Ahead of the Curve
Jill Tucker of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on the Mandarin immersion program at Starr King Elementary School in San Francisco:
Durrell Laury was in line at Nordstrom with his mom when he heard a group of women behind him speaking Mandarin.
The 5-year-old turned and said, “Ni hao (hello),” watching for their reaction.
The women looked at him, and then to his mother, with expressions of suspicion and surprise.
Then he asked them how they were, again in Chinese.
The women stared at the small boy with his cornrows and dark skin, his little face waiting for a reply.
“Is he black?” one of the women asked Durrell’s mom, Ijnanya Foster.
Foster smiled.
“Yes,” she said. “He is.”
…
Starr King Elementary has one of the few Mandarin immersion programs in the country, although the language is becoming increasingly popular in public and private schools as China emerges as a global economic power.
This year, Starr King has two kindergarten classes devoted to Mandarin immersion — a total of 23 students. Only one student who started in August has left; she moved away. Overall the school has 178 students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
Word is spreading, and interest in the program is increasing.
In the first round of fall enrollment applications released earlier this month, the parents of 20 incoming kindergarten students requested the Starr King Mandarin program, up from 13 students at this time last year.
