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WASHINGTON: More Americans are dunking their children
in Chinese immersion classes and hiring Mandarin-speaking nannies in
the hope of giving them a competitive edge as China imposes itself
as an economic giant.
“The Chinese language is
extremely hot at the moment,” said Michael Levine, vice-president
of the New York-based Asia Society, a nonprofit organization that
promotes knowledge and understanding of Asia. “Chinese is a
language that people in the hinterland—in states as diverse as
Kansas and Kentucky—now want to speak.”
The trend is such that many
schools across the country are unable to meet the growing demand for
Mandarin Chinese, the most widely spoken language in the world but
one that is just starting to make inroads in US schools.
“Parents and people in the
school business are beginning to see China as one big
opportunity,” Levine said. “The 64,000-dollar question is: where
on Earth, literally, are we going to find the high-quality teachers
that we need to fulfill the demand?”
Crowded classes
Shuhan Wang, executive director
of the Asia Society’s Chinese Language Initiative, said between
300 and 400 schools nationwide currently offer Chinese to an
estimated 25,000 to 50,000 students and many more are gearing up for
it as the federal government makes funding available.
“I have been waiting for this
for 20 years and I was always hopeful that finally one day the US
will wake up to the fact that we really need to expand language
offerings in our schools,” Wang said.
At Potomac Elementary School,
near Washington, the Chinese immersion program launched in 1996 has
become so popular that about 40 children are on a waiting list to
join and several of the spots available each year are given through
a lottery. About 18 percent of the students are of Asian origin.
“It’s been a hit,” said
principal Linda Goldberg. “We’re in a global society and the
parochial view of English first . . . no longer holds.”
Asian age
Diana Conway said she and her
husband decided to enroll their three children in the Chinese
immersion program at Potomac to expose them to a different language
and culture increasingly present on the world stage.
“Whatever path my children
follow, this will be terrific for them,” she said. “French is a
wonderful language, it will open Europe to you and a lot of Africa
but . . . it won’t open any doors to you in Asia.”
The 150 students in the program
at Potomac, where signs are posted in English and Chinese, spend
half their school day learning mathematics and science in Mandarin
and then switch to English for reading, social studies and language
arts.
Many of the children also get to
travel to China during spring vacation.
The public school’s three
Chinese teachers speak only in Mandarin to their pupils, using the
blackboard, body language, facial expressions and objects to get
their message across.
“It’s kind of difficult but
it’s cool and people recognize you for it,” said James, a
10-year-old struggling with a math equation in one of the
classrooms.
Olivia, seven, said she enjoys
learning the language for another reason.
“It’s fun because I can speak
it with my brother and we tell secrets in Chinese that my parents
don’t understand,” she said.
Nanny wars
While US schools rush to fill the
growing demand for Chinese, the same trend is hitting companies that
place nannies and au pairs who say they are being deluged with
requests for Chinese speakers.
In New York, Chinese nannies are
in such demand that some can command a salary of $20,000 more than
an average nanny would earn.
One nanny reportedly even managed
to secure a $70,000 salary after a bidding war between two families.
Agencies are also reporting a
surge in the demand for Chinese au pairs.
Michael DiMauro, senior
vice-president for marketing at the American Institute For Foreign
Study, which oversees Au Pair in America, said his company in the
last year has received requests from some 1,400 families nationwide
interested in hosting an au pair from China.
So far, the company has only been
able to provide two but some 200 more are expected to arrive in the
United States this year.
--AFP
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