The ABCs of Global Fellowship
Can people of different nations best learn cooperation and find common cause through learning each other's languages and social and cultural exchange? That is a question a private foundation has asked Philanthropy Leaders to explore.
Observing that language learning is most efficient at the earliest ages, Philanthropy Leaders is researching how to broadly promote the learning of foreign languages in Pre-K settings, beginning by teaching English to Chinese children and Mandarin to American children.
Most of the very young children now learning foreign languages do so from a position of privilege. We are particularly interested in providing foreign language learning to children whose family economic or social circumstances would otherwise limit such opportunities. One aspect of our research, unexpectedly advanced by the pandemic, is to assess the use of technology as a lever in promoting such learning, appropriate to the stage of the child's development.
Language, however, is only one point of connection. Paired with language learning, Philanthropy Leaders is also exploring how to best promote family-to-family relations, enabled by technology, remotely at first, but eventually through exchange travel. We envision pairing, through online means, the families of Chinese students with those of American students in ways now familiar in the COVID-19 era.
Citizen exchange, rather than language, is the core of a second goal related to the elderly: to reduce the isolation and put to use the significant social capital of older people, using technology. While older people are venerated in China, a retirement age of 55 means the society misses out on the wisdom, talent and connections older people can offer. In America, the elderly, while working longer, indeed, often into old age because of economic necessity, are even more often devalued. Philanthropy Leaders looks to bring promising programs in America which engage and activate seniors to China, while promoting exchange between the two countries participants.
While our start-up resources are modest, we seek to leverage the many significant Mandarin language promotion efforts in the United States, as well as programs which have fostered family exchanges.