Mid-Prairie school district teaches exploratory Chinese at the elementary level

KALONA — Nicholas O'Brien doesn't greet his students in English. Instead, he says 'ni hao.'

That's because O'Brien teaches Chinese to his students in the Mid-Prairie School District.

The Mid-Prairie Community School District is the only public school district in Eastern Iowa that offers Chinese classes to elementary and middleschool students.

O'Brien said Chinese instruction begins in kindergarten with an exploratory program.

'At the elementary level, every child has Chinese twice a week for 20 to 30 minutes a class,' O'Brien said. 'That's every single child at all the elementaries in the Mid-Prairie School District.'

Sixth graders can take Chinese for six weeks a year. In seventh and eighth grades, students can choose to take the class for an entire quarter. The language is not offered at Mid-Prairie High School.

Classes meet each day for 42 minutes. At the middle school level, Chinese has been offered for about three years, O'Brien said. The district also offers Spanish in all grade levels.

For the youngest students, the idea is to open them to Chinese culture, O'Brien said.

'At that young age, it's just having fun and understanding that the world is bigger than just their hometown,' O'Brien said. 'So, where is China on a map, what are some of the big products from China, what are some practices and perspectives that they have?'

The district's younger students work on speaking and listening. Curriculum for middle schoolers focuses on four primary skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening. Cultural awareness is interwoven into lessons, O'Brien said.

About eight years ago, the district applied for and received a federal foreign language assistance program (FLAP) grant, O'Brien said, which enabled them to fund the Chinese classes. About three years ago, the grants either ran out or were cancelled. The district then began funding the program on its own, O'Brien said.

O'Brien said his classes have steadily increased in size. He said he started with two or three students in his sixth grade class three years ago.

He now has 20.

'This community is fantastic as far as welcoming Chinese,' he said. 'They really enjoy having foreign language for the kids at the elementary and middle school level, Spanish and Chinese both. The kids have gone from guarded optimism to really, really enjoying it as we've been offering the classes.'

In the classroom, O'Brien's lesson is almost entirely conducted in Chinese. In addition to interactive games, students practice character writing by tracing the letters with their fingers in the air.

One student, Colton Hobbs, 13, an eighth grader from Wellman, already has taken two years of Spanish, but said he wanted to do something different. He said his favorite part of Chinese class is learning new things in a different language.