The class at San Francisco Public Library’s Portola Branch

The Education Division of TECO in San Francisco worked with fifteen libraries in the San Francisco Bay Area to arrange summer Mandarin classes for adults and children. Six summer courses for adults and five summer courses for children were held at the San Francisco Public Library’s main library and ten of its branches; a course for children were held at two branches of the Berkeley Public Library, in the East Bay area; a course for adults was held at Fremont Main Library in the East Bay area; and a course for children was held at Cupertino City Library in the South Bay area. Each summer Mandarin course consisted of eight two-hour classes. They were all scheduled between June and August at times to fit in with the various classes offered by each participating library. The earliest began on June 3 and the latest ended on August 23.

The summer classes were a great success. In many libraries the classes filled up immediately as soon as registration for them began, and the total number of adults and children participating in them was the largest in history. Kyla Wong, the Children’s Librarian of the Cupertino Library, said the teacher "brought a new playfulness to learning Mandarin and I could tell the kids were really enjoying it”, and she’ll do her best to give them an opportunity to attend another round of classes. Karman Zhu, the Youth Services Librarian of the San Francisco Public Library’s Portola Branch, said that this was the first time their branch library had collaborated with the teacher and “we loved her and we want her to come back next year”.

The classes are integrated into the local communities and as a result they’re sharing Taiwan’s language and some of the beauty of Taiwan’s culture with more people. The Education Division would like to thank the Taiwanese American Center of Northern California, St. Anne Chinese School, the Chinese Culture Learning Center, San Mateo County Chinese School, I Fly Young Chinese School, and Bay Valley Chinese School for recommending outstanding Mandarin teachers for the courses.