Mandarin programs see swell in number of U.S. students

A billion people in the world speak Mandarin and now some US students are adding to that number. DP

By Shirley Dang, MEDIANEWS STAFF

Insidebayarea.com: An increasing number of U.S. students are taking Mandarin classes in public and private schools as China gains prominence as a global power.

The number of students learning Mandarin in traditional U.S. schools swelled from an estimated 5,000 to 50,000 between 2000 and 2005, according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. In addition, approximately 160,000 children take classes at heritage schools that teach Chinese language and culture after school or on weekends.

A number of states such as Massachusetts and Connecticut have created initiatives to boost Chinese instruction. Last year, the state of Kansas launched a drive to make Chinese one of the three most-offered languages in Kansas public schools by 2016.

"It's really quite a phenomenon," said Michael Levine, executive director of education for Asia Society, a nonprofit that promotes global con- nections to Asian countries.

This weekend in San Francisco, the Institute for the Teaching of Chinese Language and Culture kicks off its first national conference for K-12 Chinese education. These programs are proliferating rapidly as the United States says "ni hao" (hello) to Mandarin, the tongue of a billion people, the official language of mainland China and the most widely spoken language in the world.
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