There’s an article in the New York Times
on Chinese becoming more popular in K-12 schools. It’s interesting that
China has given some funding for Chinese teaching materials, scholarships
for Chinese teachers, and on the curriculums.
The article cites a lack fo qualified teachers to teach and many schools
have waiting lists to add Chinese to their curriculum. I wonder what red
tape one has to jump through to add such a program. I wish I could
have taken Chinese in the earlier grades but it was such an ‘exotic’ language
that finding Chinese language instruction was only at the Chinese language
schools which were targeted to the ethnic Chinese in the U.S.
I guess for Chinese speakers in the U.S. this is a career
opportunity waiting for them if they don’t want to follow the traditional
routes of doctor, engineer, professor, or business yuppy.
Although frankly, even with the China boom it won’t outtake Spanish for
a long time. And if they are able to start getting certified teachers
trained out in a decent clip, will there become an eventual flood of
too much talent? I hope not.
