Teaching Foreign Languages in School

The story I decided to blog about was in the Education section of the New York Times, the reason I chose this was because I want to be a teacher once I graduate and I find it interesting what other school districts are doing around the nation. In the story I found thousands of school districts all around the United States over the last decade after a government financed survey. I would say this is very bad news because as the generation below us needs to be eloquent in many different languages to conduct business around the world and to use diplomacy. In this article it says that big schools in the United States are bringing Chinese people to teach the school children the Chinese language. Although some schools are paying for the teachers themselves, hundreds others are being sent by the Chinese government who is paying their salary. A school in Ohio got a "free" Chinese teacher, the teacher is not free as the Chinese government is paying his compensation and the school district is paying the rest. While I was a senior in high school I was a teacher's assistant to the kindergarten in my district and we learned Spanish together because the teacher thought it would be a good language to start on. When I learned that over 1,000 teachers are teaching Chinese all around the United States it alarmed me, the article also states that Advanced Placement Chinese is well on its way to passing AP German. I was in a small North Dakota high school and the only options we had were German, and Spanish. Experts say that people are starting to recognize that China is a country to be reckoned with and learning the language will help the next generation. http://www.%20nytimes.com/2010/01/21/education/21chinese.html?em. I agree with teaching foreign languages in schools and I think that teaching other languages other then the regulars, German, Spanish, French, or Russian will be very beneficial to the future generation. In an earlier article about the same thing, it followed one school district's decision to start with it in prekindergarten and end with it as a high school senior. It also states the trouble school districts have in starting a Mandarin Chinese lesson, as there are not many people who can teach the language, but the great thing about it is that the students that learn Mandarin Chinese early are sticking with it and want to make it a career choice. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/01chinesewe.html?_r=1&fta=y