China's the word in more US schools

Although Spanish is still the most widely taught second language in U.S. schools, thousands of schools stopped teaching foreign languages completely in the last decade, according to a government-financed survey.

On the other hand, the number of public and private schools offering Mandarin as a language option has gone from 300 a decade ago to more than 1600 now, and the number is growing exponentially. One such example is the Yu Ying Charter School in Washington (pictured above), the first Chinese language immersion school that offers classes on alternate days in English and Mandarin.

A.P. Chinese will be the third most tested language this year, after Spanish and French. German will be displaced to fourth place. This trend isn't just taking place on the east and west coasts, either. The survey shows that Chinese language offerings are taking place all over the country, including in places where there aren't significant Chinese populations.

China's the word in more US schools