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Career Enrichment Center teacher Rubing Hsu settles students down for the start of class in Chinese language. Nationwide, an estimated 30,000 American teens are studying Chinese, a six-fold increase from the estimated 5,000 who studied the language in 2000.

Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune

Tribune

Rubing Hsu, who teaches Chinese at the Career Enrichment Center, helps a student with pronunciation during an oral component to a test. "Chinese is popular because everything is made in China," Hsu says.

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When sophomore Scott Wilson thinks of his future as an international business lawyer, he sees it stamped "Made in China."

After all, about 1.3 billion people speak Chinese and the country's economy has been one of the fastest growing in the world in the last six years.

So it made sense to Scott, 14, to enroll in the only Chinese language class he could find in Albuquerque Public Schools.

The Manzano High School student now spends 12 hours a week at the Career Enrichment Center, the APS magnet school boasting the oldest Chinese language program in the city.

He joins an estimated 30,000 other American teens studying Chinese - up six-fold from the estimated 5,000 who studied the language in 2000, according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

"Chinese is popular because everything is made in China. It's the largest economic magnet, the now language," said Rubing Hsu, the enrichment center's Chinese teacher.

In spite of the interest, Chinese language teachers are scarce across the nation, and Albuquerque is no exception.

In a recent study, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages found 2,400 U.S. high schools have expressed an interest in offering Chinese. The U.S. State Department is working with the Chinese government to bring more Chinese teachers to America.

It was Scott's good fortune that APS hired Hsu at the last minute this year, keeping his CEC class alive.

Hsu thought she was going to spend this year studying at the University of New Mexico for her teaching credential.

That plan changed when she received a call to start teaching Chinese at CEC just two hours before the class was to begin. She was hired as a long-term substitute to fill the vacancy left by Grace Hsu, no relation, who taught the CEC Chinese class for eight years.

"I did the first class impromptu," Rubing Hsu said. "I hadn't seen the textbook."

There is more structure now, about six weeks into class.

Scott and his 24 classmates start their three-hour, afternoon class by bowing to the teacher and greeting her in Chinese. And they end the day with a bow and a Chinese farewell, the equivalent of "Thank you, teacher."

It's a showing of respect to teachers that follows the tradition of the schools in Taiwan, where Hsu was educated.

"The teacher is a father figure," Hsu said. "We were taught to be quiet and just listen to the teacher and not have your own opinion."

"When a full class of 25 students is bowing, that's something," said Hsu, who also works as a freelance writer for the "World Journal," the largest Chinese language newspaper in North America.

To be fluent in Chinese, a speaker needs to know some 2,000 characters. Hsu's students have learned about 80 since August.

She teaches her culture to help students understand the richness of the Chinese language characters.

"Mostly they (the characters) come from nature: the sun, the moon, water, earth," said Hsu. The characters are "the heart and soul of the culture," she said.

Hsu also teaches calligraphy, and has done demonstrations at UNM and her children's school, Dennis Chavez Elementary.

"I like to share my culture," Hsu said.

Among her CEC students are three fluent Chinese speakers. They enrolled to learn how to read and write the language.

"My mom was so happy I took this class," said Alice Xiao, 16, who attends La Cueva High. "I can write my name (in Chinese), but it's not pretty."

Student Scott said the Chinese class drew motivated students from across the city. "We all want to be in here," he said during a class break last week.

At the end of the school year, Hsu's students will each have three language credits, the equivalent of three years in a regular foreign-language class.

Hsu and her husband, Yulin Shen, a UNM professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department, came to the United States 16 years ago as students. She said they were fascinated by Western culture. They became U.S. citizens two years ago.

Their children are enrolled in martial arts classes and are learning to play guitar.

"I'm glad I know both worlds," Hsu said. "I can take the good from both cultures."

In Taiwan, Hsu received a bachelor's degree in foreign languages (English, German and Japanese) and a master's in journalism. Then she left Taiwan to attend Boston University, where she earned a master's degree in public relations.

Hsu hopes to write about her plunge into teaching Chinese during the winter break.

Her article is going to be timely with the ever-growing demand for Chinese language teachers.

Hsu and Shulin Bergman are the only Chinese language teachers in the Albuquerque school system.

Bergman is a new teacher at the Albuquerque Institute of Science and Mathematics at UNM, a charter school formerly called High Tech High and MAST High School. Bergman has also taught Chinese language at the Albuquerque Academy since 2004.

Hsu has 44 CEC students; Bergman has 60 at the charter school and 15 at the academy.

Over the last eight years, CEC classes drew only about 30 to 35 students each year.

More students are enrolling in Chinese language now because it's required at the charter school and the Early College Academy, a joint program offered by the enrichment center and Central New Mexico Community College.

The charter school students must take Chinese or Japanese, as well as martial arts as their PE credit, said Principal Kathy Sandoval, former CEC and Early College Academy principal.

"It challenges the kids in a lot of ways they haven't been challenged before," Sandoval said of the language requirement. Also, she said, the Chinese language "enhances learning of math and science."

Research supports the idea that studying Chinese and Japanese develops different parts of the brain, Sandoval said.

"Students must get their hands around something totally foreign," Sandoval said, referring to the Chinese and Japanese characters that are so different from the English alphabet.

"For some reason," she said, "having to utilize a new, different language forces you to use different parts of your brain."

High school students in 2007 will have an opportunity to show their mastery of Chinese on a new Advanced Placement exam. High scores on the exam can result in college credits.