Education officials visiting from China are conveying a simple message to Hawai'i's educators and parents: Have your kids learn Mandarin Chinese. It will do them good.

Hawai'i is uniquely positioned to benefit from China's expanding trade with the United States and the world, said Cen Jianjun, deputy director general for the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China.

Great opportunities should arise in the business, education and tourism fields for Americans, and Hawai'i residents in particular, who are fluent in Mandarin Chinese, said Cen.

"Trade volume between China and the U.S. has been going up very fast," Cen said. "So in the future, the U.S. (will be) in need of large numbers of persons with knowledge of the Chinese language."

Wesley Fong, a local Chinese-American attorney, said a nation with 1.6 billion people can't be ignored, especially in Hawai'i.

"We're the gateway to China, and we're the gateway to the Mainland (U.S.)," said Fong, the English secretary for the Mun Lun Chinese language school. "What better place to have the two cultures come together?"

Yet despite the deeply rooted local Chinese community here and the strong presence of Chinese language and cultural studies at the University of Hawai'i, the availability of Mandarin language instruction is spotty at best.

Cen and his colleagues hope to change that. They are asking local educators what they can do to help meet what they believe will be sharply increased demand for Mandarin instruction.

EXCHANGING IDEAS

Chinese officials already have brought textbooks to some Chinese instructional schools and intend to bring more. They also want to set up exchange programs that would have Chinese instructors here go to China to learn more about its language and culture, as well as bring more Chinese nationals here to advise the schools.

"We will try our best to provide as much as possible," Cen said.

Among Hawai'i public schools, only Kalani and McKinley high schools offer Mandarin classes. There are no plans to offer Mandarin at other schools, said Anita Bruce, administrator of arts, sciences and technology for the Department of Education.

The delegation will meet next week with DOE officials, including Kathy Kawaguchi, deputy superintendent in charge of curriculum, instruction and student support.

IMPRESSIVE PROGRAMS

Several private schools offer Mandarin, with Punahou and Iolani among the most successful. The Chinese delegation met with both yesterday and came away impressed.

At Punahou, some 550 students are exposed to Mandarin. About 290 students from grades 6 to 12 get daily language classes as part of their regular curriculum. About 110 students in grades 1 through 6, some of them from outside Punahou, meet once a week at the Wo International Center, where French, Hawaiian, Japanese and Spanish also are offered.

Also, Punahou's 150 first-graders meet once every six school days for a dose of Chinese culture and Mandarin language. In other grades, they learn Hawaiian and Japanese culture.

"When you study about a country or your own country, it's always better if you have something else to contrast and compare with," said Hope Staab, executive director of the Wo center.

Staab said that when she became Punahou's first Mandarin teacher in 1976, she taught two classes. At the high school today, she said, there are now two teachers who teach up to 10 Mandarin classes each semester. That does not include nine classes taught at the middle school, she said.

At Iolani, where Mandarin was first taught some four decades ago, the language is also thriving.

About 150 students from grades 7 through 12 are taught by two, full-time Mandarin teachers, said school spokeswoman Cathy Lee Chong.

CANTONESE CONNECTION

There are a number of Chinese language schools around town that offer classes for school-age children either after school or on weekends.

Some of the larger ones, including Mun Lun and Sui Wah schools, have traditionally geared their curriculum toward students with Cantonese-speaking parents. About 80 percent of Hawai'i's Chinese population has its roots in the Guangdong province, where the principal dialect is Cantonese.

Mary Ching, Mun Lun principal, and Chee Ping Lum, founder of Sui Wah, said they are incorporating more Mandarin into their instruction in later grades.

Both schools welcome non-Chinese-speaking students and recognize that their focus may change as the demand warrants.

Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world, by nearly one in every four people, according to a recent story from the Knight-Ridder News Service.

Ted Liu, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, has long been an advocate of increasing trade with China. "China is a big emerging economic, trade, political and military power," Liu said.

Yuk Pang Law, who heads Hawaii Immigrant Services and has helped Chinese immigrants for the past three decades, already sees a larger demand for Mandarin-speaking interpreters. She said she believes the need for Mandarin speakers will be even greater in the coming years as trade with China increases and the number of visitors from the Middle Kingdom rise.

GUIDES WANTED

Just ask Eric Shi, owner of the Hawaii Global Holiday Travel Agency, which caters exclusively to Chinese-speaking visitors.

When he started his business 10 years ago, it consisted of himself and a 15-passenger van. Today, he owns 11 vans of various sizes and employs 13 — and could use "at least five more."

"In Hawai'i, we just don't have enough Mandarin-speaking tour guides," Shi said.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.