Berries World adds zest to Mandarin class

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Singing a Chinese children's song he learned 10 minutes earlier, three-year-old Jonathan cheerfully walks through a well-lit spacious corridor at the Berries World of Learning School and heads to a pond, full of paper cards, to fish.

After successfully catching a Chinese character with his magnetic fishing rod, a teacher, recruited from China and trained for a month in Singapore, comes to Jonathan's side, explains what the character represents and gently shows him how to pronounce it.

"We want children to learn to love the language," said Ita Chrisjanty, who runs the newly opened 500-square-meter Kelapa Gading branch of the Singapore-based Chinese language and enrichment center. "There's no reason why learning Mandarin should be a drag."

Ita said Berries World aimed to provide a fun-filled environment, making learning an adventure and laying down a strong foundation for children to learn Mandarin.

She said the most common reason children thought Mandarin was difficult was because they were mainly instructed to memorize words and characters by rote.

"Here, we don't want children to hate the language," said Ita, who is a mother of four young boys. "We want them to love it and be enthusiastic about it, only then will they be able to learn independently."

Jonathan's parents, Wantoro and Eviary, who had looked around extensively for a Chinese language program suitable for their son, said that they were impressed by what they saw.

"There were so many good things about it," said Wantoro. "The teaching method is fun and the facilities are top-notch."

At Berries, children in classes taught by two instructors and capped at 12 students, learn how to write, read and speak Mandarin through games, songs, art and crafts. Children are taught a traditional poem to the beat of "We Will Rock You" from the British pop band Queen. Chinese characters are firstly introduced using finger painting instead of brushes.

"They really focus on the children and because of this, I think the children enjoy learning," said Eviary, carrying Jonathan, who was enthusiastically nodding in agreement.

Eviary said that so far Berries World of Learning, which charges between Rp 175,000 to Rp 230,000 for a two-hour lesson, inclusive of tax and materials, was definitely their No. 1 pick.

"To be honest, their program is not cheap," said Eviary, who also enrolls Jonathan at an English-based play-school. "But I think it will be worth every penny."

Wantoro, who like many Chinese-Indonesians raised in the Soeharto era cannot speak Mandarin, said that he felt it was important for his son to master the language.

"It's the language of the future," he said. "I feel obligated as a parent to give my son an opportunity to learn it."

He added that he was glad that the political climate was more receptive to Chinese culture than in the past. Chinese cultural celebrations and the formal instruction of Mandarin was banned for over 30 years under Soeharto's New Order.

"When I was growing up it was much more different than now," said Wantoro. As a child he was sometimes made to feel ashamed of his cultural heritage.

Berries World of Learning School was started in Singapore in 1993 with 80 students. It now educates over three thousand children, ages three to 12, in its five centers in Singapore every year. The Kelapa Gading center, located across the Artha Gading Mall, is the sixth branch and the first one outside of Singapore.

According to Steph Chan, a manager at the Berries World headquarters, about 20 percent of their students in Singapore are not of Chinese descent. She also said that 100 percent of their students who took the mandatory sixth-grade Mandarin language test, conducted by the Singapore Ministry of Education, pass, with most topping the test.