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How Lucky Can One Be?
During my recent illness I had the untiring and
devoted support of my dear family, relatives
and friends.
To my wife Rema and to my loving children:
Ilene and her husband Steve and my grand
daughter Marisa, to my son Gerry and his wife
Eileen and grand daughters Rachel and Michal
and to my daughters Nancy and Amy, I give
you my "heartfelt" Thank You.
My gratitude is also extended to my inlaws,
relatives and many, many friends who inquired
and offered their help and kindness.
Really, how lucky can one be?
Bob Burk
44
Friday, July 25, 1986
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
eijing, China, (JTA) —
The Department of
Oriental Languages of
Beijing University, China's
premier institution here at the
national capital, offers
Japanese, Korean, Burmese,
Thai, Mongolian, Arabic and
now, Modern Hebrew.
When the Ministry of Culture
decided that Ivrit (Hebrew)
would be studied, some of the
Chinese teachers of Arabic were
expected to teach Hebrew also.
They had compiled a Chinese-
English-Hebrew dictionary by
cutting apart the columns of
Reuben Alcalay's Hebrew-
English dictionary, adding a
column of Chinese characters,
and photo-duplicating a dozen
copies which were then bound in
black cloth.
For some reason, though, an
American was employed to in-
augurate Hebrew-language in-
struction in the People's Repub-
lic of China (PRC). Michael
Mann, a recent graduate of
Princeton University where he
majored in chemistry, had
signed up to teach English for a
year at Beijing University.
When university officials
learned that he was a graduate
of the SAR Hebrew day school
in The Bronx, New York, and
the Ramaz Hebrew high school
in Manhattan, they decided he
would teach their first class in
N Ivrit.
When they told him, only two
weeks before he was due to
leave for China, Mann stuffed
some World Zionist Organiza-
tion teaching materials in his
flight bag. He had never taught
Hebrew, or anything else, until
he went to China.
At Beijing University, Kita
Alef, the beginners' class,
started with 10 students. Al-
though most were assigned to
.Kita Alef, a few asked to study
Ivrit. One young woman came to
Kita Alef knowing some Biblical
Hebrew. She told Mann she had
been taught by an old Chinese
gentlemen Who himself had
learned Hebrew from a Chris-
tian missionary in Xi'an many
years before.
One man in the Chinese
Ministry of Culture is known to
"have" some Hebrew, learned
many years ago, no one knows
how or where. Except for a few
faculty members of Beijing and
perhaps elsewhere, the Hebrew
language is unknown among the
Chinese, who number one bil-
lion, a fourth of the human race.
None of the students in Kita
Alef comes from Kaifeng, tradi-
tional center of the long-
vanished community of Chinese
Jews. They knew little or noth-
ing about Jews, Judaism or the
State of Israel when they
started studying Ivrit.
Whatever these students may
have learned earlier — in school
or from the Chinese media, for
example — was presented from
the Arab and Third World view-
point, in accordance with cur-
rent PRC foreign policy direc-
tives.
The Beijing students were as-
signed to major in Hebrew.
Their class in Ivrit meets every
morning, six days a week. In
addition to 12 hours of Hebrew
language instruction, they
attend other classes for a total
of 20 hours each week.
- They are enrolled in a five-
year university program. After
they master Hebrew, they will
study Jewish history, modern
Hebrew literature, Judaism and
related matters for 12 hours a
week, plus eight hours of other
subjects.
Kita Alef uses BeAI Pe, a
standard Hebrew teaching text
and workbook. Each student has
taken a Hebrew name — Chana,
Dan, Dinah, Gershom, Moshe,
Shula, Tsiporah, Uzi, Yitzhak
and Yosef.
They recite reading aloud or
practice the dialogue of their
Words he cannot
explain are looked
up on the makeshift
Chinese-English-
Hebrew dictionary.
textbook. Mann translates new
vocabulary into English, which
some of his students studied for
as many as eight years before
entering the university. In class,
however, he speaks mainly in
Hebrew, using the Ivrit beivrit
method widely employed in Is-
rael ' and elsewhere. Mann
knows only a little Chinese.
Words he cannot explain are
looked up in the makeshift
Chinese-English-Hebrew dictio-
nary.
The Hebrew class meets in a
small, bare room lacking the
maps of Israel, posters and al-
phabet charts that typically
adorn Hebrew classrooms
elsewhere.
Kita Alef was learning about
Israeli pastimes, kadoor regel,
kadoor basis, hakolnoa, hateat-
ron, football, baseball, the
cinema and the theater. Musica
was discussed intensively, each
student telling in Hebrew what
he or she prefers to hear —
"pop, classi, or symphonit."
Then Kita Alef turned to the
geography of Israel. They
learned that Tel Aviv al yad
hayam, Tel Aviv is beside the
sea, haNegev darom shel Yis-
rael, the Negev is in Israel's
South, and that HaNegev
hamidbar shel Yisrael, the
Negev is Israel's desert.
Mann praised every utterance,
frequently exclaiming nachon,
correct, and tov meod, very
good. Considerable "positive
reinforcement" of this kind is a
hallmark of Israeli ulpan teach-
ing.
Four years from now, the
graduates of Kita Alef will be
assigned jobs by the Chinese
government. The students have
no idea where they will be sent
or what work they will be told
to do. If any of them dream of