Why teaching toddlers Mandarin Chinese is a smart investment

 

“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.”

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.”

Read more here.