China’s Xinhua news agency looks at Mandarin immersion in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, July 10 (Xinhua) — The 135-year-old Castelar Elementary School in downtown Los Angeles, California in west U.S., never stops its efforts of academic diversification.

With a Mandarin language immersion program in full wing for six years for K-5, the school rides the trend again, as U.S. learners of Chinese language are becoming younger.

“The youngest students I have are the five-year-old, the ones in preschool. The younger they are, the faster they learn,” teacher Wendy Yang told Xinhua.

Principal Wing Fong also noticed the advantage, saying that “when you learn at a very young age, you do not have that accent that older people have when they tend to learn the language.”

More specific details came from Program Director Magaly Lavadenz, who said that “it starts in kindergarten. And also we are seeing a sprinkling of preschool programs that are offering Mandarins.”

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