As China booms, so does Mandarin in U.S. schools

[Francis Hult]

USA Today

 

As China booms, so does Mandarin in U.S. schools

 

Martha Rios traces her finger over a vocabulary word for the first-graders assembled around her. She's volunteering in her son's sunny classroom at Starr King Elementary School. At their desks, the children bend over their papers, carefully practicing this week's words.

 

Sebastian Rios writes one and is about to move on to the next when his mother stops him. "Mira," she says in Spanish, pointing out where he's made a mistake.

Sebastian erases, then rewrites the character. Xin, the Chinese word for heart, has four strokes, not three. The vocabulary word is kai xin, or "happy."

 

Full text:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-11-19-mandarin-cover_N.htm

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