Mandarin speaks to a growing audience

SAN FRANCISCO — Bursting in from recess, 15 children take their seats and face the woman they know as Teacher Yang.

"What day is this?" she asks, in Mandarin Chinese.

"Confucius' birthday!" the fifth-graders shout in Chinese.

"Why do we celebrate Confucius' birthday?"

"Because he's the greatest teacher in the history of China!" exclaims a brown-haired girl with decidedly European features. She too is speaking Mandarin.

English is rarely heard in Lisa Yang's class at the Chinese American International School, despite the fact that few students are native speakers of Mandarin and fewer than half come from families with Chinese ancestry. At a time when the United States is frantically trying to increase the ranks of students in "critical languages" such as Mandarin, students here are ahead of the curve -- way ahead.

Founded 25 years ago, this small private school in San Francisco's Hayes Valley does what few other American schools do: It produces fully fluent speakers of Mandarin Chinese, by far the most commonly spoken language in the world.

"In the early days -- probably up until 10 years ago -- we were considered experimental, kind of 'out there,' " said Betty Shon, head of finance for the school, which runs from preschool through eighth grade. "I'd get questions like, 'What kind of parents want their kids to learn Chinese?' Now, there's just no question. We get families who relocate to the Bay Area just so their kids can go to the school."

Mandarin Chinese, the official language of the People's Republic of China and the most common of numerous Chinese dialects, is suddenly hot in American schools. With China poised to become the world's leading economy sometime this century, public and private schools are scrambling to add Mandarin to their roster of foreign languages or expand Chinese programs already in place. By some estimates, as many as 50,000 children nationwide are taking Mandarin in school.

"I think we would have to characterize what's happening with the expansion of Chinese programs right now as an explosion," said Marty Abbott, director of education at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

"It really is almost unprecedented.... People are looking at China as a force to be reckoned with.... And to ensure that the U.S. has the ability to conduct trade, to sell our goods, and to work with the Chinese, certainly having an understanding of Chinese language and culture is an advantage."