Language school for the Armed Forces

Media

Part of Philippine Armed Forces Journal

Title
Language school for the Armed Forces
Language
English
Source
Philippine Armed Forces Journal Volume 6 (No. 6) November 1953
Year
1953
Rights
In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Fulltext
T HE AFP Language School is the fi t·st and only one of its kind in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. At present the school of~ fers a course of instructiof'l in the Chin• cse <MandariR) language. Future plans include the opening of classes for the study of the Japanese, lndonetian and Russian languages. The school's first course which lasted for 45 weeks and known as the Mandarin Class No. 1 terminated recently with the graduation of 17 officers who fre now in the various services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The study of the Chinese language was the brainchild of"Captain Rafael N. Pargas (PN) who long before the opening of the Language School felt the need of training •SOme officers of the AFP to apeak, read and write Chinese. In the translation of this idea into reality the the AFP was fortunate in being assisted by two brilliant and unselfish Americans, the Rev. Fr. Thomas D. Carroll, 'S.J. and Mr. Collin M. Hoskins, a well-known ~anila Realtor. The objective of the Mandarin course iR to give officers basic training in spoken and written Chinese and to be able to present as much factual knowledge as poasible about China and the Chinese people. One of the prerequisites tor admisaion to the AFP Language School is the satisfactory passing of .an aptitude teat. Three qualilled inltrueton composed the teaching ataff of the Mandarin Course, namely Mr. Lucien Pan, Mt. Chen Ping I and Miss Julie Chan. Mr. Pan was born of a Chinese father and a French mother and was educated in St. Paul's College in Chungking, China. He served as official interpreter in the Chinese Nationalist Army attached to the U.S. Army in the China-Burma-India Theater during the last war. He was a member of the teaching staff of the Advanced Chinese Course at Cha· bane\ Hall, Jesuit Chinese Language School at the time of his assignment with the AFP Language School. Mr. Chen Ping I is a holder of B.S.E. and A.B. degrees from the Fukien Christian University in China. He was formerly professor in Chinese at the Far Eastern University, National Teachers' College, Quezon College and the !restitute of Foreitn Affairs in the Department of Foreign Affairs. He has had twenty years of experience in the teaching profession, having been principal teacher in several Chinese schools in the Philippines and in China. Miss Chan has been a private tutor in Chinese to many American officers. She has to her credit fourteen years of experience in teaching the Chinese language. The system of instruction is thorough and comprehensive., patterned after that of Yale and Georgetown universities in the United States. The system was introduced by Rev. Thomas D Carroll of the Society of Jesus who is a Doctor of Philosophy in Oriental Languages from thf! University of California. The Mandarin Course is divided into three general phases, namely reading, writing. " PHILIPPINE iRMifD FORCES JOURNAL and advanced reading and ' .... -riting. REACING-The first phase of instruction, covering a period If: nineteen weeks, is the introduction of spoken Chinese and Chinese grammar, done in Romanized style; Pronunciation, under. standivg, reading, and writing of Romanized words are first learned. The oral-aural approach is used exclusively during the first two weeks. No reference is<>made to the grammar. The students mimic the instructor's pronunciation in unison. The mimicry is a stage of learning of the spoken language which nttempts to fix pronunciation habits. The actual study of textbooks in spoken Chinese is started on the third week, :~.fter sixty-two <62) hours of instruction on phoncb:. Tieading lessons serve as a basic for understanding and conversation. Thirty.one (31) hoUJ·s of instruction arc spent in the class. room pPr week, of which eig-hteen arc devoted primarily to understanding ar.d reading the romanized words. The instructor introduces a lesson every day during the first hour. He reads pattern sentences, translates, them, and explains grnmmatical constructions for the pur~ose of making clear the meaning ot passai't'S read. The students then are required to repeat the series of sentences which successively illustrate the same, grammatical point, through the materials as many times as possible during !.he hour. Mistakes in pronunriation are corrected to tench the sounds or inflections. Considerable drill is made after the int~oduction of the vocabulary and pattern sentenCes. After an hour of drill, the class is divided into two groups. One group continues with t]?e drill of the lesson just introduced while the other group listens to tape recordings in the speech laboratory and get acquainted with the correct prommciation of the words am] word groups of the same lesson under the supervision of another instructor. After another hour the two groups a re interchanged. A review of the lesson of the previous day is usually done by a student who gives a moderate, well-modulated reading. Questions are asked on the meaning of the vocabulary, Membu1 of th• Mcml4.ri" cla11 o/ the AFP langu4ge school lM m to speak 4flll ttnderstand tJw Chinese language in th11 llptech laboratOf"'l. LANGUAGE SCHOOL FOR 'l'HE \RMED FORCES 43 A group of soldier-student, prl.ldice writing Chitzese characters as part of their lessons in Mandarin. Instructors