“Confucius' birthday！” the fifth graders shout in Mandarin.

　　“Why do we celebrate Confucius' birthday？”

　　“Because he's the greatest teacher in the history of China！” exclaims a brownhaired girl.

　　She is speaking Mandarin.

　　English is rarely heard in Lisa Yang's class at the Chinese American International School

　　(CAIS), despite the fact that few students are native speakers of Mandarin.

　　The United States is actively trying to increase the group of students in “critical languages”

　　such as Mandarin. The students at CAIS are way ahead in such a trend.

　　Founded 25 years ago, this small private school in San Francisco, USA, does what few other American schools do: It produces fully fluent speakers of Mandarin Chinese, by far the most

　　commonly spoken language in the world.

　　Mandarin Chinese is suddenly hot in American schools.

　　As China becomes the world's

　　leading economy sometimes this century, schools in the U. S. are scrambling to add Mandarin to

　　their list of foreign languages or expand Chinese programs already in place.

　　?It really is almost unprecedented (无前例的). People are looking at China as a force to be reckoned with... And to ensure that the U. S. has the ability to conduct trade, and to work with the Chinese, certainly having an understanding of Chinese language and culture is an advantage，” said Marty Abbott of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages(ACTFL)．

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