Why you should all teach Chinese to non-Chinese...

Why teaching toddlers Mandarin Chinese is a smart investment

By Melanie D.G. Kaplan | Oct 20, 2010

Now that China is the world’s second largest economy, it’s no surprise that a booming language immersion program has seen a 300 percent growth in demand for Mandarin Chinese.

Yesterday I spoke with Leslie Lancry, the founder and CEO of Language Stars, which offers full immersion language classes to toddlers, preschoolers and elementary school children. She currently has 15 language centers in Chicago and Washington, D.C., and offers programs at 140 elementary schools, teaching Spanish, French, Italian, German and Mandarin Chinese.

Lancry, who speaks five languages besides English, says Mandarin is the most popular first-learned language in the world and the second most popular language on the Internet. Parents recognize that learning Mandarin—and starting early–will help their children, she says, “It’s an investment in their future.”

But we’ve seen a phenomenal increase in the demand for Mandarin Chinese, which has increased by 300 percent in the last four years. It’s our No. 2 program. We think that’s driven by many factors, but the most compelling is parent recognition that it will help their children down the road. It’s an investment in their future.

Tell me more about that.

Generally, China’s emerging market standing makes Mandarin an especially attractive language. Mandarin Chinese is the most popular first language on the planet. It beats out English by 5 million speakers. And it’s the second most popular language used on the Internet. So it’s no surprise that parents will want their children to learn this.

Is Mandarin harder for children to learn than other languages?

Chinese is a tonal language—in which the same combination of consonants and vowels can be pronounced totally different ways– and it’s much easier to learn that in earlier years. The younger they learn, the more authentically they can reproduce these sounds. Our focus is on the spoken language. As far as that goes, it’s no more difficult for the kids than the other languages.

What about the other traditional languages that Americans study, like French?

French is staying flat, and we anticipate that it will remain approximately where it is. German and Italian are solid heritage languages. Often a student enrolled will have more reinforcement because one of the parents or grandparents speaks it.

If you had a toddler now, what languages would you have him or her learn?

Relative to 10 years ago, Americans have completely changed their outlook about learning a language. We’ve seen a shift about the age that parents want their children to start learning. Imagine—10 years from now—this entire generation of [American] children, in all kinds of professions, being able to speak Mandarin Chinese fluently.