China’s culinary heritage is an integral ingredient in the county’s varied and unique cultures. Eight major cooking traditions span the massive country, and they are as diverse as they are delectable.

One of the more well-known traditions is Sichuan cuisine, from the province by that name. If you order a dish with the word “Sichuan” in front of it, you’re guaranteed a spicy meal. The cooking style of Zhejiang Province, where much of China’s pig farming occurs, is renowned for its freshness and tenderness, and for bringing out delicate natural flavors through stir-frying, quick-frying, simmering, and steaming.
Dim sum is the most famous takeaway from Southern China and Hong Kong—and the cuisine there also has a historical reputation for incorporating cat meat and other ingredients that many Americans find controversial or too adventurous. The cuisine of Fujian Province and Taiwan is seafood-heavy, owing to the coastal location, and many dishes take the form of broths or soups. The food in China’s vast Xinjiang Province in the West is decidedly different than the Chinese food most Americans are acquainted with, consisting of curries, kabobs, and mutton, and reflecting the area’s predominantly Islamic and Turkic heritage.

In Hunan, the breadbasket of Southern China, you’ll find spicy dishes that are typically pot-roasted, braised, smoked, and stewed. Shandong cuisine was once a key culinary tradition within the imperial courts, is the typical style of modern cooking in Beijing and Northern China, and has heavily influenced the other seven traditions. The cuisines of Jiangsu Province and Anhui Province are generally characterized by soft texture, selection of ingredients according to the season, and matching the shapes and colors of each dish.

A few of the major culinary staples are worth mentioning. Rice is the most significant staple of Chinese meals, equivalent to the use of bread in Western cuisine. China is the country that is the world’s largest rice producer and one of the earliest cultivators of the grain. Noodles of all shapes and sizes can be found in Chinese dishes, and long noodles are taken as a symbol of longevity and often served on birthdays. Tofu originated in China and has long been a staple of Asian cuisines (for a real test of your taste buds, order “stinky tofu” at a Taiwanese restaurant—it’s true to its name!). Pork is perhaps the most popular of meats among Chinese: The country is the world’s largest pork consumer, has three times as many pigs as the human population, and even has a “strategic pork reserve” to guard against price fluctuations that could generate social unrest.

But certain foods that Americans love to order at Chinese restaurants are, in fact, NOT Chinese in origin. For instance, you’d be hard pressed to find a fortune cookie anywhere in Asia. And General Tso’s chicken, that sweet-and-sour deep fried favorite, was unknown in China until chefs from Chinese restaurants in North America introduced it back home.

If I could recommend one dish to you for your next visit to a Chinese restaurant, it would be Peking Duck. Perhaps no other dish is steeped in such history, dating back to the imperial era as early as 400 A.D. One Beijing restaurant specializing in the dish has been in business since 1416. Considered one of China’s national dishes, the bird is roasted until its skin is thin and crispy, and is assembled with pancakes, spring onions, and hoisin sauce before being eaten.

Get out your chopsticks and dig in!

Next month: Stay tuned for an article on China’s Confucian and Taoist heritage.
Alyson Slack is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and has a master’s degree in international affairs from American University. She lived in Asia for over twelve years—including Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, and South Korea—and previously worked on East Asia issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Alyson currently works at the Center for Economic Growth in Albany.

Most often the afflicted person’s long term memories remain intact longest…and recent memories pass by as if not even noticed just moments before… Recognition of loved ones comes and goes…and eventually disappears altogether. For this disease, though studied for some time now, a cure remains elusive. The utter sadness of not being recognized by one’s close family member, so often a mother, cannot truly be understood until experienced. Often the person with Alzheimer’s is otherwise in good, even excellent health…so many remain at home. Also, being in familiar surroundings slows down symptoms of the developing memory losses…everyday routines remain implanted in long term memory while novel circumstances and information that happens while engaged in such familiar routines escapes recognition just moments later.

There are some advances however. Interestingly, during the past few years studies have confirmed what might come as no surprise to some…learning another language correlates with protection against Alzheimer’s and Dementia during the later years in life! Studies demonstrate correlations that people who have what is referred to as a “cognitive reserve” measured through “idea density” ward off the detrimental effects of these conditions/diseases (Phend, 2009). Reviews of several articles addressing these studies inform this article (Phend, 2009; Rogers, 2007; Sharples, 2009). Results include information that could help the elderly at risk for Alzheimer’s and/or Dementia. Their families and those at risk themselves would be interested to know that:

• People who possess complex language skills early in life may well safeguard later cognitive/memory deterioration;

• Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging shows that 21% of those people studied, regardless of noted placques and lesions in brain tissues, have intact cognitive functioning;

• People with “more cognitive ability and more neural tissue to start with-sharper minds broadly-may be better able to withstand the ravages of age” (Sharples, 2009);
• Both males and females were represented in the studies; • That a Canadian study published in the journal Neuropsychologie “…shows bilingualism has protective effects in delaying onset of dementia by four years” even after variables such as cultural differences, immigration, formal education, employment and gender are considered (Rogers, 2007). Further, the Canadian study mentioned above urged Dr. Morris Freeman, head of the Division of Neurology and director of a prominent memory clinic, to state that “…there are no pharmacological interventions that are this dramatic.”

