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UPLAND-Against a patchwork backdrop of international flags, Renford Reese taught exotic words to a mesmerized audience.

“Nay Homa?” he sang into the microphone.

A giggle rippled through his audience, 500 Sycamore Elementary schoolchildren and their teachers, as they tried to mimic his words and occasional silly gestures.

Nay Homa? means “Hello. How are you doing?” in Cantonese.

The greeting in Mandarin is almost the same: “Nee how ma?” But the tone is different.

The Friday morning performance kicked off Colorful Flags, a five-month program aimed at teaching children to appreciate people of different cultures through their languages.

The philosophy is simple: Racial and cultural tensions can be mitigated through the courtesy of learning a few words of each other's language.

Reese believes neglecting to learn even the simplest phrases can have grave consequences. He said he became interested in teaching tolerance through language after the 1991 fatal shooting of Latasha Harlings.

Harlins, an African-American teenager, was killed by a Korean shopkeeper in South-Central Los Angeles.

Such violence may be curbed, Reese says, if people learn to communicate with each other.

“You can't walk into a Chinese restaurant and say, `Que pasa? Gimme some Chinese food,'” he told the children. But imagine being able to order it in Chinese, he said.

(Photographer: Terry Pierson/Daily Bulletin)

Sycamore Elementary School Student Travis Ray, 10, of Upland gives up trying to say "Zdrastvuyte," which is hello in Russian, as Colorful Flags program founder and political science professor Renford Reese whispers the greeting in his ear.

Reese, a Cal Poly political science professor, founded the program in 1993 and so far has taken it to 12 schools districts throughout Southern California, including Walnut Valley and Pomona unified school districts.

The program provides training for classroom teachers who will spend five minutes a day teaching greetings in five languages.

The kids will also learn to say, “What is your name?” “Thank you,” “You're welcome,” “Please,” “Excuse me,” “Goodbye” and “Have a nice day.”

In addition to Cantonese and Mandarin, Sycamore students will learn these phrases in Korean, Japanese and Spanish.

At Friday's assembly, Reese gave them a taste of Russian, Swahili and other languages. And he invited eager volunteers from the audience to join him on the stage, where he challenged them to pronounce the tricky words solo.

“The staff here was looking for another avenue to help children to learn to respect other cultures,” said Sycamore Principal Dee Anne Iddings. She said she liked the program's simplicity and its emphasis on daily practice.

Teachers in other districts who've worked with the program praise it. A 1997 survey published in the magazine Multicultural Review found 75 percent of the teachers believe the program picked children's interest in learning about other cultures.

“I like to learn about different cultures because it's interesting to me,” said sixth-grader Tori Nagel, 11. “I always wanted to travel around the world,” she said, adding she already speaks “a little French and a little Spanish.”

Seven-year-old Mitchell Avilas said the best part about this program is that it may broaden his social network.

“I like learning different languages because if you meet someone and you want to be friends and they don't know English, you can just speak to them in their language,” he said.