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Article: Schools choose Chinese as 'cash language' of future.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- April 12, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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PHILADELPHIA _ When the new Philadelphia Academy Charter School selected a foreign language to teach students, principal Brien Gardiner did not pick Spanish or French or German.
Instead, he went with Chinese _ one hour a week for all 625 students from kindergarten to eighth grade.
Gardiner calls Chinese the "cash language" of the future.
Though Spanish and French may reign as the most popular languages to learn, interest in Chinese is coming on strong, and educators say the reason is obvious.
"Reality," said Edward Scebold, director of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. "All one has to do is look around and ...