Reviewing the articles listed in the reference section will surely proved inspiring…learning another language is not only a wonderful way to enter another culture, an exciting endeavor for most; such learning seems a healthy choice for maximizing cognitive functioning throughout the life span! Not only will family members want to learn more about these findings, folks might well want to begin studying another language together. This learning experience will not only bring the excitement of new cultural experiences and conversation, it will likely include the health benefits of being able to have meaningful family relationships longer!

Christina Hellendoorn-Cothren teacher Dutch through the Language Learning Institute. A native of the Netherlands, she has lived in the US since age 12 and is trained/works as a School Psychologist.

References
Phend, C. (2009.) Early language abilities may protect memory decades later-Language skills
may ward off Alzheimer’s, Dementia. Med Page Today.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AlzheimersNews/story?id=8035304&page=1

Rogers, A. (2007.) Language, Brains, and Alzheimers. Wired Science.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/01/language_brains/

Sharples, T. (2009). Can language skills ward off Alzheimer’s? A nuns’ study. Time.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1909420,00.html

We’re living in an era marked by China’s rise in global affairs. The world’s geopolitical center of gravity, it is recognized, is shifting toward Asia, a trend that some see as accelerating in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the subsequent deep recession, and U.S. preoccupation with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Strategists on both sides of the Pacific are engaged in debate over whether we are embarking on a long-term transformation from an international order in which the United States is the clear sole superpower to a multipolar world in which China and other emerging powers share greater influence. For Americans, who on the whole have an overwhelmingly Europe-focused orientation when it comes to travel and interest in foreign affairs, this represents a significant departure.

Beijing’s growing importance extends to the economic, commercial, political, and military realms, a fact that increasingly touches on Americans’ lives. China is the United States’ second-largest trading partner. People-to-people exchanges are on the rise: Chinese students are enrolling in U.S. colleges in record numbers, and more Americans are now studying in China than in any other foreign country. There is an open-ended question of how the U.S. military presence in Asia—consisting of alliances with Japan, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, and Australia, including large troop presences in the first two, and a commitment to the security of Taiwan—will be reshaped in the context of China’s growing defense capabilities and assertiveness in the region.

It should be noted that Beijing faces a host of challenges both domestically and externally that could potentially interrupt or slow this tide of growing influence. But a significant degree of commercial and political co-dependency between our two countries is a permanent reality. That reality is rife with both challenges and opportunities, which is why the federal government has identified Mandarin Chinese as a strategic language that is critical for more Americans to study.

Language study on the surface is about facilitating communication, but this is only the basis of a much broader set of consequences: a richer exchange of ideas, a building of trust between populations who make the effort to gain an understanding of each others’ languages and customs, and a means and foundation on which to build strong long-term bilateral relations. If you embark on the journey of learning Chinese—regardless of your individual motivations for doing so—you’re a part of this larger picture.

Alyson Slack is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and has a master’s degree in international affairs from American University. She lived in Asia for over twelve years—including Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, and South Korea—and previously worked on East Asia issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Alyson currently works at the Center for Economic Growth in Albany.

When babies are born, their vocal tracts are neither fully developed nor capable of using speech. Before babies ever speak or understand any words, they begin to learn and repeat sounds found in the language spoken by their parents. When babies reach the age of six to eight months old, they are able to start producing the most basic linguistic structure: a consonant sound followed by a vowel sound, for example “na”, “ma” or “da”. Between nine and eighteen months, babies start to combine these basic linguistic structures in order to form syllables. Around the world, babies’ first words are very similar. They all start with objects, followed by action or routine words, and finally start using words used in social interactions. Once babies begin to learn words, their vocabulary is made up primarily of nouns or basic verbs, without attention to verb conjugation. Once a child reaches the age of 18 months, he begins to learn a new word at the rate of one new word every other waking hour, and he begins to experiment with basic syntax, forming grammatical phrases such as “I sit”. Once a child is two or three, the rate at which sentences form is extremely rapid.

These developmental patterns occur in all children throughout the word, which suggests that there is a biological “peak” time for children to learn language. Since children are not typically formally taught a language, their development and reproduction of language stems from observation. While many children are exposed to varying amounts of a given language, research shows that if a child is not exposed to language, thus does not reflect it during this specific time period, then the child will never acquire the use of language. Children learn languages with the greatest ease from the ages of two to six. This language acquisition occurs extremely rapidly; starting with experimental sounds and a very limited vocabulary at age two all the way to fluency and experienced language use by age six. If a child has not been exposed to language by the age of six or seven, it is very rare that he will ever learn to speak at the same level of competency.

