim Cashel)和他的妻子Anne Ching在2009年帶着兩個女兒從加州索諾瑪(Sonoma)搬到中國成都。他們的目標是學習中文、體驗中國。Anne Ching是第四代華裔美國人，在成長過程中從未學習過中文。