BY SUSAN MCFARLAND. Posted Saturday, Jun. 19, 2010

BEDFORD — Students who want an edge in international business after graduation can now take Hindi or Mandarin language classes for up to six years in the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district.

The Chinese government has awarded the district $60,000, split between L.D. Bell and Trinity high schools, that will pay for the program expansion. The grants came as China designated the schools as Confucius Classrooms, beginning in the fall.

H-E-B officials signed a contract this week.

“One-third of the world either speaks Hindi or Mandarin,” Superintendent Gene Buinger said. “We feel by offering the Asian language we are giving students an edge.”

The district began offering Hindi and Mandarin classes at Central Junior High School three years ago, beginning with seventh grade.

About 100 students, in and out of the district, were enrolled in the program in 2009-10, with about 50 more expected in the fall.

Students starting classes in the seventh grade who continue through high school will be sought after by colleges, corporations and government agencies, Buinger said.

“We know this will make our students more competitive,” Buinger said.
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By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2010

Reporting from Aguascalientes, Mexico —
Wo jiao Alberto.

Wo jiao Maribel. Ni ji sui?

Alberto and Maribel, sixth-graders at the Pedro Garcia Rojas elementary school here in central Mexico, introduce themselves to each other in Mandarin Chinese.
Their class also recites numbers, clothing items and weather conditions in a language that, to them, is about as foreign as it gets.

Some, like Damaris De Luna Sanchez, 11, move their hands the way a conductor directs an orchestra, slicing through the air to help them reach the proper intonations, the staccato flats and singsong vowelish sounds.

Their enthusiastic teacher, Gerardo Saucedo, is not Chinese nor has he ever traveled to China, but he has long been fascinated by its language and use of stylized characters as an alphabet.

“Zai dong tian ni chuan shen me?” he asks his uniformed students, dancing down the aisle among girls in plaid skirts and knee socks, and boys in blue sweaters. “What do you wear in winter?”
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By Christopher O’Donnell. Published: Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.

About 1.1 billion people around the world speak Mandarin, the official language of China.

In another sign of that country’s growing global influence, Manatee County school officials plan to teach the language to a few hundred students next year.

The district has secured a grant that will pay for two teachers to travel from China to teach Mandarin at Southeast High and Johnson Middle schools starting in August.

Students who learn the language would be attractive to companies looking to do more business in the world’s fastest-growing economy, officials say.

“With China becoming such a powerful economy, Chinese seems to be the language to learn,” said Alan Ramos, Southeast High assistant principal.
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April 27, 2010 6:15 PM
Erin Natalicchio / KTVL.com
CENTRAL POINT, Ore. — Some local people aren’t happy Chinese will be the only foreign language offered at Scenic Middle School.

Scenic and Hanby Middle Schools will be offering Mandarin Chinese courses next year.

But some in the community say with a growing Hispanic population, the schools should offer Spanish too.

“Our community is mainly White and Hispanic,” says Lila Hammon, whose grandson is in the Central Point school district. “Right now we need to deal primarily with what’s here.”

Scenic Middle School principal Sheila Henson says she would love to offer Spanish courses, but it’s just not in the budget. She says the school doesn’t have to pay for the Chinese courses because they’re funded by a Chinese Organization and by the College Board of America.

Source: http://www.ktvl.com/articles/chinese-1194885-school-local.html

The Irish Times – Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Only 8 per cent of Irish secondary pupils learn two or more foreign languages, the European average is 60 per cent. How are we getting it so wrong? asks GRÁINNE FALLER

UNUSUALLY for Morning Ireland these days, the news was good. It was the beginning of March and managing director of HP Ireland, Martin Murphy, was being interviewed about 60 new jobs created by his company. He explained that the jobs would require candidates to speak at least one of a variety of European languages. “No Irish need apply then,” quipped the interviewer.

The remark may have been flippant, but it held more than a kernel of truth. A large proportion of the jobs offered by multinational companies over the past 12 months have involved a language requirement. While companies have little trouble filling these roles, thanks to Ireland’s recently cosmopolitan population, indigenous Irish applicants often do not appear to be measuring up.

Lindsay Smith is HP Ireland’s staffing specialist. She finds that, if a job is advertised with a language requirement, Irish graduates tend not to apply. Of those that do, fewer still make the grade. “Very few of the graduates would have the level of fluency that we’re looking for,” she says. “They have a level of fluency of course, but a lot of the Irish who apply are often pipped to the post.”

Demand for people with language skills looks set to remain strong. “The language element is very important for us,” says Andrew Pease, site director for eBay Ireland. “Our business here is pan-European and Spanish, French, Polish, Portuguese, Italian customers are all supported from Dublin. Having a multi-lingual centre is crucial.”
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