This is an old blogpost that was written before I left NY about Chinese language in US schools, but forgot about it until now.  Well, I like the artwork too.

Apparently, according to this Jan 2010 NY Times article: Foreign Languages Fade in Class — Except Chinese.,  many schools in New York gave up teaching a second language.  French and German are on the decline but there is a big increase in Chinese language tuition.

Well, I just came across this newer (Dec 30, 2010) NY Times article: Primero Hay Que Aprender Español. Ranhou Zai Xue Zhongwen. which champions learning first Spanish and then Mandarin.  Being practical and competitive parenting !

In the US, there were babyboomers (those born in the 60’s), Gen X (80’s), slackers (90’s), and now we are going to have a generation of chinese-speaking non-Asian Americans – how would they be named ? What would they do ? Emmigrate to China ?  Become expats who know the local language before reaching the teens.  Who would have thought this could happen ? (even just a few years ago)