By Chua Chin Hon
US Bureau Chief
chinhon@sph.com.sg

 

WHEN he opened his first Chinese language school in downtown Chicago back in 2004, Mr Andy Zhang managed to attract only 20 students for the whole year.

This year, however, he expects student enrolment to hit 400, and plans to open four more schools in Dallas, Denver, Milwaukee, and Houston to cater to growing interest in other parts of the United States.

Across town at the Confucius Institute in Chicago, a partnership between China's Education Ministry and Chicago Public Schools, Ms Jane Lu is also pondering how best to meet the growing demand for Chinese language classes.

Though the programme she currently oversees has 60 teachers compared to just three when it began 11 years ago, resources are still being stretched thin and she often has to say no to new requests from the city’s public schools.

Recent statistics confirm what educators like Mr Zhang and Ms Lu are saying anecdotally, that is, China's economic rise is fuelling growing interest in its language in the US.

In US public schools, an estimated 60,000 students aged between four and 19 are studying Chinese, according to a study released last month by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

While this figure is minuscule compared to the six million American students who take Spanish classes, it is the category that has witnessed the most significant growth in recent years.

For instance, in the 2004-2005 academic year, only 20,292 students enrolled for Chinese classes. This figure shot up to 59,860, or a 195 per cent increase, in the 2007-2008 academic year, the latest year where data is provided by the Council.

Overall, Chinese ranks seventh as a foreign language in US schools. But in cities like Chicago where there has been a greater effort to promote Chinese, the growth in popularity has been much more noticeable.

According to Ms Lu, 54, the director of the Confucius Institute, Chinese is already the third biggest foreign language behind French and first-placed Spanish in Chicago schools. An estimated 12,000 students in the city’s public schools are reportedly learning Chinese, making it the largest such programme in the US.

And as China steps up its investment in the US in the years ahead, would this interest grow even faster? Indeed, would proficiency in the Chinese language become an important economic skill for American workers and executives as mainland entrepreneurs set up new factories or acquire more business assets here?

This possibility has dawned on some students at Chicago's Walter Payton High School. Seventeen-year-old Naomi Klionsky said she first enrolled in Chinese classes out of interest, but is beginning to realise its future potential.

“I'm hearing more and more about how really useful it can be in finding a job, in doing business, or just opportunities in life in general. I would love to spend some time working in China,’’ she added.

Mr Zhang, the principal of the Chicago Mandarin Chinese Center, says a growing number of jobseekers he encountered also regard Chinese language proficiency as a major plus in their resumes.

CAUTIONARY TALE OF JAPANESE

However, US-based Chinese language teachers who spoke to The Straits Times have a more modest view of the evolving trend, and point to Japan as a cautionary tale against unrealistic expectations. In the 1980s, American interest in the Japanese language similarly grew as Tokyo poured large amounts of investments into the US.

But the interest petered out quickly as the red-hot Japanese economy began fizzling out in the 1990s. Today, no one would regard Japanese as an essential language at the workplace.

“We've been discussing this issue as well and studying lessons from the Japanese experience,’’ said Ms Lu. “No one can guarantee that this interest in the Chinese language will last forever. But at the moment, you can't say it's a flash in the pan either.’’

Much will depend on China's economic future, naturally. But the health of the American economy will be an important factor as well.

As local governments across the US struggle to stay afloat amid a sea of red ink, funding for programmes such as foreign language education in schools are likely to be an early victim of major spending cuts.

For instance, Mr Craig Douglas, the superintendent of the Carrollton Public Schools in Saginaw, Michigan, would ideally like to spend five per cent of the school's budget on global studies and foreign language education.

But right now, he can only afford to spend a tenth of that amount on such programmes, and is concerned about impending cuts.

“A dollar spent on these programmes will yield back benefits many, many times over for the students,’’ he added. “We would love to (spend more) on language and global studies. But it's a dream that's a long way from being reality.’’