10 | SLAS TIMES

Foreign language study of Chinese or Japanese is required starting from first until fifth grade . Three years of foreign language study is required in high school .

Li , Monica Zhuang ) and two Japanese teachers ( Eriko Fujisaki , Hirokazu Kishino ).

In secondary school , there are four Chinese teachers ( Celia Guo , Nick Xu , Aurora Luo , Ruhan Bian ), two Japanese teachers ( Nori Namikawa , Toshihiko Nakamura ), and one Spanish teacher ( Mayela Roman ).

“ The department follows the common core standard and the SLAS curriculum ,” said Ms . Mayela .

Chinese , taught by Ms . Celia , Japanese taught by Mr . Toshi , and Spanish taught by Ms . Mayela . These classes are for more advanced students , who already know the language , to focus on culture .

Chinese is the most popular foreign language on campus . In these classes , students occasionally partake in Chinese cultural activities , like making dumplings , moon cakes , doing Tai Chi , and most recently , organizing a debate in Chinese .

Ms . Mayela ’ s job as the head is to represent the department , meet with the principal , then pass on the information to her team of teachers . She says there are not any major changes to the department this year since most of the teachers are the same .

In primary school , there are five Chinese teachers ( Colleen Gu , Flora He , Kate Qian , Lisa

Common core is a set of academic standards adopted in the United States .

The teachers mostly rely on textbooks for teaching . In 2020 , the Japanese and Spanish classes adopted the use of Duolingo , a popular app for language learning .

Ms . Mayela mentioned that most challenges come from helping beginner students understand grammar and vocabulary .

The school offers AP courses for

A lot of students hope to see Korean classes introduced in the future . More and more people are becoming interested in Korean culture through their friends and through K-pop .

Oleksandr Oliinyk from 9th grade hopes to see Shanghainese offered because it ’ s a local language that could prove equally as useful as Mandarin Chinese .