Area students may get chance to learn Chinese

Ted Downing of Hilton Head Island has made more than 30 business trips to China over the past decade.

On all of them, he just didn’t know what to say.

He doesn’t speak Mandarin.

So he was thrilled when he learned two Beaufort County elementary schools might begin offering a program in Mandarin this fall.

That would give students interested in careers in international business, law or government an edge, he said.

The process of learning a language offers another benefit, said Downing, whose daughter will start at Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School this fall.

“It creates a challenge for a child,” he said. “I don’t know any other languages that are going to be as challenging as Chinese.”

The Mandarin program depends on the Beaufort County School District receiving federal and state funds. The district has applied for several grants to bring partial immersion programs in Mandarin to the district’s two international baccalaureate elementary schools — Hilton Head IB and Broad River Elementary.

In immersion programs, students study other subjects, such as math or social studies, in the target language.

The program would begin with a group of first-graders at the Hilton Head school and a group of kindergartners at Broad River, said Sean Alford, the district’s instructional services chief.

Alford said the program would be voluntary and immerse students in the language for part of the school day. The district hopes to eventually expand the program through middle or high school, he said.