In conjunction with Faces meeting and farewell reception to our graduating international seniors                                       

Mr. Tu visited St. Stephen's on Monday at 6 PM in the Multi-Purpose room to speak to students. Larry Tu and Betsy Ashcraft are parents of senior, Andrew Tu.

Mr. Tu is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary since 2004, and is responsible for overseeing Dell's global legal, governmental affairs, and ethics and compliance departments.

Before joining Dell, Mr. Tu served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel at NBC Universal for three years. Prior to his position at NBC, he was a partner with the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers LLP, where he focused on energy, technology, Internet, and media related transactions. He also served five years as managing partner of the firm"s Hong Kong office.

Mr. Tu's prior experience also includes serving as General Counsel Asia-Pacific for Goldman Sachs, attorney for the U.S. State Department, and law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Mr. Tu holds Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Arts degrees from Harvard University, as well as a Master's degree from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Assistant Director of International Program
Coordinator of Chinese Language Studies
hzolefsky@sstx.org
512-327-1213 x6145

Ms. Zheng's Spring Break trip and other information.

On Sunday, Nov. 15th, two Chinese language students won awards at the 8th Greater Houston Area Chinese Speech Competition. Robbin Goodman took 2nd prize and Alexandra Tully received Honorable Mention award in the competition.

With the support and help of the Chinese Consulate in Houston, this special event hosts are Chinese Civic Center in Houston, the University of Houston's Foreign Language Department and Chinese Language Teachers Association-Texas. The chair of the competition jury committee is Ms. Dong Siqi, who is the top Senior National Level Chinese Language Examiner from Beijing. Other judges include chairs and professors from Houston area Universities as well as TV anchors/announcers from Houston TV Channel 13 and China US Media. There were a total of over 140 contestants for this prestigious speech contest in Houston.

For the competition, Robbin and Alexandra composed and memorized a 500 word and 3 minute speech in Chinese. Robbin is a senior in Hai Zheng's Advanced Chinese Level 6 course and Alexandra is a senior in the Chinese Level 5 student taught by Sylvia Lin. The success of Robbin and Alexandra builds upon last year's 1st Prize award by Adam Schlegel in the same competition.

The National Chinese Honor Society is sponsored by the Secondary Schools Chinese Language Association. The main objective of the society is to recognize academic excellence and achievements of students studying Chinese as a second language. A chapter was founded at St. Stephen’s in 2000. It is the “Li Ling,” or “Powerful Dragon” Chapter, and Hai Zheng Olefsky is the founding advisor.
www.classk12.org/index.htm

Asian American Cultural Center and Asian American Community Partnership

Asian American Cultural Center and Asian American Community Partnership presents a book award to a special St. Stephen’s senior from the Chinese language class for his/her “Outstanding Community Service” to the Asian American Community. The award winner volunteers at Asian American Cultural Center for the Mid Autumn/Moon Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Lunar New Year Celebration; and the Young Musicians Festival Competition and has made a valuable contribution to the Asian American Community.

Please join us to experience a whole new culture

Chinese Yo-Yo
Chinese Calligraphy
Chinese Music
Chinese Painting
Chinese Chop Engraving
Chinese food
Chinese Macramé
Chinese Movie
Chinese paper cut
Chinese games

Meetings TBA

Teacher: Hai Zheng Olefsky
Phone: 327-1213 (O) VM 6145 E-mail: hzolefsky@sstx.org
Office Hour: By appointment at International office

Textbooks: * Integrated Chinese Level I Part I
(Text Book, Character Book, Audio Tape, and Work Book)
By Tao-chung Yao, and Yuehua Liu etc.
Publisher: Cheng & Tsui Company, Boston, MA

• Supplement Materials *Teacher-developed Materials
  

Chinese level I is a beginning language course for students to learn basic speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in standard Chinese. Chinese as one of the oldest languages in the world, is spoken today as the main language by the greater China area in Asia. Students will learn the Pinyin Romanization system, Chinese characters, and basic Chinese grammar. The emphasis of the course will be on the active learning in a communicative setting with variety of language activities including games, dialogues, oral presentation, and imaginative tasks. Field trips will be planned to the Oriental Market and Chinese Restaurant. Students will develop a desire for further exploration of the Chinese language as well as an appreciation of Chinese culture, which provide the access to the rich cultural tradition of the Far East.

Language Goals:
At the completion of the course, students will be able to:

• master the basic Chinese Pinyin system, and demonstrate pronunciation understandable to a native speaker,
• comprehend simple statements and questions in real- life situations,
• communicate on short sentences and phrases on the topics covered in the course,
• know the Chinese grammatical patterns from the lesson, and apply them correctly,
• learn about 400 commonly used vocabulary for basic listening, speaking, reading, and writing in pinyin system,
• know the basic Chinese writing system with stroke orders and radicals
• write about 200 Chinese (simplified) characters with correct stroke orders and also read them in Chinese (traditional) characters,

Cultural Goals:
Upon finishing the course, students will be able to:

• gain an awareness of the Chinese culture in topics related to the course,
• compare the Chinese history outlines with the west,
• understand the basic Chinese tradition, custom, and festivals,
• explore the geographical features, major cities in the greater China area,
• appreciate own culture better through learning Chinese as a foreign language,
• participate in multicultural activities and events on campus and in the communities,

Teacher: Hai Zheng Olefsky
Phone: 327-1213 (O) VM 6145 E-mail: hzolefsky@sstx.org
Office Hour: By appointment at International office

Textbooks: *Integrated Chinese level I part I
(Text book, Character Book, Audio tape, and Workbook)
By Tao-chung Yao, and Yuehua Liu, etc.
Published by Cheng & Tsui Company, Boston, Ma.

