Title:
A Youth Orchestra for Chinese-Americans Widens Its
Reach
Description: This is
a VOA Special English General News Report.
See text below
Text:
A musical program in Oakland, California, gives
children of Chinese-American families a safe place
to spend their free time. Sherlyn Chew says the
program is for students who might have nothing else
to do after school ends for the day.
SHERLYN CHEW: "A lot of our students are what you
call you know, latch-key children where the parents
work long hours in restaurants."
Two of the students are not Chinese: Alejandro
Chavez and Tyler Thompson.
Neither Alejandro nor Tyler speaks Chinese. But they
have become important players in the program's
orchestra. She says she saw something special in
them.
SHERLYN CHEW: "Music for all students should be fun,
but it is a discipline. You have to -- you have to
practice. And both of them were willing to do that."
Tyler Thompson attended a school near his mother's
workplace in Oakland's Chinatown neighborhood.
There, he learned songs in Chinese from Ms. Chew.
SHERLYN CHEW: "One day he said to me he said, 'You
know, my mother comes home from work very tired and
I would sing her the songs you teach me and I'm able
to make her feel better.' And I said, you know, what
a nice kid."
Ms. Chew discovered that Tyler Thompson could sing
Chinese opera.
TYLER THOMPSON: "It was a challenge to me at first
to actually, like, understand it."
Tyler says it was also hard for some of his Chinese
friends to understand why he wanted to sing Chinese
opera.
TYLER THOMPSON: "I didn't see any problem with it
but they did, and I know it would probably be the
same vice versa if they were, if like, I heard one
Asian kid singing some like really old school R&B
[rhythm and blues] songs. Like I would just be like,
you know, 'What do you know about that?'"
Alejandro Chavez has also done well in the program
since Ms. Chew discovered him ten years ago.
Alejandro plays an ancient instrument called the
Sheng.
ALEJANDRO CHAVEZ: "Just being able to say I play an
instrument from ancient China. It's, you know, I
have history in my hands."
Alejandro says being part of the orchestra has
opened his mind.
ALEJANDRO CHAVEZ: "Well it's taught me not to be,
you know, Latinos here, you know, white people here,
you know, so I'm mixed together. It's like that. And
it's really changed my life. Really, because if I
weren't here, where would I be?"
Ms. Chew says she hopes all her students will learn
to better understand not just the music but each
other. She also hopes the children will remember
everything they have learned after they leave the
orchestra. I'm Christopher Cruise.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
