Discussing Black Lives Matter in Chinese
My name is Amani and I interned at AllSet Learning back in 2015. I have been communicating with John on and off throughout the years. The internship must have gone really well, because I am now an instructor in Chinese at a private boarding school in the US, growing every year as an educator. As a non-native language teacher, I try to create a fun, engaging, and inclusive learning environment for my students, and as a Black teacher, I strive to bring my own students' identities into the curriculum and discuss relevant/personal topics. With the current protests in the United States (and globally), I wanted to empower my students to think about how they can make a difference.
Currently, there is mass mobilization of Black Lives Matter protests following the unjust murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Nina Pop, and countless other Black bodies, and you are seeing people across generations activating their communities in whatever way they can. Some are donating, some are organizing, and some are protesting on the ground. I wasn’t sure what I could do but I couldn’t remain silent as this is, and always has been, personal for me. Knowing the power of language, I provided my students with vocabulary centered around the protests, equipping them with the tools to continue this discussion in Chinese. But even more importantly, it has potential to ignite their own social activism within. We cannot underestimate the power of meaningful and personal engagement with this movement, and I wanted to help model that for them.
I started by creating a 18-word Quizlet vocabulary set for my students to plant the seed, but I didn’t expect how it would grow. I shared it with my department and alumni study abroad network, and I was eventually sent resources that led me to “Letters for Black Lives,” an open letter project with people across the globe working to address anti-blackness in various languages to communicate these issues to their family members and friends in a form of actionable cross-racial coalition. Seeing communities mobilize even online to make a difference inspired me to get involved, and it showed me that even more can be done.
Realizing that this could be one of my many forms of activism, I reached out to John to create a revamped comprehensive list of words to discuss Black Lives Matter. We believe it can be helpful for many people whether that be Mandarin teachers planning lessons around this movement for their students, expats in Mandarin-speaking regions hoping to better communicate with a foreign audience, or heritage speakers trying to connect with their relatives and social circles. This list is a “work-in-progress” which can be used to learn, study, or share. However, as language is always changing and evolving, we welcome collaboration in the form of feedback and input from those hoping to activate their communities as well. Black Lives Matter, and we must do better.
—Amani Core
After Amani got in touch, we got to work right away and expanded his original vocabulary list, but we’re far from finished. A complex issue like systemic racism is very difficult to cover well, and with more input we can do a better job.
If you’re a Chinese teacher or a Chinese student, feel free to email us suggestions at blm@allsetlearning.com.
Although we’ve now released three vocabulary lists focused on specific topics at the B1 (intermediate) level, there’s clearly still lots of room for expansion (especially at higher levels), and we’ll be working on that.
Just remember: “learning by vocabulary list” is not advised. These vocabulary lists are designed to help facilitate discussion in Chinese, but using the vocabulary for actual discussion is key, and taking on too much new vocabulary at once is detrimental to that goal. Focus on communication.
Black Lives Matter, and we must do better.
—John Pasden