• The Great Wall Story (video), Center for Chinese Studies, Michigan State University, MI.
  
• Supplement Materials *Teacher-developed Materials
  

Course Description:
Chinese level II is a basic language course in which students will review and continue the materials introduced in Chinese level I with the expectation that the students will master more in terms of degree and quantity. There will be further focus on Chinese sound system and the mechanics of stroke order and radicals in writing characters. In addition, the students will continue to build vocabulary, to learn grammar and to immerse in richer Chinese cultural and historical traditions. A variety of language tasks will be provided for the students to increase their ability to acquire information through listening, to express themselves with more confidence, and to read and write characters with more ease.

Measurable Proficiency:
At the successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• ask and answer questions involving areas of immediate need, leisure time activities and simple transactions
  
• comprehend short conversations on simple topics in daily life situations
  
• use time words and other markers to indicate various time relationships, simple comparison, and some complex sentences with different tenses.
  
• compose sentences with evidence of control of the most fundamental syntax beyond the skeletal Subject - Verb - Object pattern.
  
• understand simple connected specially prepared reading materials and can puzzle out pieces of some authentic materials.
  
• write 150 more Chinese (simplified) characters and also read them in Chinese (traditional) characters

Reading and writing required for the course:

Students finish reading assignments on a daily basis. Students also write weekly in various forms: dialogues, paragraphs, free and guided journal entries, and short essays. Students practice oral communicative skills in Chinese daily through drills, dialogues, and class discussions, etc.

Teacher: Sylvia Lin
Phone: 327-1213 VM 6076
E-mail: slin@sstx.org
Office Hour: By appointment

Textbooks: * Integrated Chinese level I part I and part II
(Text Book, Character Book, Audio tape and Work Book)
By Tao-chung Yao, and Yuehua Liu etc.
Publisher: Cheng & Tsui Company, Boston, MA

• Supplement Materials
  
• Teacher-developed Materials
  

Course description:

At St. Stephen’s, Chinese III and Chinese IV are considered intermediate Chinese. (Refer to Chinese I and II syllabus for a definition of basic Chinese.) At this level, students are familiar with the processes of learning vocabulary, learning character components, and learning grammatical structures. The focus of the intermediate Chinese is placed both on integrating the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing and on spiraling the vocabulary, grammar, syntax and cultural information mentioned in the text above as to bring the students an opportunity to improve their language skills. SAT II Chinese test format will be introduced and review materials will be taught in class.

Measurable Proficiency:

At the successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• comprehend conversations on basic topics in daily life situations and initiate questions and responds in social situations
  
• understand frequently used vocabulary and work-order patterns in simple sentences
  
• familiarize and apply the basic grammar patterns in speech
  
• express present, future and past ideas comprehensively
  
• understand short excerpts from Chinese movies and videos
  
• compare and read simplified and traditional Chinese characters
  
• explore selected poems, short essays, idioms, and literary works
  
• read newspaper clippings and excerpts of magazines
  
• write simple notes, letters and short reports using elementary vocabulary and commonly encountered structures
  
• show an understanding of culture as systems of values that evolve with time and distinguish some culturally authentic patterns of behavior from idiosyncratic behaviors

Reading and writing requirements:

Students finish reading assignments on a daily basis. Written assignment is due on Friday in Chinese characters in various forms and topics: dialogues, paragraphs, free and guided journal entries and short essays. Students practice oral communicative and presentational skills in Chinese through drills, dialogues, interviews, and class discussions, etc.

Teacher: Sylvia Lin
Phone: 512-327-1213 VM 6076
E-mail: slin@sstx.org
Office Hour: By appointment

Textbooks: * Integrated Chinese level I part II and level II
(Text Book, Character Book, Audio CD and Work Book)
By Tao-chung Yao, and Yuehua Liu etc.
Publisher: Cheng & Tsui Company, Boston, MA

• Supplement Materials
  
• Teacher-developed Materials
  

Course description:
At St. Stephen’s, Chinese IV are considered Intermediate Chinese. (Refer to Chinese II/III syllabus for a definition of basic Chinese.) At this level, students are familiar with the processes of learning vocabulary, learning character components, and learning grammatical structures. The focus of the intermediate Chinese is placed both on integrating the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing and on spiraling the vocabulary, grammar, syntax and cultural information mentioned in the text above as to bring the students an opportunity to improve their language skills. SAT II Chinese and AP review materials will be introduced.

Measurable Proficiency:
At the successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• comprehend conversations on basic topics in daily life situations and initiate questions and responds in social situations
  
• understand frequently used vocabulary and work-order patterns in simple sentences
  
• familiarize and apply the basic grammar patterns in speech
  
• express present, future and past ideas comprehensively
  
• understand short excerpts from Chinese movies and videos
  
• compare and read simplified and traditional Chinese characters
  
• explore selected poems, short essays, idioms, and literary works
  
• read newspaper clippings and excerpts of magazines
  
• write simple notes, letters and short reports using elementary vocabulary and commonly encountered structures
  
• show an understanding of culture as systems of values that evolve with time and distinguish some culturally authentic patterns of behavior from idiosyncratic behaviors
  

Reading and writing requirements:
Students finish reading assignments on a daily basis. Written assignment is due on Friday in Chinese characters in various forms and topics: dialogues, paragraphs, free and guided journal entries and short essays. Students practice oral communicative and presentational skills in Chinese through drills, dialogues, interviews, and class discussions, etc.