7/10/09

I am typing to chronicle the developing interest in the Chinese language among the Tanzania Carvers Association (Chawasawata). I began teaching here last year for about five weeks or so after I realized that many of the customers that came to the Mwenge woodcarver shops were Chinese. At my first class, over ten students came, and the number only grew after that. This year, I have returned to Tanzania with a newly written textbook in order to better teach the Chinese language. The students have greeted this textbook with much enthusiasm, and towards the end of my classes, I have over thirty students listening. I started teaching 6/29/09, and plan to teach until 8/11/09.

One of the problems that the woodcarvers are worried about is that after I return to America, there will no longer be any Chinese teacher to further their learning. I have created this textbook in order to mitigate this problem, though even I know that this is only something that may help to keep their Chinese at a certain level, not to further improve it. In addition, learning the Chinese language, I believe more so than many other languages, requires constantly hearing the language in order to assure oneself that one is pronouncing the tones correctly.

As a result, I am attempting to work with the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania to solve this problem. On 7/6/09, I called the Embassy, letting them know that I would like to meet with someone to talk about my project and how to continue the teaching of the Chinese language at the Chawasawata school even after my departure. The lady who answered the phone, Ms. Wang, accepted, and the following day, I met with Ms. Wang for about a thirty minute meeting. In this meeting, I laid out three goals that I wanted the embassy to achieve before I left:

1) Print ten copies of my book, and print more on an as need basis.
2) Find another Chinese teacher to continue teaching after my departure. In addition, if needed, I will be more than happy to continue to write chapters/books so that the Chinese teacher does not have to prepare his or her own materials.
3) Try to throw a party for the woodcarvers so that both the Chinese officials and the Woodcarvers can meet and better build a relationship.

Ms. Wang told me that she will let the “Ling Dao” know, and will get back to me as soon as possible. Sure enough, the following morning at 8:24 a.m., I received a call from Ms. Wang, telling me that there was a bit of a problem. Because I was just a person, it would not be ideal for the embassy to work with me. It would be better if there were some umbrella organization that could write them a letter which stated these three things. I told her that there was such an organization in Chawasawata, and I skipped class in order to type up a letter, re-stating these three goals, as well as adding an additional fourth one (requested by the woodcarvers themselves) that the Chinese Embassy help to prepare or furnish the Chawasawata school.
Again, the response was that she will get back to me as soon as possible. This time, I did not receive a phone call the following day, and am hoping that she will call today, 7/10/09.

Yesterday, however, two important events did happen. One was that I went with Vincent, a woodcarver, and Sipio, one of the chairmen of education at Chawasawata, to the Ministry of Education. Our goal in going was to find out the process of registering a private school, such as the Chawasawata school. After searching for about half an hour for the right person, and waiting another half an hour for her to arrive in her office, we were finally told to call Monday morning, and come in early so that there would be sufficient time for her to explain the process to us.
Though this is essentially an entirely different project, it does have implications on my quest for Chinese language education. We are trying to register the school as both an English and Chinese school. At first, the ladies laughed, “Hah! A Chinese School!?” but soon after, they saw me, and realized that perhaps it was really true. If we can get the school registered as an official Chinese school recognized by the government, perhaps this would add pressure onto the Chinese Embassy to help out one of the very first recognized Chinese schools in the country of Tanzania.

The other event was more of a discussion than any action, but it is the starting stages of something that could be big. I had a chat with Moses, a native Tanzanian with very good English (In fact, I never realized just quite how good his English is), about the issue. We concluded that it would be best if the Chawasawata threw the first party and invited the Chinese Embassy. I added that we could have the students prepare skis or presentation showing off what they have learned in these few weeks. We decided that I would pay for the drinks (about $50) to throw the party, and that it would take place in about two weeks at night at the Chawasawata school.
The conversation got interesting when I got into whether we should bring the newspapers in to chronicle these events. Moses and I were both really excited at first, as it would give great publicity. We soon realized, however, that this was a really tricky issue. If the Chinese embassy does not come, all the papers will chronicle the failure of the embassy. This would obviously boil bad blood between the two parties and certainly discourage the embassy from giving any further help. On the other hand, Moses suggested that if the embassy does accept, then we can call the papers. I also suggested, that perhaps we will not use the papers for the first one, but that if they do not come to it, we can throw a second party, in which we would bring the papers regardless of whether the embassy sent representatives or not.

Anyway, today I will discuss with Moses and the chairman about a backup plan to add some friendly pressure onto the Embassy of China. Hopefully, it does not end in an ugly media fight, as in reality, that his hurting both sides. The thought of getting the woodcarvers and their Chinese learning was at first really exciting, but now I realize that we must act with a bit more tact and patience in order to preserve the long term goals.