With a Changing World Comes An Urgency to Learn Chinese

Xinchun Song helps Christianna Kutz, 10, left, and Julia Knapp, 9, both of Frederick, as they practice using chopsticks in a Chinese class at West Frederick Middle School. (Photos By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)

This fall, more than a third of Maryland's public school systems will offer Mandarin -- more than twice the number that offered it last year. (Some U.S. schools teach Cantonese, the dialect widely spoken in Hong Kong and the language spoken by many early Chinese immigrants, but far more offer Mandarin.)

In Virginia, where five school systems offer Chinese, educators in Fairfax launched a program last year to offer lessons to 1,000 students at two elementary campuses. That's in addition to the programs it offers at three high schools, where about 200 students are taking part. In Montgomery, where 17 schools offer courses, program enrollment increased 59 percent last year, from 656 students to 1,041.

In the District, H Street Community Development Corp. offered Chinese language training to 11 high school students this summer. At Washington Latin School, a public charter school slated to open next month in Northwest Washington, educators are hoping that their Mandarin program will be a draw for families when formal courses are offered in 2008.

School systems in Philadelphia, Houston, New York City and Portland, Ore., are poised to launch Chinese programs. Chicago public schools teach more than 3,500 students in the largest program in the nation.

Kathryn B. Groth, vice president of the Frederick school board, whose system will start a Mandarin program this fall, said she welcomes the global focus.

"I think Americans who used to feel other people needed to learn [English] now realize that the time has come when that doesn't work anymore," Groth said. "I've heard from people who say: 'Forget the engineering. Learn the foreign language. If you want a job, the foreign language is going to sell your engineering.' "

For her part, Terrell, the West Virginia great-grandmother, easily could have enrolled her great-granddaughter in Spanish or French courses and saved a lot of gas money. Terrell never considered foreign language a must-have when she was growing up, but she has changed her worldview.

"China is an up-and-coming country," Terrell said. "And if [Shayla] learns Chinese, it will be good for her -- and maybe she can teach me some as well."

In the sun-dappled classroom in Frederick County, Shayla and her classmates were more than eager to show off their language skills. Ariana Sadoughi, 9, of Frederick ticked off a list of Chinese phrases she had mastered: ni hao (how are you?), xie xie (thank you).

In another corner of the room, Xinchun Song was showing another group of students how to write the Chinese characters for big sister, little sister and mother. At one point, she separated the two characters that combine to form the word "mother," explaining to the children that when separated, one character translates to "horse" and the other represents "female."

"Does that mean my mother is a female horse?" one boy asked with alarm.

"No, no, no," Song said as she tried to explain the complexities of Chinese writing.