Mandarin Chinese Now Offered

Priory Offers Mandarin East Meets West

“...high-school students learning Chinese will enjoy all kinds of professional opportunities by the time they reach the working world.”

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In Chinese, the character for “China” is made up of the characters for “middle” and “kingdom.” Priory teacher Wei Kelly explains the ancient Chinese perspective this way. “They were so gigantic, they thought they were the center of the world.” Modern China wouldn’t be wrong to see themselves the same way. As of 2006, one out of every five people on the planet was a resident of China, making it by far the world’s most populous country. Mandarin is spoken by 70% of that population, or 900 million people. That makes Mandarin Chinese the most widely spoken language in the world, with almost three times as many speakers worldwide as Spanish or English, the next two languages on the list. It’s no wonder, then, that Priory, like so many other U.S. schools, has begun to offer classes in Mandarin Chinese.

It’s more than just numbers. The rise of China as an economic power—just look at the label of anything you buy these days—means that high-school students learning Chinese will enjoy all kinds of professional opportunities by the time they reach the working world.

Mrs. Wei Kelly, who teaches both Mandarin I and II, was born and raised in Beijing. Then she moved to Germany, where she studied economics and taught Chinese culture and language—yes, she speaks fluent German, too—before relocating to California with her husband, an Atherton native, four years ago. She enjoys teaching Chinese, but admits that it requires a lot of commitment to learn. There are non-phonetic characters to memorize, some sounds that don’t exist in English, and four tones to master. If you’re use the wrong tone when you say word “Mah,” she explains with a laugh, you might accidentally call your mother a horse.

Mrs. Kelly works hard to make sure her students are keeping up. “I want them to get a grade of 90% at least before moving on,” she says. “Because if they are not clear now (about a character), then they can’t use it in the future. And Chinese words are like puzzles,” she says, in that the same characters appear again and again as the building blocks of many different words.

As both motivation and respite from the rigors of the language, Mrs. Kelly offers her students glimpses into Chinese culture. They’ve learned about the Forbidden City, researched forms of Chinese medicine, compared Chinese and Western chess, and watched hand-drawn brush-painting cartoons set to typical Chinese music.

“I want them to understand the concept of the language, to learn more, to have fun, and at the same time, to repeat a lot of times.” She holds up a Mandarin I worksheet. It is full of tiny Chinese characters written by one of her hard-working students. They are doing very well!” she says enthusiastically. “I don’t want them to give up. They should go on.”