The Rush to Learn Mandarin
If a person who speaks three languages is trilingual, and one who speaks four languages is quadrilingual, then what is someone called who speaks no foreign languages at all?
Answer: an American.
Americans are engaged in a headlong and ambitious rush to learn Chinese — or, more precisely, to get their kids to learn Chinese. Everywhere I turn, people are asking me the best way for their children to learn Chinese.
That’s because Chinese classes have replaced violin classes as the latest in competitive parenting, and because I am with AsianceMagazine, have written various articles on the subject and take lessons myself!
Chinese is still far less common in schools or universities than Spanish or French, but it is growing rapidly and has the “cool factor” behind it — so public and private schools alike are hastening to add Chinese to the curriculum.
In New York City alone, about 80 schools offer Chinese, with some programs beginning in kindergarten. And let’s be frank: If your child hasn’t started Mandarin classes by third grade, he or she will never amount to anything.
Just kidding. I for one, am a firm believer in more American kids learning Mandarin! Because Mandarin is so difficult to master, it is wise to start teaching children at a very young age. Undoubtedly, the language that will be essential for Americans and has far more day-to-day applications at the current time, is Spanish.
Spanish is simply not near as prestigious as Mandarin, but it’s an everyday presence in the United States — and will become even more so as Hispanics made up 16 percent of America’s population in 2009 and is rapidly growing.
The reason why Mandarin is much more popular than Spanish is because China is positioned to rule the 21st Century. When America ruled the 20th Century, other countries made learning English a priority with the exception of the Spanish speaking population. The economic leader rules and hence, their language becomes the language of choice.
I wonder how soon will it take for them to learn Chinese! Such a difficutl thing to learn….
Needless to say, the sooner you start the better off you are! I covered quite a few Mandarin schools at the nursery and post nursery levels. Many of them were mommy and me/daddy and me classes. The reason why the Spanish speaking population did not learn English is because they refused to and we allowed them to be lazy about it by accomodating them. I joked about Ted Kennedy cheating on his Harvard Spanish Exam because I simply cannot understand how someone in this country has to cheat on a SPANISH exam. America gives you a free course in the subject by spending billions of dollars to accomodate the Hispanic segment of our population! I have trouble hearing and I picked it up through osmosis for crying out loud! Something tells me that this will not be the case with the Chinese! Those days are over. It is trial by fire baby!