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Health & Fitness

Rhode Island Beat Multilingual Cupertino by Offering Trilingual School

Rhode Island kids will learn to roll their r's, get all the Mandarin tones and write Chinese characters by the time Cupertino students are still figuring out how to spell California

Why don't we have more language options in Cupertino? Mandarin Chinese is widely spoken by the large Taiwanese and mainland Chinese community in the area. However, the schools in Cupertino only offer Mandarin immersion programs from Kindergarten or elective Mandarin programs in high school.

At Lawson Middle School, there are no non-Mandarin foreign language classes available. There is only a Chinese Immersion Program or Mandarin language elective in 8th grade. So if a student wants to learn Spanish, French or another language, he or she has to wait until high school. The earlier we learn a language, the easier it is to acquire its sounds. Schools should introduce foreign languages in Kindergarten, not in High School.

There are schools in less wealthy and linguistically varied areas which offer foreign languages in middle school. Spanish is also heard in various parts of Silicon Valley and all throughout the state; however, most California-born kids can't roll an "r" or order themselves a meal in Spanish after several years of school Spanish.

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Wake up California! Rhode Island is putting us to shame!Rhode Island, a state without a large concentration of Spanish or Chinese speakers is beating California by offering a trilingual immersion program in Spanish, Mandarin and English. See the Providence Journal article, Trilingual afterschool program is a first in R.I.

California education administrators better be embarrassed. Someday, Cupertino businesses like Apple Computers may hire Rhode Island-taught tri-linguists to market products to Californian Chinese and Spanish language communities.

Find out what's happening in Cupertinowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

How is that for a slap in the face, California? The tiny state of Rhode Island is about to beat us at the language game. Those Rhode Island kids will learn to roll their r's, get all the Mandarin tones and write Chinese characters by the time Cupertino students are still figuring out how to spell California.

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