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A music program in Oakland,California
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gives children of Chinese-American families
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a safe place to spend their free time.
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Sherlyn Chew says the program is for students
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who might have nothing else to do
after school ends for the day.
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“A lot of our students are what you call you know,
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latch-key children where the parents work long hours in restaurants.”
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Two of the students are not Chinese.
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Alejandro Chavez ... and Tyler Thompson.
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Neither Alejandro nor Tyler speaks Chinese.
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But they have become important players in the program’s orchestra.
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She says she saw something special in them.
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“Music for all students should be fun, but it is a discipline.
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You have to — you have to practice.
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And both of them were willing to do that.”
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Tyler Thompson attended a school near his mother’s
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workplace in Oakland’s Chinatown neighborhood.
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There, he learned songs in Chinese from Ms. Chew.
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“One day he said to me, he said ‘you know,
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my mother comes home from work very tired
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and I would sing her the songs you teach me
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and I’m able to make her feel better.’
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And I said, you know, what a nice kid.”
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Ms. Chew discovered that Tyler Thompson could sing Chinese opera.
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“It was a challenge to me at first to actually, like, understand it.”
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Tyler says it was also hard for some of his Chinese friends
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to understand why he wanted to sing Chinese opera.
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“I didn’t see any problem with it but they did,
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and I know it would probably be
the same — vice versa — if were, if like,
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I heard one Asian kid singing some like really old school R&B songs.
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Like I would just be like, you know,
‘what do you know about that?’”
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Alejandro Chavez has also done well in the program since Ms.
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Chew discovered him ten years ago.
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Alejandro plays an ancient instrument called the Sheng.
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“Just being able to say I play an instrument from ancient China.
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It’s, you know, I have history in my hands.”
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Alejandro says being part of the orchestra has opened his mind.
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“Well it’s taught me not to be,
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you know, Latinos here, you know,
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white people here, you know so I’m mixed together.
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It’s like that. And it’s really changed my life really.
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’Cause if I weren’t here where would I be?”
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Ms. Chew says she hopes all her students
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will learn to better understand not just the music but each other.
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She also hopes the children will remember everything
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they have learned after they leave the orchestra.