Provided that a child has exposure and practice using a first language, learning a second language has never shown negative implications. Most children apply their language knowledge acquired at a young age to their second language instruction. If they are exposed to the language outside of a school environment, they are able to learn the language in the same way that they learned their first language: through observation and repetition.

While there is certainly a peak time for language instruction, one can certainly learn a second language beyond those childhood years. The manner in which the language is learned and adopted varies based on the age of the learner. For example, a child may not need instruction in language use; rather he can absorb the language without formal instruction. On the other hand, adults may need some instruction rather than simply immersing themselves in the language with no prior exposure. Either way, learning a language is a fun and beneficial activity for a student of any age!

http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2003/ling001/acquisition.html

http://ceep.crc.illinois.edu/pubs/katzsym/clark-b.html

http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Papers/Py104/pinker.langacq.html

Even in the womb, babies hear sounds and develop some sort of “awareness” of the different voice types. Babbling is baby’s first means of communication. Listen carefully; one can hear the French “r”, the Spanish “j”, Italian “r” and the Hebrew and Arabic “ch”. Surrounded by a community of speakers, the baby is enveloped by speech; these babbled sounds dwindle to the most frequently heard. Then somewhere around age one, the words mama and dada are said and soon followed by other one-word identifications. Eventually, these words are strung together into sentences.

Learning more than one language at an early age has a multitude of benefits ranging from communicative, cognitive, and cultural, to social and appreciative skills. Growing up with an appreciation of another culture and its people is huge in the development of a child’s view of the world. Learning more than one language as an infant enhances problem solving and analytic skills, enlarges the capacity for logical reasoning, and encourages the child to be cognitively flexible which increases his/her ability to form and understand concepts. From the point of view of personal gain, multiple language learning at a young age increases creativity, naturally raises self-esteem, encourages the child to become socially sensitive, flexible and adaptable. In other words, when a child is exposed to another language other than the dominant one of the family, it becomes a part of that child, not an “add on”. As a baby, the brain is actually programmed to learn language. Between the age of birth and around twelve, new formatting and neural networks actually form in the brain and become the base upon which all else can develop. The older child starts to loose networks that are no longer used; thus making it more difficult to learn another language.

Most schools typically, due to budget constraints, begin second language study in middle school around fifth or sixth grade. By this time, the child’s language development in the first language is fully formed in all skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. At about the age of fifteen the young adults the facial muscles and bones are nearly mature and some experts believe that this makes the distinction and production of new sounds more challenging and more difficult. Additionally, the middle school child is already socialized to learn in a certain manner, and is now placing more and more emphasis on grades. At this age, second language learning is an academic exercise rather than just another way to communicate. Even if the language they study in school is different from the one they learned in early childhood, just having been exposed at a younger age sets them up for success.

What can you do? Create an environment at home that promotes bilingualism. Using CDs and DVDs are the easiest if you do not speak another language. Children love to listen to and watch things over and over. The repetition is wonderful! Enroll your baby into classes and then commit to them. At The Language Learning Institute, we offer an array of programs for children. Our Mommy and Me™ program starts at 2 months and truly makes language learning a family affair. This program is fun and a very a special bonding time! After School and Saturday morning programs are natural next steps for the five year old. Summer and winter camps are also available to promote language learning. Children have amazing memories, so in as little as 40 to 60 minutes per week, results occur. Be sure to check our website for these programs. If your child already speaks another language, enroll them into a language class for the bilingual child giving them the opportunity to learn how to read, write and spell as well as the opportunity to study art, history and culture in the target language. This also gives the bilingual child a community of piers with which to speak and they love it!

Summary

It doesn’t matter which second language your child is exposed to as long as they are exposed to one consistently. It is the belief of the Language Learning Institute that babies can start as young as two months old and we have developed programs to reflect this philosophy. Our programs are fun, disciplined, progressive, age appropriate and culturally authentic. We have a multiple locations for your convenience. We can even make special arrangements for in-home programs. Additionally, we have After School programs for bi-lingual children. Currently all of our children’s programs are available in French.

The Language Learning Institute has a full program for adults in French and are expanding programs in Italian so you can support your child’s learning. I invite you to come join us and make us a part of your and your family’s journey towards bilingualism. Visit us on the web at: www.languagelearninginstitute.com

I extend a special invitation to you all to Learn a Language and Expand Your World™

Ms Scarselletta is the founder and owner of The Language Learning Institute. She holds permanent New York State teaching certificates in pre-k through 6 Elementary and French as well as 7 through 12 French. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Education and French from Siena College and a Masters of Arts Degree in French from Middlebury College. She has over 25 years experience in teaching. Over the span of her career she has taught ages three though college including adults.