By Brett Neely

Brett Neely： A sign above the door of this classroom says： If you have to speak English， whisper. And learning the ABCs is not on the lesson plan for these pre-kindergarteners this morning.

（soundbite of class）

Ms. Mary Shaffner （Executive Director， Yu Ying Elementary School）： I think its a poem and it looks like a kids poem. They actually know more than I do. I know a little bit of Chinese， enough to be dangerous， but theyre actually better than me.（soundbite of laughter）

Neely： Yu Yings executive director， Mary Shaffner， showed me around.

Ms. Shaffner： You know， its amazing. Theyve only been in school—these 4-year-olds have only been in school since the beginning of the year and you saw them read all those characters.

Neely： Yu Ying is a public charter school. The name means nurturing excellence. It doesnt charge any fees， though parents do have to apply to send their kids there. The school opened its doors three years ago and now has 240 students from pre-K to third grade and plans to expand to the eighth grade. The student body is about half African-American and a quarter white. Most of the rest of the students are Asian and many come from families where English is the first language.

The kids spend every other school day immersed in Chinese， taught by native speakers. Shaffner， whose daughter is in the first grade here， helped found the school with a group of parents.

Ms. Shaffner： We all knew Chinese was the language

of the future and what an edge to give our children. Neely： Frank Lowensteins daughter is a first-grader.

Mr. Frank Lowenstein： I had a slightly different motivation. With the amount of money we currently owe the Chinese， I figured it couldnt hurt to have a daughter who spoke Chinese when they come around to collect.

布雷特·尼利：教室的門上標示著：如果你要說英語，請低聲說。今早這些學前兒童的課程內(nèi)容并不是學習ABC。

（上課聲）

瑪麗·沙夫納女士（育英小學的執(zhí)行董事）：我覺得這是首詩歌，聽來像是首兒歌。事實上他們懂得比我多。我只會一點點中文，這已經(jīng)夠危險的了，但事實上他們比我要好。（笑聲）

尼利：育英的執(zhí)行董事瑪麗·沙夫納帶我到四周參觀。

沙夫納女士：你知道的，這讓人感到驚奇。他們才剛剛來上學，這些4歲的孩子在今年初才開始來上學，可是現(xiàn)在你看到他們會讀那些漢字了。

尼利：育英是一所公立特許學校，名字的意思是培育英才。盡管家長們必須通過申請才能將孩子送到那里學習，但是他們并不需要支付任何費用。學校于三年前成立，現(xiàn)在有從學前到三年級的共240名學生，并且計劃將學生隊伍擴展到八年級。學生構(gòu)成大概是一半非洲裔美國人，四分之一白人，余下的大多數(shù)是亞洲人，許多學生來自于英語是母語的家庭。

孩子們每隔一個上課日就來學習中

文，由講地道中文的老師執(zhí)教。沙夫納和一群家長們出力建立了這個學校，她的女兒在這里讀一年級。

沙夫納女士：我們都知道中文是未來的語言，會說中文能給我們的孩子們帶來

很大的優(yōu)勢。

尼利：弗蘭克·洛溫斯坦的女兒是一年級生。

弗蘭克·洛溫斯坦先生：我的動機稍有不同。我們現(xiàn)在欠下中國很多債務，我發(fā)現(xiàn)當他們來追債時，有個會說中文的女兒并不賴。

Neely： And its that sense of Chinas growing importance to the U.S. thats driving a boom in Chinese education across all levels. In 2007， the college board started offering Chinese advanced placement exams for high school students. By last year， the number of students taking those exams doubled to nearly 5，000. 60，000 college students studied Chinese in 2009， twice the number a decade ago.

Still， Spanish remains by far the most-commonly taught foreign language in American classrooms. At the college level， Chinese continues to lag behind a number of languages， including French and German. But many students now see Chinese as vital to their careers.

Joshua Sloan is a freshman at George Washington University who plans to major in business and minor in Chinese. He was inspired by his dad， who works for Costco and travels regularly to China.

Mr. Joshua Sloan： He doesnt speak the language and while he does a great job and hes very good at dealing with people， it would give him that much more of an edge if he spoke Chinese.

Neely： Sloan started learning Chinese at his high school in Seattle. Hundreds of high schools across the country have added Chinese to their curriculum—sometimes at the expense of other languages. Some of those schools are getting financial help from the Confucius Institute， an organization backed by the Chinese government.

But interest in languages does follow fads， says Jonathan Chaves， a professor of Chinese at George Washington. If the political or economic climate changes， he says students may again lose interest in Chinese. But meanwhile， Chaves says this generation of students entering college is already much better prepared to learn Chinese than students were 10 years ago. And the

students at the Yu Ying School whove been learning Chinese

since they were four will be even better prepared.

（soundbite of classroom）

尼利：那就是說中國對美國日益重要，才促成了各階層學習中文的熱潮。2007年，美國大學理事會開始在預修課程考試中提供中文科目供高中生報考。到去年為止，報考該科目的學生數(shù)量已成倍增長至5000人。2009年有六萬大學生學習中文，比十年前翻了一番。

然而，西班牙語目前仍是美國課堂上最普遍教授的外語。在大學里，中文還落后于其他一些外語，包括法語和德語。但是許多學生如今意識到中文對他們事業(yè)的重要性。

喬舒亞·斯隆是喬治·華盛頓大學大一的新生，他計劃主修商業(yè)，副修中文。他的父親在好市多（譯者注：美國最大的連鎖會員制倉儲量販店）工作，經(jīng)常到中國，他因此受到啟迪。

喬舒亞·斯隆先生：他并不會說中文，雖然他工作很突出，也善于與人打交道，但是如果他會說中文的話，可能會有更大優(yōu)勢。

尼利：斯隆在西雅圖上高中時就開始學習中文，全美數(shù)以百計的高中已經(jīng)將中文列入課程中，有時會縮減其他語言教學的費用。一些學校得到孔子學院的資助，這是一個中國政府扶植的機構(gòu)。

但是學習語言的興趣是一時狂熱而已，喬治·華盛頓大學的中文教授喬納森·查韋斯說。如果有政治或經(jīng)濟形勢的變化，他說學生們會再次失去學習中文的興趣。但是與此同時，查韋斯指出這一代的大學生已經(jīng)比10年前的學生作了更好的學習中文的準備。在育英小學的學生們從

4歲就開始學中文，就準備得更充分了。

（上課聲）