Local immersion program hosts hundreds of community members for it’s first-ever Chinese Cultural Night
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RIGBY — Hundreds of community members gathered at Rigby High School Friday evening to celebrate the school’s first-ever Chinese Cultural Night.
Rigby High School’s Chinese Language Immersion Program hosted the event for students and the community at large to learn more about Jefferson Joint School District 251’s World Language Immersion Program.
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The event featured a performance by the BYU-Idaho Chinese Dance Group, a demonstration from Eagle Claw Kung Fu and Tai Chi, and educational booths.
EastIdahoNews.com spoke with Todd Zollinger, the district’s World Language Immersion Program coordinator, during the event to learn more about the program.
Zollinger said the program offers students the choice of either Spanish or Mandarin. Once enrolled, elementary school-aged students begin learning in a 50-50 model, with half of their daily instruction happening in the targeted language.
Zollinger said the past school year was the first year the district had a graduating class in both Spanish and Chinese. Currently, about 2,000 students in the district are learning a second language through the World Language Program, he said.
The incorporation of the Chinese Language Immersion Program was initiated by district board member Mike Peterson, who had done business in China and had grandchildren in a similar program in Utah, according to Zollinger.
“He had this vision that this would be a really good thing to offer to the families,” Zollinger said. “They asked the parents, the students, what kind of languages they would like to study. … They wanted to do Mandarin.”
Zollinger said because of this choice, the program is the only one of its kind in Idaho — which drew a delegation from the Chinese Embassy in San Francisco.
He said that the Chinese Embassy had reached out to the school district, asking how they could support the district and teachers with this program. Zollinger said that over the past few days, the delegation had spent time with students in their classes and had also met teachers and administrators.
Xiaohua Yin, a fifth grade teacher at South Fork Elementary School, said this is her third year teaching in Mandarin at the school, after she moved to Idaho from China. She said that while it’s a challenge for students who are only learning in the classroom, they do a good job of learning the language.
“When they came to my classroom, in our classroom, they can do 100% Chinese. I teach them math or science in Chinese,” Xiaohua said. “I think that’s the most amazing part for me to see.”
Xiaohua said when the delegation from the Chinese Embassy came to visit, they gave high praise to the students, noting the level of proficiency and understanding of the language.
EastIdahoNews.com spoke with Samuel Womack, a freshman at Rigby High School who’s been a part of the Chinese Language Immersion Program since kindergarten, said he didn’t know how unique the program was until he got older and realized that not every school teaches Mandarin.
“With my classmates, we’ll just be talking to each other in Mandarin at lunch. And everyone looks at us and gives us these looks, and they have no idea what we’re saying — and that’s really fun,” Womack said.
He is currently enrolled in language-immersion classes at Rigby High School, and depending on which college he chooses, he may continue learning the language.
Whitney Tanner, who has enrolled her two daughters, Lottie and Olivia, in the Chinese Language Immersion Program, said she learned about the option from neighbors. Since enrolling their daughters in kindergarten, Tanner said it’s become second nature for Lottie and Olivia to speak Mandarin.
“It just is regular. It’s actually quite funny, because my daughter is like, ‘When did you learn Chinese?’” she said. “… because they think that everybody’s learning it.”