In unison, Angela Xiao's students repeated the Chinese tongue twisters, with the tonal quality of the pronunciations sounding almost like a song.
For students like Justin Tantlinger, a graduate of Laurel Valley High School, the elementary Chinese class at St. Vincent College is their first exposure to a language spoken by 25 percent of the world's population.
"It's just a wonderful experience," said Tantlinger, 18, a freshman majoring in business management. "You don't get to experience this in high school."
St. Vincent received approval from the state Department of Education to offer a program leading to certification to teach the Chinese language to elementary, middle and secondary students.
"In almost every opportunity I've had to talk to school districts, that's one of the areas they're looking to add, and there's very few Chinese certified teachers in the schools currently, so we're looking to meet that need," said Veronica I. Ent, chair of the education department.
The University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pennsylvania are the only other places in the state where students can study for teacher certification in Chinese.
The St. Vincent program blends classes from the education, history and world, and classical languages departments at St. Vincent.
Students will typically major in history while taking appropriate Chinese language and education courses. They will have to student teach and study abroad before graduation.
"We know that there's a big demand for Chinese teaching in the local schools that can't be filled because there aren't any certified teachers or there are very few," said Tina Phillips Johnson, assistant professor of history, who directs a program that sends teachers from China to local schools.
Experts agree that Chinese language programs and the need for them are growing, as China becomes a greater economical, technological and scientific power.
"If the United States wants to remain competitive in the global marketplace, we need to have citizens who are knowledgeable about Chinese language and culture," said Doreen Blandino, chair of the languages department at St. Vincent.
An accurate figure on the number of Chinese language programs in the United States is difficult to determine because data is hard to come by, said Jeff Wang, assistant director of Chinese Language Initiatives for the Asia Society, which works to strengthen relationships between American and Asia.
The society estimates Chinese language programs in U.S. schools grew by about 200 percent between 2005 and 2008, based on surveys conducted by the society and the College Board.
Wang said learning Chinese has implications in economics, business, science, research and politics since one out of four people in the world speak the language.
"There are a lot of things China will be involved in," he said. "Just to know their language, maybe the way they think about things, is going to give us a great edge in dealing with these things."
Blandino said Chinese has been offered to St. Vincent students since about 2003. Since then, the offerings have grown and students can minor in the language.
"I've been in a number of professional and personal settings, and I would always hear people say Chinese is an up and coming language," Blandino said. "I got to thinking the future is now. Now is the time to learn Chinese."
For three years, St. Vincent has been working with the University of Pittsburgh to bring teachers from China to the area as part of a Chinese government program, the Confucius Institute. Those teachers go out to local schools to teach Chinese.
St. Vincent receives a teacher and oversees the program at Greater Latrobe, the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, Greensburg Salem, Kiski Area, New Kensington-Arnold and St. Joseph High School in Natrona Heights.
In all, 15 Chinese teachers are working with 2,200 students in Allegheny, Westmoreland and Berks counties, said Johnson.
The teacher certification program, which was approved over the summer, does not have any students yet. Ent said a Lancaster County school district contacted St. Vincent about working with one of their current teachers on his certification, and they are looking to adapt the program for him.
Wang said colleges need to offer such flexibility to get more teachers into high school classrooms and interest more American students in someday teaching Chinese.
"That is our goal for the long term, that we will have a 'native' pool of (American) candidates that will be interested in becoming teachers, but it's kind of chicken and egg," Wang said. "If you don't have those initial teachers, you'll never have the interest generated to create that native pool."
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