Beginnings are hard. Good thing our community has been AMAZING!
With just a month left before the 2023-2024 school year ends, we wanted to soft launch at least 1 initiative in preparation for the Fall term. We ended up piloting 3!
1. May Chinese Club + Ice in Paradise
On May 1st, Principal Jenny officially soft-launched our Chinese Club. We put the word out on April 29th via our planning survey, which was also embedded into our last newsletter, and the goal was to launch as soon as we had 4 students sign up. A total of 8 students showed up to play, learn, sign, and listen to stories in Mandarin!
5月1日，校长Jenny正式启动了我们的中文俱乐部。我们在4月29日通过规划调查发出消息，这也嵌入在我们的最后一期通讯简报中，一旦我们有4名学生报名就启动。总共有8名学生参加了游戏、学习、唱歌和听故事的俱乐部活动！
[INVITATION ALERT!] In addition to the Wednesday meet-ups, we will be hosting our last Club meetup of the month at Ice in Paradise, in conjunction with our monthly bilingual Family Day on May 29! Admissions to the skating rink is included, and skate rentals will be minimal from 3:30pm-4:30pm for Chinese Club members and prospective members. Do join us for some ice skating fun, and find your fellow Chinese language buddies while you’re at it!
【邀请通知！】除了周三的聚会外，我们将在5月29日举办本月最后一次俱乐部聚会，地点在冰上乐园，与我们的月度双语家庭日同时进行！冰场入场费已包含在内，中文俱乐部成员和潜在成员的滑冰鞋租赁费用将非常低廉，时间为下午3:30至4:30。快来加入我们的滑冰乐趣，顺便找到你的中文学习伙伴吧！
Chinese Club will officially open its doors to more members in September. Stay tuned for sign-up instructions in August.
中文俱乐部将于九月正式向更多成员开放。请留意八月的报名指南。
2. Santa Barbara Charter School
Though 2nd to sign us into their after-school program, Santa Barbara Charter School became the 1st elementary school to actually pilot our Intro to Mandarin class on Friday, May 3rd! We initially expected no more than 8 students…17 students attended on the first day. Even more showed up the following Friday.
虽然是第二个加入我们课后项目的学校，但Santa Barbara Charter School在5月3日的周五成为了第一个真正试行我们的普通话入门课程的小学！我们最初预计可能不会超过8名学生……但是第一天就有17名学生参加了。下一个周五，参加的学生更多！
THANK YOU SB CHARTER for bringing the Chinese language into the Santa Barbara Unified School District! If your child is a student at SB Charter, come sing, read, and play with us after school on Fridays. If you wish to bring Chinese into your after-school class offerings, please get in touch!
感谢Santa Barbara Charter School将中文带入圣塔巴巴拉联合学区！如果您的孩子在SB Charter，欢迎在周五课后与我们一起唱歌、阅读和玩耍。如果您希望在您的课后课程中加入中文，请与我们联系！
3. UCSB Volunteers
In April, Bella Chen from UCSB’s Chinese Language Department rejoined our Board. She had initially helped launch SBCS when it first started in the 80s, and enthusiastically took on the role again by sending over two volunteers, ZHOU Xinyue and WANG Yixin, within the first week of May. Thanks to their efforts and expedient coordination with CSSA, we were able to publicize our need by 8pm on May 14 for, say, 10 volunteers to begin with... By midnight, we had 31 active volunteers join our WeChat group! That number doubled the next day.
4月份，UCSB中文语言部门的Bella Chen再次加入我们的董事会。她最初在80年代帮助启动了SBCS，现在又热情地重新担任这角色，仅在5月的第一周就派来了两名志愿者，周昕月和王依信。得益于他们的努力和与CSSA的迅速协调，我们在5月14日晚上8点公布了我们的需要，比如，最初需要10名志愿者……到了午夜，我们的微信群已有31名活跃志愿者加入！第二天这个数字翻了一番。
We are so grateful, and so fortunate, to have UCSB’s support as we bring more Chinese-speaking opportunities into our local community. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
我们非常感激，也非常幸运，有UCSB的支持，让我们在当地社区提供更多讲中文的机会。谢谢你！谢谢你！谢谢你！
What kind of community are we looking to build here?
Chinese school is only as effective as the language environment that supports it. So let’s create some immersive Chinese language experiences around town! As summer approaches, we are eager for the “break time” to start laying the infrastructure for academic year 2024-2025. By year’s end, we hope to provide at least 3 Chinese-speaking outlets throughout the week for our Club members to practice and participate in. Where will our classrooms be? How about Moxi? Train Depot? Art Museum? The Harbor? The Bluffs? Beautiful Santa Barbara, what say you?!
中文学校的效果与支持它的语言环境息息相关。那么，让我们在镇上创造一些沉浸式的中文语言体验吧！随着夏天的临近，我们迫不及待地开始为2024-2025学年的基础设施做准备。到年底，我们希望每周至少提供3个中文俱乐部成员可以练习和参与的中文交流场所。我们的课堂将在哪里呢？Moxi？火车站？艺术博物馆？港口？悬崖？美丽的圣巴巴拉，你怎么看？
Age restrictions will be a thing of the past. Infants to toddlers can join our Music Director, Miss Chloe, on weekly play dates. Chinese Club will be open to any Chinese dialect learner who is potty-trained and older. After-school classes will support students from 1st to 6th grade at the intro level. Weekend classes for those who are ready for something more formal. Online classes and private lessons are available in between for all age groups. It’s about time we bridged the gaps, and have some fun along the way!
年龄限制将成为过去。从婴儿到幼儿都可以参加我们音乐总监Miss Chloe每周四早上的唱歌，看书，游戏活动。任何已经学会如厕的中文方言学习者都可以加入中文俱乐部。课后班将支持1至6年级的学生参加入门级别的课程。周末课程适合那些准备参加更正式学习的学生。还要更多的补习吗？我们的在线课程和私人课程适用于所有年龄段。是时候边玩边弥合这些年龄差距了！