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Jessica Bucknam shouts "tiao!"( tee-ow), and her fourth - grade students jump. "Dun!"( doo- wen) she commands (指令), and they do. They laugh as the commands keep coming in Chinese. Most of the kids have studied Chinese since they were in nursery school.
They are part of a Chinese一immersion program at Woodstock Primary School in Portland, Oregon. Bucknam，who is from China, introduces her students to about 150 new Chinese characters each year. Students read stories, sing songs, and learn math and science, all in Chinese. Half of the 340 students at the K- 5 school join in the program. They can continue studying Chinese in middle and high school. The goal: to speak like natives.
At present, about 24, 000 American students are learning Chinese. Most are in high school. But the number of younger students is growing in response (回应) to China's rise as a global superpower.
The United States government is helping to pay for language instruction. Recently, it gave Oregon schools $ 700, 000 for classes like Bucknam's. The Senate (参议院) is considering giving$ 1.3 billion for Chinese classes in public schools.
"China has become a strong partner of the United States," says Mary Patterson，Woodstock's principal. "Children who learn Chinese at a young age will have more opportunities for jobs in the future."
Isabel Weiss, aged nine, isn't thinking about the future. She thinks learning Chinese is fun. "When you hear people speaking in Chinese, you know what they're saying," she says." And they don't know that you know.
