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I have not heard of parents regretting giving their children the gift of learning a second language in United States.    What I hear more is often is “the youth, into their adulthood, regrets not persisting through learning of the second language”.  This is especially true for those who are children of the first or second generation of immigrants to the United States.

For those with a Chinese heritage, it is easy to list out many values of a Chinese education in US, such as

• Chinese is the language used by one of the world’s biggest economic powers with tremendous
• growth and job opportunities.
• Chinese is the language to open up the window for the five thousand years of civilization, its culture and the communication with a billion of Chinese.
• Chinese is generally agreed to be a language that would become very difficult to acquire in adult years, if not starting young.

Yet, Chinese language schools face negative growth.   And there is school that needs to close down due to low enrollment. Why is that?

• No matter how we sugarcoat it, Chinese is not an easy language.   English reader may take a few months or a couple of years to read simple book; Chinese reader is likely to take more than 4 years.   For those who take 2-hour class every week, it could easily take ten years to build the foundation.
• Chinese language is not going to get your children stand-out in the resume for colleges.
• Even not counting the electronic and media attractions, there are plenty of selections in extracurricular, one could also have chosen gathering with friends, resting, or reading over attending a Chinese school on a Friday evening.
• Chinese is also a language tough to teach in an eye-catching way.  Most class starts with the basic stroke, the numbers, and the more traditional textbook reading and reciting.

In spite of these, a well established Chinese school still has its market, not dissimilar to those great colleges in the overall downward college enrollment trends.

• Cantonese/Chinese education goes beyond the skills and knowledge.  It is about character building and cultural recognition.  There are many extracurricular activities to choose, learning a language goes deeper than that, it takes time and effort to learn.  It is one of the toughest “delayed gratitude” training.  Sometimes, the students do not know how much they have acquired, until many years after their graduation.
• That persistence, through hard work and hard ship, burns an impression to the kids’ mind the heritage; and plant a seed for their association to the culture with pride.
• It strengthens their ability when dealing with lesser challenge.
• Parents typically have to spend a lot of time with their child to help them with the language.

I believe a good character foundation nurtures a more fulfilling future than pragmatic knowledge and skills.

Tough times differentiate the good from the bad, and the better from the good. Enrollment growth is achievable in school which provides long-lasting value proposition of Chinese/Cantonese education.

It would not come easy.

Posted in About Learning