It's a minor miracle when an American learns to speak and write in Mandarin, which Alice Yang helps Cadets achieve in the Chinese language classes she has taught during her two school years at Saint Thomas Academy.

According to Babbel.com, "the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. Mandarin Chinese is challenging, because the writing system is extremely difficult for English speakers (and anyone else) accustomed to the Latin alphabet. In addition to the usual challenges that come with learning any language from scratch, people studying Mandarin must also memorize thousands of special characters, unlike anything seen in Latin-based languages.

"The tonal nature of the language makes speaking it very hard, as well. Mandarin has four tones, so one word can be pronounced four different ways, and each pronunciation has a different meaning. For instance, the word ma can mean 'mother,' 'horse,' 'rough' or 'scold' — depending on how you say it."

So, while Yang and her students pursue minor miracles, it's more of a miracle that she ever arrived at the Academy to begin with. "Life in China is very different," Yang said, providing background on the path that brought her here. "My parents worked in a fertilizer factory owned by the Chinese government. Families automatically put their children into schools owned by the factory. Guizhou, the province where we lived, is one of the three poorest provinces in China. The high school graduates usually go straight into the factory. I was one of only two students to go to college."

Yang's extended family in China included teachers who influenced her and whom she came to see as role models, so that she too wanted to become a teacher. Among dozens of ethnicities in Guizhou, the Han people dominate, comprising roughly 93 percent, while 55 different minorities – including Yang's people, the Buyi – constitute the remaining seven percent of the province's population.

Yang's native language is the local dialect, so she had to learn Mandarin as part of her own studies before she could teach it. That experience is at the heart of what and how she teaches students at the Academy, which boils down to "the ability to communicate with people who are different than they are."

But back to that miracle that brought her here. After earning her first degree, a bachelor of arts in English from Guizhou Normal University, Yang taught English for three years at Guangdong Peizheng College and met her husband, whose career trajectory brought them to the Twin Cities.

On her way to the Academy, Yang first taught at Hamline University (where she also earned a master of arts in education), then the University of Minnesota (where she also earned yet another masters degree and is now pursuing a PhD). Other stops included St. Paul Preparatory School (formerly called Nacel International School), Hmong College Prep Academy, and the International School of Minnesota. Throughout her career, Yang also taught teachers, and in that capacity at Visitation, she learned of the opportunity at Saint Thomas Academy, where she started in time for the 2020-2021 school year.

"I thought that teaching at a religious and military school sounded interesting," she said. "And it was compelling to start something new, to build a program and see a seed turn into a tree."

Leading both middle school and high school classes – as well as creating and moderating a 30-member Asian Club, open to all students – is exciting, she said. "The boys are very curious about me and about Chinese language. They view me as different, and they are interested in me because of my accent. Now, we're building very strong bonds."

One of Yang's hallmarks is teaching about food, which includes cooking in class. That makes such a complex language more concretely relatable, keeps the class fun no matter how daunting the challenge, and naturally brings in cultural components that round out the language learning experience. "A lot of the students had never had Chinese dumplings, or even fried rice," she said. "We did one project where the students recorded cooking videos of themselves at home, speaking Chinese."

 

 

 

 

Yang also lectures in class, balancing the more traditional teaching techniques with the fun, hands-on experiential approach. "I'm not always very patient," she said. "Chinese teachers are very direct, not like some American teachers who cushion or sugarcoat. My students say they appreciate that authenticity. They know it's from my caring. I tell students the purpose of the class is not to help them make money or gain status. I don’t want to impose motivation from the outside. I want them to learn inter-cultural competence, to build bridges."

That will likely continue happening outside the classroom – as cross-cultural literacy is of ever-increasing value – because the way Yang teaches, bridge-building already happens in her classroom.