SharkBites: A state shortage of Asian language teachers

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JUNE 7, 2022

Hello, everyone!

I’m sure most of you are familiar with learning a foreign language in school. While most of the courses are either for Spanish or French, there is a growing demand for even more language diversity.

On Monday, civil rights leaders in California met with legislators to discuss expanding language education to encompass a myriad of new languages. However, the shortage of bilingual educators makes the goals of multilingual exposure challenging.

According to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the state issued only 63 accreditations for Mandarin Chinese and two for Vietnamese in their total of 1,200 bilingual accreditations in the 2020-21 school year. State Senator Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) is asking for more money to fund API linguistic education moving forward, in addition to last year’s $166.5 million API equity fund which finances anti-bias education and hate crime tracking.

The $5 million will be used over four years to increase the amount of bilingual educators at the California State University’s Asian Language Bilingual Teacher Education Program Consortium in these languages: Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Japanese, Hmong, Korean and Vietnamese.

Race in America 🌎

There are often fewer Asian American women than Asian American men elected to office. Besides Michelle Wu and Grace Meng, who are the other Asian women diversifying the ballot?

1) Michelle Au, a Chinese American Democrat, currently in the Georgia State Senate, plans to run for a House seat due to recent redistricting. She also works as an anesthesiologist and holds a degree in public health.

2) Sonia Chang-Diaz, who is currently a Massachusetts state senator, is a Latina and Asian American. Despite all the opposition she faces due to her identity, pushes forward through comments that say she doesn’t “look the right way or sound the right way.”

3) Bee Ngyuen, who was the first Asian American woman in the Georgia State Legislature in 2017, is now a Vietnamese American candidate for the Georgia Secretary of State. She continues to prepare herself for the scrutiny she will face for her race and gender in the upcoming Democratic primary.

4) Diana Hwang, recalled the way her Taiwanese father cried and worried for her when she was elected State House aide in Massachusetts. From that experience, Hwang was inspired to found the Asian American Women’s Political Initiative (AAWPI) in 2009, an organization dedicated to advocating for greater AAPI women’s representation in political leadership.

These women continue to surround future generations of AAPI women with support so that down the line, they will not have to do it alone.

In Other Asian News 🗞

The largest national security case in Hong Kong has been sent to the High Court, where the 47 activists face potential life sentences.

Under Beijing’s national security law, pro-democracy figures, as seen through last year’s protests, can be charged with “conspiracy to subversion,” through their attempts to organize an unofficial primary election for the Legislative Council.

The defendants come from all different backgrounds including democratically elected lawmakers, district councilors, unionists, academics, activists and others. Their political stances vary from modest reformists to radical localists. They range between 24 and66 years old.

In Myanmar, the shadow government is planning to create its own police force against the military junta.

While the military government labels the police force as “terrorists,” the National Unity Government (NUG), a coalition of anti-junta groups, explains that the purpose for creating the force was “to take lawful action against the terrorist military council for committing human rights violations, war crimes and terrorism acts against the people.”

It remains unclear how the NUG will be able to operate its own police force with many logistical details missing and unavailable to the international community.

Film and Sport 📺

Kunal Nayyar from “The Big Bang Theory” is joining director Nitya Mehra on a new animated feature, “Diya” as their executive producer.

Similar to the 2014 film, “The Book of Life,” this project will also be heavily mythology-based, taking its audience on a fantasy adventure through Indian folklore. The script is written by Dr. Amy Bhatt and Shiwani Srivastava (Netflix’s “Wedding Season”).

Guess who is part of the 2022 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame class? Michelle Kwan.

Kwan, whose career is replete with an Olympic silver and bronze as a five-time world champion, is the eighth figure skater to make the hall.

Chosen by votes from the public and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic family, this year’s class also honors many outstanding athletes and an Olympic team. This is the first class to be inducted into the hall since 2019. Going forward, the Hall of Fame will induct classes every two years instead of its previous annual tradition.

Congratulations to all honored athletes who will attend the induction ceremony on Jan. 24 in Colorado Springs!

Kwan performs a program to the song, "On My Own," while wearing a pink costume at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, 1999.

Image: Olympics

What else is on our minds? 🧠

In Japan, strict firearm laws were a result of World War 2 agreements. Today, the U.S. is looking to international allies on their gun control policies, like Japan’s, on how to prevent gun deaths.
On June 7, Aespa will be performing their biggest hits in L.A. at the YouTube Theater for their showcase, “aespa Showcase SYNK.”
Japan is calling for a drastic increase in defense spending for the next five years due to concerns about the threats Taiwan faces.
“All of Us Are Dead,” again? That’s right, Netflix Korea has confirmed a season two for those who can’t get enough of zombies vs high schoolers scenarios.
Indian citizens’ constitutional rights are being violated by social media companies. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are facing stricter regulations and a draft of changes issued by the government.

What languages do you speak?

Collectively, Daniel and I speak 3 languages: Japanese, English, and Mandarin Chinese.
(We both speak Chinese, English, and sarcasm.) Daniel took Chinese in high school, and I took Italian and French.

Sincerely, Mya Sato and Daniel Anderson

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A state shortage of Asian language teachers