As someone who speaks both languages, Cupertino Mayor Darcy Paul believes that providing opportunities for the city’s English-speaking population to learn Mandarin is a beneficial step for future collaborations and economic growth not just between various nations, but also within the local communities.
“With Cupertino having such a significant population of people speaking the Chinese language, it’s important to have an opportunity for non-speakers to really immerse themselves in the language,” said Paul said in a speech he gave in both English and Mandarin at the Sept. 4 grand opening of the Taiwan Center for Mandarin Learning.
The center, located at Lynbrook High School in west San Jose, offers programs to teach adults Mandarin as a gateway to understanding Chinese and Taiwanese culture. It operates as a subsidiary of the Silicon Valley Chinese School (SVCS), a San Jose-based nonprofit founded in 1974, and was launched to promote cultural exchange and understanding, especially after the surge of anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic.
“We can teach Americans unfamiliar with Chinese culture about, let’s say, a piece of artwork from a thousand years ago, and explain why it represents something like peace or war, through a Chinese perspective,” said SVCS President Stanley Kou.
In addition to Paul, elected officials in attendance at the grand opening included Milpitas Union School District Board President Chris Norwood, State Assemblymember Evan Low, Santa Clara County Supervisor Otto Lee, Cupertino Vice Mayor Liang Chao and Cupertino Union School District board member Jerry Liu.
Liu said there is just as great a need for adult language-learning programs as there is for programs for children and teenagers.
“Once you’re 18 or above, the resources are much, much less available,” he added. “It’s not just about learning the language; it’s really about learning the culture around the language. You’re learning certain idioms; where do these idioms come from? So, I’m really happy to see SVCS doing this at a level that I think, for the most part, points to an underserved population here.”
For more information, visit siliconvalleymandarin.org.
Rachel Jiang and Jack Zhang are interns for Cupertino City Councilmember Hung Wei.