Dozens of three- and four-year-olds enthusiastically surround a group of visitors. They are not in the least bit shy of the strangers. They are curious and engage the visitors in animated chatter. An official says the children are always this rambunctious.
几十个三四岁的儿童热情地围在一群游客身边。 他们在陌生人面前一点也不害羞。 他们好奇地与游客们说说笑笑。 一位当地的官员说，这些孩子们一直都是这样的活泼开朗。
"They are just as themselves. They are not putting on a show. When I come over here once a month or even twice a month, they will be doing the same thing. （Oh，They seem vrey confident。） That is what we want to teach them, to be confident. They have a lot of interactions with the teachers, you know." Josak Anak Siam, the coordinator for the Multilingual Education Program in Kampung Bunuk, a small farming community in this remote part of Sarawak. He helped set up the pre-school, which conducts lessons in the native Bidayuh language.
他说：“他们本身就是这个样子， 并没有刻意表现自己。 我一般一个月来这里一两次，每次过来的时候他们都是这个样子的。 （哇，他们看起来很自信。） 这正是我们想要教授他们的东西—自信。 他们很爱与老师互动。” Kampung Bunuk是位于沙捞越州的一个偏远的小山村，而Josak Anak Siam是这里开展的一个多元化教育项目的协调员。 他帮助这个村子建立了一个用本土的比达友族语言授课的幼儿园。
The community pilot program began in January 2007, in association with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Malaysian branch of the Summer Institute of Linguistics.
这个试点项目从2007年一月开始。 它是由联合国教科文组织（NESCO）和夏季语言研究中心在马来西亚的分支机构联合主办的。
Josak says the village launched the pre-school program after receiving a briefing by SIL officials on the benefits of multilingual education.
Josak表示，在SIL官员提出的多元化教育方针之后这个村子便开展了这个学前教育项目。
"That is the time when SIL officers explained to us that many languages are dying off because the people are not taking an initiative to preserve the languages," Josak said. "So, before the Bidayuh language dies off in this world, we have to take this action to develop the curriculum and then we start off with the play schools where we intend to let the children have a strong foundation in their mother tongue before they learn other languages."
Josak说：“SIL官员给我们讲解说，由于人们没有主动地维护自己的语言，导致很多本土的语言渐渐都消失了。 为了使比达友族的语言不在这个世界上消失， 我们必须要在幼儿园里采取这些措施，开展这些课程，以至于在他们开始学习其他语言之前就让他们的母语深深地扎根在他们脑海里。”
It is becoming more difficult to keep indigenous languages alive as many of the communities in which they are spoken are at risk of vanishing.
要使得这些社区濒临消失的原住民语言恢复生机，是一件非常困难的事情。
Siti Rodziah, senior manager in Sididik's Business Development and Financial Division, notes only about 2,000 people live in Kampung Bunuk. She says young people are leaving the village and migrating to Sarawak's administrative capital, Kuching, and other cities in search of work. The old people are left behind to do the farming, she says.
Sididik业务发展和财务部门的高级主管Siti Rodziah提到， Kampung Bunuk仅仅拥有约2000人口。 她指出，这个村子里的年轻人都离开这里，搬到沙捞越州的省会城市—古晋，或者其他的一些城市去找工作了。 只有一些老年人还留在这个村里务农。
"Now, when their children start to grow up nowadays, they are more educated and they have a better job in a big town or cities," she said. "This is why now, you can see, the numbers are getting lower in the village compared to in the city. My hope for my state here is we still preserve whatever natural culture that we have for all ethnics."
她说：“当这些儿童们长大之后，因为他们的受教育程度更高，所以他们他们在大城市里能够找到一份更好的工作。 这就是乡村人口越来越少，而城镇人口越来越多的原因。 我希望我们州的人能够继续维护好我们所有的民族自然文化。”
The U.N. Children's Fund is supporting several maternal-language pre-school programs among the ethnic-Hmong people in Vietnam.
联合国儿童基金会正在越南的赫蒙族开展几个母语教学的学前教育项目。
UNICEF's deputy representative for Malaysia, Victor Karunan, says he is impressed with the results coming out of this three-year project. He believes such programs would be similarly advantageous for other children in Malaysia.
联合国儿童基金会驻马来西亚的副代表Victor Karunan表示，他对这个维期三年的教育试点项目所取得的成果印象非常深刻。 他认为，这种项目对马来西亚其他地区的儿童同样受用。
"In fact, evidence shows that those children who actually began their initial learning in pre-school and in early primary in their mother tongue have actually performed much better, even if they have had to switch languages, later on," Karunan said. "That is what evidence has shown and that is why in different countries UNICEF has supported what we call mother-tongue-based bilingual education."
Karunan说：“事实上，有证据显示那些孩子们从幼儿园时期就开始学习了，在他们的初级教育阶段，母语确实意义重大。 虽然他们在后来要接受新的语言。 这些事实让我们明白了为什么联合国儿童基金会在世界各地大力开展以母语为基础的双语教学项目。”
Back in Kampung Bunuk, the teacher begins the day's lesson with a prayer. This is intended to develop the spiritual values of the children in this Christian community. The rest of the three-and-a-half-hour session is given over to simple reading and math, art and playtime.
我们把视线再次转移到Kampung Bunuk，每天在上课之前老师都会带领孩子们进行一个祷告。 这样做事为了开发这个基督教社区儿童们的精神价值。 其余的三个半小时，老师会教这些孩子们阅读、数学和艺术，或者是让他们自由地玩耍。
When the children reach age six, they go through a so-called bridging year, in which they are taught in both the indigenous and Malay languages. When they enter primary school, at age seven, lessons are conducted in Malay. English is gradually introduced. Officials here believe the children maneuver this transition very well.
当这些孩子们满六岁的时候，他们会经过一个所谓的过渡阶段，在这一年的过渡时间内，老师会同时使用他们的本族语言和马来语给他们讲课。 到了七岁的时候，他们就会上小学，这时候所有的课程都是使用马来语了。 逐渐地，他们会开始学习英语。 当地的官员认为，这些孩子们在语言过渡上适应得很好。
The community remains enthusiastic about the program, but is afraid it may have to close the pre-school for lack of funds. UNESCO stopped financing the project last year, saying it wants to support similar programs in other countries. Kampung Bunuk is hoping the government and private sources will come up with the money they need to keep the program alive.
这个社区的人们对该学前教育项目热情依旧，但是他们担心这些幼儿园会因为缺乏资金而被迫关闭。 联合国教科文组织去年停止了为这个项目融资，并解释说他们打算将资金运用到其他国家的学前教育项目上。 Kampung Bunuk希望能够从当地政府和私人那里筹措资金以确保这个项目继续开展下去。
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