At Home in the Great Wide World

Language Offerings Reflect Diversity, Global Outlook

David Kennedy, right, greets fellow student Robert Kramer, in a Mandarin class for eighth- and ninth-graders at Harmony Intermediate. (By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)

On their first day of first grade, Beech Tree Elementary School students yesterday easily fielded questions about their summer vacation. They smiled at teachers who offered cheerful hellos. But they appeared downright bewildered by teacher Fadwa Hussein's unfamiliar greeting: "Marhaba."

As Hussein talked to them solely in Arabic, smiling and gesturing to help them understand, their hesitancy faded. Soon the children -- the first elementary students in Fairfax County to learn Arabic in school -- were happily singing, "Marhaba, marhaba" ("Welcome, welcome").

More than 300,000 students in immigrant-rich Northern Virginia started the school year yesterday. As the number of children in the region who speak a language other than English at home is increasing, so, too, is the number learning a second language at school.

Fairfax added classes in Mandarin, Spanish and Japanese at several elementary schools this year. Falls Church schools have started offering Arabic and Mandarin for students in grades 8 to 12. And for the first time, all Loudoun County public school students -- from first-graders to seniors -- will be able to study a foreign language.

The expansion of foreign language programs came amid other changes. Every Prince William County elementary school has full-day kindergarten for the first time, and Fairfax is adding all-day kindergarten in 21 schools, enabling the school system to reach 70 percent of county schools with a program many educators think is critical for building early literacy.

In addition, Prince William opened a new middle school and is expected to have as many as 72,000 students this fall, which could push the county school system past Virginia Beach to become the state's second-largest.

Fairfax, with about 165,000 students, is the largest school system, but its growth has leveled off in recent years. Fast-growing Loudoun County, with more than 50,000 students, opened three new elementary schools and one middle school. In Alexandria, more than 2,000 teenagers filed into a new, three-story T.C. Williams High School, distinguished by its eco-friendly architectural design.

The push to teach Mandarin, Japanese and other languages in schools locally and nationally responds to a call from government and business leaders who say the country needs more bilingual speakers to stay economically competitive and even to fight terrorism.

Last year, President Bush stressed the need for more speakers of so-called critical languages, including Chinese, Arabic and Russian. The U.S Education Department recently noted that only 44 percent of American high school students study a second language, but learning a foreign language is required in China, Thailand and other countries.

Fairfax School Board member Ilryong Moon (At Large) said yesterday that during a summer trip to South Korea, he was struck that students he met spoke English. "They were much more focused on learning about the United States and learning English," Moon said. "As much as other countries emphasize learning about us, we need to learn about them."

In Loudoun, where all elementary students take Spanish, some students have begun studying Chinese.

Yesterday, teacher Tom Weng greeted eighth- and ninth-graders at Harmony Intermediate School with a sunny "Ni hao" ("Hello").