Immersed in Foreign Language Options

Fairfax

Navy Elementary ,

Hunters Woods Elementary

a nd Rachel Carson

Middle School parent

Thanks for filling the holes in that column. If there are parents or students who have experience with FLES or FLEX, I would love to hear about them.

I share Kristen Day's interest in Chinese. I called her and discovered that she, like me, studied it in college and later lived in China. If you are not tone-deaf, it is a relatively easy language to speak, with simple grammar and syntax. Learning to read and write it is more difficult, but fun for elementary school students who already like to draw weird shapes.

As you may know, there are FLES programs in Chinese at Shrevewood and Wolftrap elementary schools. The Marshall Academy, which is held at Marshall High School and is open to all students in the county, has had an International Baccalaureate Chinese program for two years and this fall will add, along with West Potomac Academy, an Advanced Placement Chinese course. Speaking of West Potomac High School, last week I erred in calling the student newspaper the Pyramid. The correct name is the Wire.

I thought when I was 16 that China would be the great rising power of the 21st century, and that seems to be coming true.

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