LEWISTON — “Knee how.”

While the spelling is incorrect, the pronunciation is exactly how the Chinese say hello. The sentiment is precisely how Wang Ying, the newest — though temporary — member of the Lewiston-Porter faculty greeted her students for the first time when she arrived in late January.

Wang has spent several years in the International program at Tianjin No. 2, an influential secondary school in China’s port city of Tianjin. While she has almost no experience teaching American students, she said she has worked with Germans, Australians and Arabs previously, which help her prepare not only for different cultures, but also different education systems.

As for Lewiston-Porter’s student body, Wang said she’s impressed with how disciplined and how willing to learn the students are. She said one student even came into class the second day and greeted her in Chinese, which she was happy to hear. She said she’s happy so far with her decision to teach in the district.

“So far, so good,” she said during her first week. “My colleagues here have really impressed me. They’ve been very kind. But I miss my parents. My parents support me very much. But my father hopes I will enjoy life here.”

Wang’s duties are many in the district. She’s teaching Chinese classes in each building, working with everyone from primary level children through high school students. She’ll also help Lew-Port host a Chinese experience summer camp through UBCI, which will give all Niagara County school children the opportunity to spend the summer learning about Chinese culture and the language.

Her extended stay at Lew-Port is more than just a partnership with Tianjin No. 2, though. Wang joined the school as a faculty member through a program involving Hanban, the Chinese state-sponsored organization specializing in promoting Chinese culture and language throughout the world.

Hanban has partnered with the University at Buffalo to form a Confucius Institute. UBCI Executive Director Eric Yang said the institute strives to provide area students with “enhanced opportunities for language learning and provide students, teachers and administrators with opportunities to conduct exchanges and joint projects.”

“Our primary goal is to encourage more people in Western New York to study Chinese language and gain a fuller understanding of and appreciation for Chinese history and culture through workshops, lectures, festivals, language classes, and cultural programs,” Yang said. “A major function of UBCI is to provide teachers to schools to help them establish or expand Chinese language programs. Trained teachers of Chinese as a foreign language are selected from UB's partner university, Capital Normal University in Beijing, and from a pool established by CI Headquarters. Candidate teachers are then interviewed by UBCI staff. The teachers chosen to come to Western New York are placed in local schools based on the expressed needs of the local school or district.”

In addition, UBCI is working with Lew-Port to set up the first public high school Confucius Classroom in the area, joining several private schools in the Buffalo area. Yang said the district’s application is being considered by the institute’s governing body, but all of the requirements to bring the Chinese language learning environment to Lew-Port have been met.

“It’s a great opportunity for our students and this community to be forward looking and hone in on these 21st century skills,” Lew-Port principal Paul Casseri said. “They come out of school and need to be college and career ready. This helps us get them moving in that direction for sure.”