歐洲開設第一所中英雙語學校！中文妥妥走向國際

Sir Martin Sorrell, the Sinophile chief executive of the advertising conglomerate WPP, was at Kensington Wade, Britain’s first primary school to offer full Mandarin immersion for its pupils, on a recent evening, for a reception to celebrate the Chinese mid-autumn festival.
最近的一個晚上，廣告業巨頭WPP集團親華總裁馬丁·索雷爾先生到肯辛頓韋德小學參加了一場招待會慶祝中國的中秋節。肯辛頓韋德小學是英國第一所爲孩子提供完全的沉浸式普通話教育的小學。

Sir Martin offered assurance to the gaggle of parents that the £17,000-a-year tuition they had shelled out for at the newly opened school was money well spent.
馬丁先生向聚集在一起的父母們保證，他們向這所新學校所支付的1年17000英鎊的學費是值得的。

For those parents inclined to start their children early, there is Hatching Dragons, the UK ’s first Mandarin-English nursery. It claims to “foster fluency” in both languages by age five.
對於那些傾向於讓孩子早點開始學習普通話的父母來說，英國還有Hatching Dragons（望子成龍）這所學校，這是英國第一所提供中英雙語教育的幼兒園。該幼兒園稱，孩子們到五歲的時候就可以“流利掌握”兩門語言。

“I’ve got enough evidence that if a child joins us at six months and stays until they are five, 50 hours a week, they will be orally fluent,” said Cennydd John, who founded Hatching Dragons in 2015, after the birth of his son. If you doubt him, says Mr John, go check his YouTube videos.
“我有足夠的證據證明如果一個孩子在六個月大的時候來到我們這裏，並且每週在我們這兒待50個小時，直到五歲，他們就可以流利地說中文了，”森內德·約翰說道，他於2015年他兒子出生後創辦了Hatching Dragons幼兒園。如果你對此表示懷疑，約翰先生說道，你可以去他的YouTube視頻專輯看看。

“Chinese is the emerging language because China is emerging as a political and economic power,” said Antonella Sorace, a linguistics professor. “It’s regarded as a good investment.”
“漢語是一門新興的語言，因爲中國正成爲政治和經濟領域的新興力量，”語言學教授安東內拉·索瑞斯說道。“學漢語可以說是一項很好的投資。”

Kensington Wade is named after Sir Thomas Wade, a 19th century British diplomat who produced one of the first English-Mandarin textbooks. Its inaugural class of 15 students arrived last month. Three were fluent Mandarin speakers while about half had no Mandarin.
肯辛頓韋德小學是以托馬斯·韋德先生的名字來命名的。韋德先生是19世紀英國的外交官，他創作了最早的中英文教科書之一。該小學的第一批學生於上個月來到了學校，共15人。其中三人可以說流利的普通話，而約有一半的學生一點也不會講普通話。

Its two classrooms, in an existing academy, are unremarkable, with toys and early reading books. On closer inspection, it becomes apparent that one is entirely in English and the other in Mandarin. One teacher is British, the other Chinese. The children move between them and their corresponding worlds during the day. The hope is that by age 11, when they graduate, they will be fluent in both.
該小學在一所現存的學院中有兩個教室，不太引人注意，教室裏有各種玩具和早教讀物。仔細觀察一下就會發現，其中一個教室顯然是完全用來教授英語課程的，而另一個教室則用來教授普通話課程。其中一個老師是英國人，另一個老師是中國人。在一天之中，孩子們在兩位老師之間以及他們相應的世界裏切換。該小學希望，當孩子們11歲，也就是他們畢業的時候，他們可以流利地運用兩種語言。

Kensington Wade also aims to combine two teaching styles. It touts the renowned “Shanghai model” of maths with the creativity and critical thinking prized in a British education.
肯辛頓韋德小學還計劃結合兩種教學方式。該校十分推崇著名的“上海數學教學法”，並將結合英國教育所看重的創造力和批判性思維的培養。

The benefits of bilingual education are alluring, including greater cultural empathy and cognitive flexibility. Then there is the question of whether children view the language as being useful — the bane of Greek and Latin teachers.
雙語教育的好處包括更好的文化認同和認知靈活性，這是非常吸引人的。而這裏的問題就是孩子們是否會覺得這種語言有用，而且這也是希臘語和拉丁語老師們的煩惱之源。

In April, Jo Wallace, Kensington Wade’s headteacher, visited three schools in the San Francisco area that have been offering immersive English-Mandarin instruction, one for more than 30 years.
四月份肯辛頓韋德小學的校長喬·華萊士訪問了舊金山地區的三所學校。這三所學校都提供沉浸式中英文課程，其中一所學校已教授了30多年的中英文課程。

“I went with the worry that these little kids were going to be confused, that they’d be stressed. And all I saw was children having a lovely time,” she recalled, although she acknowledged that some parents would have to “hold their nerve” in the early days.
“我懷着擔憂去了那裏，我擔心這些小孩子們會困惑，會有壓力。可我在那兒看到的是孩子們過得很愉快，”她回憶道，雖然她明白初期一些父母還是得“保持冷靜”。