Reporter ISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH
Friday, February 22, 2013
www.issaquahreporter.com
YMCA gets OK
A group of Eastside Catholic students led by Gracie Jenderzak, Matthew Fisher, John Everhart Jared Flowers, Dylan Strode and Ricky Lumala direct a dragon through the hallways during a Chinese New Year celebration last week. Monica Lo, bottom, instructs one of her dragon performers. KEVIN
Sammamish Council approves community center operating agreement BY KEVIN ENDEJAN KENDEJAN@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
ENDEJAN, Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter
LANGUAGE LEARNED Eastside Catholic students get opportunity to learn Mandarin in first-year program
BY KEVIN ENDEJAN KENDEJAN@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
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“It’s such a powerful language.”
everal students at Eastside Catholic are getting a whole new experience this year.
For the first time, the Sammamish school is offering a Mandarin program for its middle and high school students. “It’s such a powerful language especially with China’s economy growing,” said instructor Monica Lo, who has 44 students enrolled in two Mandarin classes. They are learning everything from how to speak and write the language to the importance of Chinese holidays and traditions. Lo said her students have caught on to the language fairly quickly — noting it’s not as hard as some perceive. “I know the writing system can be very intimidating, but there’s really not much grammar movement, so there’s no conjugation of nouns and verbs like in Spanish and French — there’s no masculine or feminine,” she said. Senior Eugenia Gisel said she has studied Spanish, but this is her first experience with Mandarin.
– Monica Lo, teacher
The citizens had their say in November, now the Sammamish City Council has granted the wishes of the majority. The council approved two agreements Tuesday night — an Operational and Management Agreement with the YMCA for a Sammamish Community and Aquatic Center and a recreational property ground lease agreement for a piece of YMCA-owned property adjacent to Pine Lake Middle School. “Toward the end of the month, the YMCA board is going to meet, they’re going to take a look at this and after that it will be my greatest pleasure to sign these contracts,” city manager Ben Yazici said. The council wasn’t unanimous in its decision. Council member John Curley, who has openly voiced his displeasure with the $25 million project, provided the lone dissenting vote. Curley said he was worried that the YMCA, which will contribute $5 million of the $30 million total, would eventually lose its landlord-tenant relationship with the city and SEE YMCA, 5
“The culture is so interwoven with the language and the characters have stories behind them and that just gives such an extra depth that some languages lack,” she said. For freshman Frank Norwood the class drew him in because it was so different. “It’s just a lot of fun because I’ve done Spanish the last couple of years and it was kind of too mainstream,” he said. “I thought, Mandarin, it’s very different and it could open more doors later in life, so I thought I’ll give it a try.”
Freshman Giuliana Sercu is one of the few in the class with a history with the language. She spent the last two years at Forest Ridge School in Bellevue, one of the few Eastside schools to offer Mandarin. “It’s fun to perfect what I’ve learned before and also watch other people learn the language and help them,” she said. Skyline High School is the only other area SEE MANDARIN, 5
WINE WALK Issaquah will continue its first Friday Wine Walk from 6-9 p.m. next Friday, March 1 throughout the downtown corridor. A complete list of wineries and restaurants participating and additional information about the event can be found on page 23 .