are Miss Julie Chan and lllr. Lucien Pan. phrases, and sentences to assure general c:omprehension. This again is followed by the introduction of the new lesson. Under lauch system, atudenta memorize from the the text the sentences whkh best illuatrate grammatical constructions after they understand them. This haa been found to be more \ffective than attempting to analyze in detaWthe component parts of the sentence. WRITING :-The skond phase of the instruction is Character Writing, On the twenty-second week of instruction the &tudenta study the derivation and development of Chinese characters, the analysis of Chinese characters by radicals and Chinese caligraphy. During the succeeding seventeen weeks, they learn to transfonn all Romani:!:ed tenns learned 'in the first phase into Chinese characters comprising 214 radicals and 888 phonetics. During this phase the students study about 1,600 characters, most of them representing more than one meaning. Mimeographed characters of the vocabulary by lessons are issued to the students in advance. The instructor nonn· aJiy introduces the vocabulary, slowly writes the character in big strokes on the blackboard, at the aame time counts the atrokes and numben them as coun· ted. This is done twice or thrice to give the ltudenta a elear picture of the sequence of the ltfl)kea. Af~r the char· acter is written, the instructor by way of explanation usually associates the character with a similar thing or object as an aid to the students for memorizing. Considerable exercise is made after the introduction. The characters are dictated either singly or in word groups, the students writing them either on their own papers or on the blackboard, The instructor dictates the reading lesson of the day adding, if time pennits, variations by composing sentence of the ' previously learned vocabulary. Dictationa are corrected the day they are given and returned the same day or, at latest, the first hour of the next day. ADVANCE READING AND WRIT· ING-The third phase Involves advance reading and writing with emphasis in interpretation and translation of documents. The students learn the types and usage of dictionaries, glossaries, yearbooks; the meaning, use, and recognition of vocabulary pertinent to civil affairs and military fields; and translit;e... ration of names of foreigners, Chinese newspaper terms, Chinese military ~rms and commands, Communist terms, diplomatic tenns, and Important geographic features, etc. This phase covers a period of four weeks and at this stage, the students learn to translate documents fn.om Chinese into English. and vice versa with the aid of the diction· ary. They are required to deliver a short impromptu talk on a given subject c 44 PHILIPPINE ARJIED FORCES JOURNAL RCtJfl'O!!l Father Thoma.s D. Carroll, wlw ''"'·~ n l!i!J help 11, the estnbli~thment of the langtwge scho.:~l, and Reverend Fat.'ICr Pln/ip 8 ourett demonstrate the use o/ an ~.~~ci/loyraph machine in langwt,qc le.~so1,s, at least three times a week. After sufficient vocabulary has been learned, at least one afternoon each week is scheduled for the students to visit downtown Chinese schools to effect a practical free conversation with the Chinese community; attendance in downtown Chinese movie theaters to see fulllength Chinese movies and plays; and play games and converse with the Chinese seminarians at the St. Joseph Se-minary, at Quezon City in order to practice and polish their vocabulary. In addition, the students are required to read at least twenty (20) selected books' on the history and culture of China, to inelude its regional diversion, area, PO· pulation, physical characteristics, customs and traditions of the Chine!le pcoplfl and country; and also on the economic, cultural and geographic conditions of the different regions of China. They are also required to learn Chinese songs and poE.'ms. Examinations are given three hours a wel'k, h!ISed on the week's coverage. Examinations consist of the oral examination, where each student appears for fifteen· minutes before a committee of three instructors, and the writ· ten examination which includes transla· tion from English into Chinese, ChineJe to English, and dictation in English ~written in Chinese. The school has a modern speech laboratory, equipped with ~pe recording machines, find 20 half sound. proof booths. All lessons taken in tht> 1 :our.se are recorded by the instructor, and played back to the students after each lesson's introduction. The tape recordings are made in such a manner that the students, after heari:tg a .sentence', have sufficient time to repeat it. The instructor listens to what the students repeat, and correct.,them. For a student with special difficulties in pronunciation, a tape recording is made of the instructor's pronunciation repeated by that student. Both '\roices are played back and the two voices are compared. The student can hear his own mistakes, By this the student can easily correct his pronounciation. ' · In view of the success of the first course, the AFP Language School is contemplating to open on 12 October 1953, two courses; One in Mandarin and the other in Nippongo. The School also plans to open courses in the Indonesian language next year and on the Russian language in 1955. This year, the School is pl'epared to accommodate civilian students from the Department of Foreign Affairs as well as the different government entities in the Philippines, provided, however, that their applieation for enrollment is approved by the Secretary of National Defense and they pass the apt:tude test.