 SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KCBS) -- The number of American students learning Chinese is exploding, and there is a demand for qualified teachers. The issue was highlighted in San Francisco Friday, where the nation’s largest conference on teaching Chinese language in American schools was underway.
A survey by the American Council on the teaching of foreign languages found about 5,000 students were enrolled in k-12 Chinese language classes in the year 2000. Today that number is as high as 50,000.
”The increase in demand is very real right now, and what we think is important is that we don’t have it become a flash in the pan. We want it to be maintained in the U.S. as a viable field of study for children,” said Andy Corcoran, the head of school at Chinese American International School in San Francisco.
His program is the nation's first Chinese-English immersion school, where kids start learning Mandarin at the age of three.
Almost a quarter of the world population speaks Chinese.
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KCBS' Margie Shafer reports
