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Owasso adds Chinese course

by: RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer
Monday, June 08, 2009
6/8/2009 3:34:44 AM

OWASSO — Owasso High School will diversify its curriculum by adding a Chinese language program this fall, Superintendent Dr. Clark Ogilvie said.

"Other schools have recognized the need and we're following suit," he said. "We're really excited about it."

The program is sponsored through the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, which is home to a Confucius Institute and the Oklahoma Institute for Teaching East Asia (OKITEA).

Also starting new Chinese language programs this fall will be Bixby, Union and Metro Christian Academy, said Jessica Stowell, associate director of the Confucius Institute at OU and director of OKITEA.

"It's essential both economically and for our security and to solve the world's problems," Stowell said of learning the language. "There are enough problems, like the environment, where we all need to work together. That means we have to speak one another's languages."

Oklahoma is in the forefront of teaching Chinese language in the United States, Stowell said. Fourteen percent of the kindergarten through students who study Chinese nationally are in Oklahoma, she said. The state offers Chinese in 44 schools serving more than 7,300 students.

"Oklahomans really understand why we need to do this," Stowell said. "I don't have to tell anybody why they should do it or beg them to have a Chinese program. They come to me and say, `We need Chinese.'"

Chinese (Mandarin) is the most widely spoken language in the world by more than 1 billion people (including second-language speakers), according to nationsonline.org. That more than doubles the number of English speakers.

Owasso officials became intrigued with adding Chinese after discussions with area superintendents involved with the program, particularly Kirby Lehman at Jenks.

Language diversity also has been stressed in works such as Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat," which updates globalization, Ogilvie said.

"After studying books of that nature, the world has definitely grown very, very small," he said. "We need to offer this opportunity to our students, so they can keep up, so they can get a leg up to compete."

Chinese classes at Owasso will be offered primarily to juniors and seniors, although it's Ogilvie's hope they will soon be offered to lower grades and ultimately the elementary level.

Coming to Owasso to teach the courses will be Yao Yi Jiang, a university professor in Beijing, Stowell said. China will pay a third of her salary, and she is scheduled to live with staffers or two over the course of the year, the superintendent said.

"More and more businesses do business with China," he said. "There's more of a need to communicate with those folks, to know the language, to know the culture. We're missing out on that if we don't provide it."

Chinese in area schools

Other area schools teaching Chinese in a portion of their grades include Bartlesville, Bishop Kelley, Fort Gibson, Holland Hall, Jenks, Muskogee, Skiatook and University School (Tulsa), said Jessica Stowell, associate director of the Confucius Institute at OU and director of the Oklahoma Institute for Teaching East Asia. Tulsa Public Schools is the only district in Oklahoma that teaches Chinese in grades K-12, she said.

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