Chinese Lessons for Gaint Panda.
From thesun
ZOOKEEPERS are advertising for a tutor to teach Chinese to an American-born GIANT PANDA.
Under a deal with the US, all giant pandas originally from China are only lent out to foreign zoos for scientific study for a specific number of years. They and any cubs they produce must all return to China eventually.
Determined to help Mei Lan adapt to her new life, handlers at her new home, the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan, are recruiting a language teacher via the internet.
Mei Lan has lived at a zoo in Atlanta, Georgia, since her birth in 2006 but will be going back to her homeland on a special FedEx flight on Friday.
Huang Xiangming, director of the centre's animal management department, said: "Mei Lan has been living in the United States since she was born, and she must be unfamiliar with Chinese."
The centre is looking for a volunteer teacher with a bachelor degree or higher, no history of infectious disease and good command of both English and Chinese.
Cui Kai, a worker at the centre, said: "She will be taught Chinese with a Sichuan dialect, because people here all speak Sichuan dialect. She will become familiar with some simple phrases.
For example, she will be taught the phrases for going back to the cage or coming out from the dormitory."
Mei Lan will also have to gradually get used to her new Chinese diet.
Huang said: "We have asked the American zookeepers to bring Mei Lan's favourite biscuits, but we will gradually use Chinese 'wotou' (steamed bread made of corn and sorghum) and fresh bamboo to replace biscuits."
