By Danny Bloom
CHIAYI City, Taiwan — National Taiwan Normal University — and “Normal University” here is a French educational term that means a “Teachers College” — signed a partnership agreement with the Board of Education of the San Diego Unified School District to help provide Chinese-language teachers for an Asian-language learning center set to open in San Diego in September, according to Scott Barnett, vice president of the San Diego board.
Barnett flew to Taiwan in April to sign the agreement, and while in Taipei gave a few speeches in which he described a vision for language-learning development in the U.S.
There’s a Jewish story here, too. Barnett, who was born in New York in 1962 and lived there until he was 11, grew up in a Jewish neighborhood, he told a reporter a few years ago.
“We were the only non-practicing Jews in a Jewish neighborhood,” Barnett told a reporter a few years ago in a San Diego interview. “My dad was Jewish, but my mom was Episcopalian, so we were sort of nothing. And dad was in the toy business, so we had Christmas decorations and Christmas trees. It’s funny, because on Dad’s side of the family there’s a head rabbi in New York City, and on my mother’s side there’s an Episcopal bishop.”
According to Barnett, the Taiwan center will focus on teaching Chinese, also known as Mandarin, which is not only the national language of the island nation of Taiwan, but just also happens to be the national language of that huge country we call China.
The U.S government has earmarked over $20 million for the program and around 20 Chinese-language student teachers from Taiwan will be sent to the U.S for internships each year, according to theTaipei teachers college.
It’s a big world out there, and it’s getting smaller all the time, what with jet travel and the internet, email and Facebook. And in the coming months and years, San Diego has a new partnership with Taiwan. ‘ Ni hao!”
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Bloom is Taiwan bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World and an inveterate web surfer. He may be contacted at danny.bloom@sdjewishworld.com