Will Chinese Soon Be The Primary Language In America?

By Mary | Wednesday, October 3, 2012 | 5 Comments

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chinese Will Chinese Soon Be The Primary Language In America?

As I spend my time in the metropolitan areas of United States such as New York, Los Angeles, and Boston, I often hear people speaking other languages other than English. More often, I would hear people speaking Chinese. According to a 2007 census, Chinese is ranked third after English and Spanish as the language most used in American homes. That is only about 2.5 million people who speak Chinese, but around 34.5 million people speak Spanish fluently in America. Overall, there are one billion people in the world who speak Chinese, most of which are populated in parts of Asia.

Yet, a Georgia school district in Macon is trying to implement mandatory Chinese classes in their public schools. Keep in mind that, in the 2010 census of Georgia, only about 3.4% of Georgia’s population is Asian. In Macon, only 0.8% is Asians and the city’s population is a little over 90,000. If there are scarcely any Chinese people in Georgia, then why are they making Chinese language classes mandatory?

The county’s school superintendent Romain Dalleland said that it is a strategic plan to fix its education system since half of the district’s students do not graduate. The district plans on adding more math and science classes and require Mandarin Chinese classes within three years. He is convinced that by 2050, the students will live in a world where they cannot survive if they cannot function in Asian culture.

Some high schools in California currently offer Chinese as a second language in high schools and there are also Chinese schools on the weekends for kids to go and learn the language. Whether one picks up Chinese as a second language to learn at school is up to one’s choice. However, would mandating students to learn Chinese be helpful for their education? Probably not.

There are other ways he can do to improve the education system by assessing the needs and knowledge of each student. Although I am not an expert on redefining and improving the education system, I do have some opinions that I believe are useful. Instead of using a “one size fits all” model to teach students, they can be more personalized and work at the pace of the students’ ability to learn. A good way is to provide tutoring and extra help for students who learn at a slower pace. However, making students learn Chinese and learn more science and math classes does not seem like it would increase the graduation rate for students.

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LTE2

“but I do have some opinions that I believe is useful.”
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I have an opinion too. I think many school systems are run by morons and this guy might be one of them.
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America has survived many cultures. Asians won’t respect Americans if we carbon copy them. The successful do not copy, they innovate. Mr Dalleland might want to bone up on American history before he is allowed to direct the education of others.
my self

I am going to college for a business major and I feel that all schools should have an abundance of different foreign language classes. Especially if you are in business and how the global trade is trending to the B.R.I.C (Brasil,Russia,India,China) nations. Personally I would rather learn Russian or Portuguese. Right now I am learning German and enjoy it for the most part. I don’t mind Asian languages but i prefer to do business in Europe verse deal with Asia nations sexism and racism that hasn’t been regulated or social more aware.
sternhead

Mandarin will never be the global lingua franca.
KAMIKAZIPILOT

Chinese will NEVER be the primary language in America, never in a million years. English will always (at least in the next 100 years) be more important on the global stage than Chinese. I’m asian myself and I wish Chinese would overtake English in global importance but I’m just being realistic.
mary

I agree with you on that. They shouldn’t make such bold decisions without a good analysis of the consequences of those decisions. It will just lead to more problems than they started with.

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