Proposed Cantonese Certificate Program has so far Failed to Translate

By Fiona Raymond-Cox 

fraymon2@mail.ccsf.edu

 

In an unusual turn of events, and at the behest of Alan Wong, president of the Board of Trustees, City College and its trustees issued a joint apology on July 10, 2023 for “any harm, confusion, or frustration” caused by what they characterized as the improper withdrawal of a new Chinese language Cantonese program.

Wong had been eager to bring two Cantonese certificate programs to City College for the 2023-24 academic year when learning Cantonese classes were to be cut altogether. He solicited the Asian community and students far and wide for support. At the eleventh hour, World Languages and Cultures Department Chair Diana Garcia Denson pushed back, citing limited resources. Only a 9-unit Certificate of Achievement in Conversational Cantonese would be offered.

Wong and Garcia-Denson did not respond to requests for comment.

Given the downward trend in language certificate programs offered, funding concerns, and difficulties hiring skilled teachers, the question is whether an 18-unit Chinese (Cantonese) Certificate of Achievement program will ever come to be. 

Dr. Craig Kleinman has been with City College since 1995. He is an English professor but works full-time now as the Curriculum Committee Chair. He explained when a Certificate of Achievement comprises 16-units it helps students with financial aid; 18 units is the minimum for an associate degree, plus the required GE courses.

In Aug. 2024, Kleinman said students were contacting the college, confused as the 2024-2025 catalog includes a statement about a non-existent 16-unit Cantonese certificate.

With about 70% of the Chinese speakers in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward area speaking Cantonese, the Chinese community has been vocal in its support of City College offering Cantonese classes.

Born in San Francisco, of immigrant parents from Hong Kong, Wong understands the importance of communicating with his family and constituents in the broader community. He was driven to save the Cantonese programs upon learning a Chinese grandmother fell victim to an unprovoked anti-Asian incident. She was unable to communicate with the police and hospital staff.

Julia Quon is a nursing student and City College alumni. When her professor announced in 2021 that Cantonese classes would be cut indefinitely due to budget constraints, she and several classmates took up the fight. “That’s where the longevity of the campaign, and the sustainability for a lot of the activism that we do, really stems from,” Quon said. “I would love to continue my studies in Cantonese.”

In 2020, Stanford students formed Save Cantonese, and Quon sought their advice on preserving City College’s Cantonese classes. She was advised to find other supportive students at City College, to petition, spread the word, and contact the press. Quon became the student leader of Save Cantonese at CCSF in 2021.

Save Cantonese at CCSF outreach efforts were made to Chinatown-based organizations to gain their support.

Sally Chen, Education Equity Policy Manager for Chinese for Affirmative Action, received an email from Quon on May 9, 2021. Chen said it was a natural fit.

Since CAA’s founding in 1974, it has supported limited English-speaking Chinese immigrant community members in reaching economic stability and sustainability. Its Education Equity Program emphasizes bilingual education and language learning. “When there are issues related to establishing dual language immersion programs, we have been in support,” Chen said. “If you cut more classes, you have less students interested, you lose students, you lose funding, cut more classes, and that can be a very difficult cycle.”

Certificate programs were seen as a way to preserve classes. “This would ensure that the programs were a little more centralized so that it would not be so easy to get rid of a course as a fun elective, for example, but actually give it some weight in terms of academic value and kind of connections to other institutions,” said Chen. She added, “There has been a real need for culturally competent and linguistically competent services, whether that has been in hospitals or for first responders and different professionals.”

According to Kleinman, the Curriculum Committee is pro-Cantonese, but a program needs to be introduced correctly. Curriculum changes come from faculty, not the governing board, and must follow a process. It can take a full academic year for State approval and indexing before the college can legally publicize it.

Wong solicited the support of more than 20 Asian organizations for Cantonese classes in degree and certificate-granting programs. He also garnered the support of the trustees who unanimously voted to save Cantonese. He spoke widely with the media, speaking to at least 4 San Francisco-based news outlets between Jan. 8-20, 2022.

A memo to the Board dated September 14, 2023, in response to statements and actions taken at the June 22, 2023 meeting show the process was not followed.

Regardless, Wong and Save Cantonese at CCSF kept pushing for a 16-unit Cantonese certificate program including some Chinese American history classes and Chinese cultural classes.

Kleinman said Garcia-Denson was conflicted. To the Curriculum Committee, a 16-unit Cantonese certificate program did not make sense. It should be designed to be distinct from both the 9-unit Certificate of Achievement in Conversational Cantonese and Mandarin certificate programs. Garcia-Denson repeatedly stated it would not be offered.

Chen and Quon are disappointed. They expect others are too.

“It makes me feel like even though we had all these protests and petitions [and] support from many local organizations, it’s discouraging that the college has not followed through with the certificate, especially with the push for a state funded certificate,” added Quon.

Liana Szeto is the Principal of Alice Fong Yu Alternative School, a Chinese Cantonese K-8 Immersion School in San Francisco.

“If we don’t intentionally keep [Cantonese] alive, in one generation, it will be gone,” Szeto said.  “School education is where it starts,” adding, “Language is a bridge. It is a way to communicate. It’s a way to pass on your heritage, your ideas and culture.”

AFY teachers and students are incentivized when they know they can continue their Cantonese education at City College.

Kleinman says the 18-unit certificate is close on paper in draft form. The earliest it could be ready is Fall 2025. But he has heard the current Cantonese teacher is planning on retiring and no-one else has satisfied the minimum hiring requirements.

“If you don’t have the teachers who meet minimum qualifications to teach the courses, you can’t offer the courses. If you don’t have actual courses created for a certificate and a certificate actually in existence, you can’t say that you’re offering it,” said Kleinman.

 

Update on Oct. 12: Corrected errors regarding the 18-unit associate’s degree and courses advocated by Save Cantonese at CCSF. These should have been Chinese American history classes and Chinese cultural classes, not Mandarin.