By Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo News Editor
UPPER EAST SIDE — When Zhaodan Huang came to the 92nd Street Y in the fall to teach its wildly popular Mah Jongg class she noticed something missing in massive list of courses: Mandarin.
So, the evening news anchor at the Chinese language television station, Sinovision, suggested the venerable institution add it to its roster. She is now teaching its first-ever Mandarin class.
"I was browsing the brochure and saw they had the widest and richest programs here. They had French, Italian, Spanish, but no Chinese," Zhaodan said. "Chinese is so important now."
Advocates for learning Mandarin include new city Schools Chancellor Cathie Black, who reportedly told a group of Brooklyn students that studying the language could some day land them "a good job at a magazine in China."
Zaodan noted that learning Chinese is gaining ground across the country as the Chinese government has been sending hundreds of teachers to America and subsidizing their salaries. She also mentioned President Barack Obama's "100,000 Strong Initiative" to increase the number of American students studying in China.
The seven students in Zhaodan's entry-level class, which had its fourth of 10 sessions on Thursday night, signed up for various reasons. One woman was about to embark on a trip to China. A man who teaches global studies has studied Asian history in college and grad school. A linguistics professor, who teaches Spanish, wanted to learn something totally different.
"I am at the moment a tour guide on a sightseeing bus and most of the drivers are Chinese. I wanted to talk to them a bit," said Ed Gough, who began this job after retiring from NBC News after 30 years. "It also helps with Chinese tourists."
Zhaodan, who maintained an effervescent smile throughout the hour-long class, told the students that the authentic Chinese response to "How are you?" — "Ni hao ma?" — is not "I am well" — "Wo hen hao" — but is just "okay" — "Mamahuhu," which literally translates into "horse horse tiger tiger."
"Chinese people rarely say 'Wo hen hao,' because we are not very positive," she said, laughing. "Mamahuhu is so important. You can use it everywhere. 'How's work?' 'It's okay.' 'Mamahuhu.' 'How's your hamburger?' 'Mamahuhu.' 'How's your boyfriend? Mamahuhu.'"
Though Zhaodan is only teaching on the side, she focused on education for years, starting as an English teacher back in China and then as a teaching assistant for Chinese class when she was a graduate student at Columbia where she studied International Educational Development.
"It's just a hobby," she said, "but my mission is to make Chinese language fun."
