South Carolina Mandarin immersion, and a new bilingualism center at the University of Southern Carolina

Fourth-grader Maddie Freeman wants to be an FBI agent when she grows up.

“I like how detectives work crimes, and I see a lot of news stories that say the FBI and CIA are looking for people who speak Chinese and other languages,” Maddie says.

At just 9 years old, she’s well on her way to becoming bilingual thanks to a Mandarin immersion program at her school, Meadow Glen Elementary in Lexington, South Carolina.

“Knowing Chinese can get you a lot of jobs because a lot of places are looking for people who can speak different languages and are bilingual,” she says.

Maddie and the other 240 students in the school’s immersion program spend half of their day learning solely in Mandarin. Even her math lessons are taught in Mandarin. Her mother, Kimberly Freeman, says she and her husband, who spent two years working in China at the start of his career, wanted a multicultural education for their children.

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