Public School 180 Afterschool Program Proposal
Our Mission
At Manhattan Mandarin, we believe that strong communication skills are the basis of crosscultural understanding. With the economic and political ties between The United States and
China growing stronger each year, ensuring that both business people and students have a
deep cultural and linguistic understanding of China is crucial.
Manhattan Mandarin’s team has extensive mentoring and business experience in the Chinese
market and an intimate understanding of mastering the Chinese language. We are debunking
the myth that Chinese is an impossibly difficult language to learn and we are eager to bring
our extensive knowledge of the language and culture to you. With the right approach,
Chinese is the logical choice for many students and professionals to allow them to expand
not only their linguistic skills but also their reasoning capacities, confidence in learning, and
professional abilities.
Manhattan Mandarin utilizes our experience and passion of China’s language and culture
with the hopes of forging a stronger and more prosperous relationship between our two
countries for future generations.
Founder
Jamie Keyte grew up in New York City, attended The St. Bernard’s and Trinity Schools,
and, after graduating from Kenyon College with majors in International Studies and
Mandarin, spent several years working and traveling extensively in China. Jamie spent six
months in Shanghai in 2008, where he completed an intensive language program at CET and
interned and played for Shanghai’s professional baseball team, The Shanghai Golden
Eagles. Jamie developed the concept for Manhattan Mandarin. Recently, Jamie has been
focused on expanding Manhattan Mandarin’s reach, creating the best Mandarin curriculum
possible with his amazing staff, launching IvyGate (a Beijing based SAT tutoring business)
and is soon to open a restaurant on the Lower East Side.
Staff
Valerie Evering is a New York based educator, singer and actress with a Masters
Certificate in China Studies from the Johns Hopkins University SAIS Nanjing program. She
has over 5 years of experience working in China and 3 years experience working in early
childhood education in the private and not for profit sectors with organizations such as
Kidberry/Langokids, City Treehouse, Worldofmoney.org, and Music Together.
Harry Keyte Younger brother of Manhattan Mandarin founder Jamie Keyte, Harry grew
up in New York City and attended St. Bernard’s and Trinity School. Upon realizing
he wished to work with his older brother at Manhattan Mandarin, Harry spent the summer of
2014 working intensely with Manhattan Mandarin’s Jay Jin to improve his Mandarin skills.
Brittany Echard began studying Mandarin at her high school, Kent School, where she
received the Michel and Nadia Yovanovitch Language Award for exceling in her Mandarin
language studies. She is now back in New York and is eager to pass her enthusiasm for
Mandarin along to others.
Curriculum Outline
Term 1 (December 1st, 2015 – February 26th, 2016; 11 Weeks):
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Weeks 1 & 2: Greetings; Numbers 1 – 10
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Weeks 3 & 4: Dates and Time; Numbers 11 – 99
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Weeks 5 & 6: Basic grammar; sentence structure/ word order
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Weeks 7 & 8: Family
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Weeks 9 & 10: Colors; Ages
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Week 11: Review
By the end of the first term, students will have mastered basic word order, which is the
foundation upon which Mandarin is built. Students will be able to create full sentences about
their families, birthdays, nationalities and more. This term will focus heavily on tones and
pronunciation, which is key to succeeding in Mandarin.
Term 2 (March __, 2016 – May 23rd, 2016; 12 Weeks):
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Weeks 1 & 2: Animals
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Weeks 3 & 4: Food; Drinks
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Weeks 5 & 6: Hobbies
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Weeks 7 & 8: Places
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Weeks 9 & 10: Furniture; Clothing
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Weeks 11 & 12: Review
During the second term students will focus on vocabulary expansion, which they will use to
create more complex sentences. By the end of the term, students will be familiar with the
words and phrases that are used in daily life.
Logistics and Fees
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Class structure: 1. PreK – 2nd Grade and 2. 3rd Grade – 5th Grade
Time: 2:25pm – 3:30pm
$25 per student per hour