美国人亚洲择邻居 只为孩子学中文

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.

迈克尔•罗默(Michael Roemer)是一位律师，2010年他请了一年的假，把加利福尼亚州奥林达(Orinda)的房子租出去，然后带着妻子和孩子来到了中国西部城市成都。之前他从来没有在国外生活过。

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.

罗默的目的是让他的一双儿女埃林(Erin)和康纳(Conor)近距离了解中国，并为他们学习正在迅速成为一门必学语言的汉语创造更好的条件。现年57岁的罗默说，会讲普通话是很重要的。

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.

不仅是罗默夫妇，越来越多的西方人正不辞辛苦帮助孩子学说普通话。随着中国在全球的影响力越来越大，这些父母希望孩子能够与这个国家的13亿人顺畅沟通。这种现象与上世纪80年代日本经济繁荣时期人们争先恐后学习日语的情形非常相似。

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.

不过这次，上补习班对一些人来说已经不够了。家长们把孩子送进了从加州到缅因州不断冒出的纯普通话课堂。他们聘请家庭教师，通过Skype与北京的老师交谈，还雇用讲中文的保姆。一些人在娱乐室里放满了普通话版的迪士尼影碟──更不用提那些旨在教孩子学普通话的iPhone应用程序。

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.

罗默说，克服学说普通话的挑战会让孩子变得非常自信。他还说，学习中文对大脑有好处。不过他也说，孩子们一开始上学时对所处环境一片茫然，自己看着也很有压力。

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.

已经回到美国的两个孩子说，即使现在无法完全坚持学习普通话，他们也很看重在中国学习的那一年。九岁的埃林说，虽然掌握普通话的声调还是很困难，但在另外一个国度生活一年还是非常棒的。11岁的哥哥康纳说，在不想让其他人──比如父亲──听懂自己的话时，他能改说另外一种语言，这让他感觉很好。康纳说，有时候爸爸知道的东西没有我们多，所以在商量送他什么生日礼物的时候，我们可以不让他知道。

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.

据招聘机构说，会讲普通话可以让求职者在就业市场获得加分。高管猎头公司光辉国际(Korn/Ferry International)驻洛杉矶高级副总裁迪斯泰法诺(Michael Distefano)说，美国没有多少讲普通话的人，所以会讲普通话是不是一个竞争优势呢？答案是肯定的。迪斯泰法诺正在上高中的儿子也在学习普通话，并希望有机会在亚洲找一份工作。

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岁的罗杰斯(Jim Rogers)和他43岁的妻子佩奇(Paige Parker) 2007年将他们在纽约城的居所卖掉并搬到新加坡。两人这么做的目的是希望他们的孩子长大后会说中文。这对夫妻在新加坡植物园(Botanic Gardens)对面租了一套房子。之所以选择这个地点，是因为这样他们九岁的女儿Happy就能够进入当地顶尖的南洋小学(Nanyang Primary)学习了。在南洋小学，核心课程都是用中文授课的。Happy四岁的妹妹Bee上的是南洋幼小(Nanyang Kindergarten)。南洋幼小两年的课程完全用中文讲授。

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.

和金融大鳄索罗斯(George Soros)一同创立了量子基金(Quantum Fund)的罗杰斯并不会说普通话，也从未在亚洲生活过，但他说，让孩子从小自然地学习中文至关重要。罗杰斯说，这个世纪将成为中国的世纪，我们要为孩子做好准备。

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.

中文的难学是出了名的。普通话有四声，想要说的流利必须掌握数千个汉字。美国国务院下设的外交学院(Foreign Service Institute)说，想要掌握普通话需要2,200个课时的学习，其中一半课时要在说普通话的国家学习。而掌握西班牙语则只要600课时到750课时即可。

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."

教育工作者说，学习普通话并没有所谓"唯一正确"的方法。旧金山中美国际学校(Chinese American International School)的负责人比塞尔(Jeff Bissell)说，随着指标和标准的确立，教学方法也在不断演进。他赞成让学生到中国学习普通话的方法。比塞尔将这种方法称作一个主要的战略重点。

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.

从中国搬回至美国以后发生的情况则是另外一回事。卡舍尔(Jim Cashel)和他的妻子Anne Ching在2009年带着两个女儿从加州索诺玛(Sonoma)搬到中国成都。他们的目标是学习中文、体验中国。Anne Ching是第四代华裔美国人，在成长过程中从未学习过中文。