Learn a Language? It’s Elementary : Education: Chinese, Japanese and Russian are taught to children as young as 6 at a new Wilshire district magnet center. Their rapid progress amazes parents and teachers.

Their principal says you wouldn’t believe it if you didn’t see it with your own eyes.

In Jin Duan’s class, 10-year-olds are shouting out the solution to 71 plus 5, in Chinese.

In Marina Sokolovsky’s class, 8-year-olds are chanting a long poem in Russian.

In Bert Christensen’s class, 7-year-olds are writing the alphabet in Japanese.

In Hilge Ziazie’s class, 6-year-olds are distinguishing the word for tree from flower in German.

These are not the children of international diplomats in an expensive private school.

These are inner-city children in a Los Angeles public school, after one month of foreign language instruction.

Their secret?

“Wo cong ming. Wo piao liang. Wo hui cheng gong.”

The spirit of “I am smart. I am beautiful. I will succeed,” in Chinese, rings through Marvin Avenue Elementary’s new language magnet center, housed in a row of small prefab bungalows on the campus at the southwestern edge of the Wilshire district.

The children’s enthusiasm brings tears to the eyes of parents, teachers and visitors, who marvel at the speed of their growth.

“I would have thought I was crazy . . . if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” said Anna McLinn, principal of the 1,086-student Marvin Avenue Elementary and mastermind behind the Dual Language Arts Magnet Center. “For the first time, I’m able to see enthusiasm on the faces of these youngsters. I just want to cry.”

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McLinn devised the program--the first of its kind in an elementary school in the giant Los Angeles Unified School District--based on a model in Dade County, Fla. In the Florida program, student test scores are consistently among the highest in the district, school officials there say.

McLinn says she wants her program to open Los Angeles youngsters’ minds and prepare them for the global economy.

“I want to be able to establish a program where youngsters can perform academically and have the cultural awareness of all peoples. After becoming bilingual or trilingual, instead of them beating around the bushes looking for a job, the jobs will come to them,” she said.

The school opened in September with 180 children in kindergarten through fifth grade, all taught in bilingual classes in English and either Chinese, Japanese, Russian or German.

For 90 minutes every morning, the youngsters receive formal training in the foreign language of their choice in classes that mix students across grade levels. During the rest of the day, students are taught subjects such as reading, math and social studies in those same classes, but in English, with foreign words and concepts sprinkled in.

This intensive language training has been a source of pleasure and pride for the students.

“It’s fun,” said 6-year-old Iman Sylain of Inglewood, as she slowly etched the squiggly hiragana characters in her book. “My mommy and daddy love it. They ask me to tell them how to say the words and they want me to teach them Japanese. And I teach my grandma too.”

“One time I called my mother’s job and everybody wanted to hear me talk in Russian,” echoes Tyra Brewer, 8, of the Wilshire area. She is among the children reciting a Russian poem, which she proudly announces she memorized by repetition. “You practice without looking and you learn.”

“My friends, they are shocked,” said Adam Fowler, 8, of South-Central, sitting shoeless at his desk. In the center’s two Japanese classes, students follow the Japanese custom of removing their shoes before entering class. “They don’t even know what I’m saying.”

Even the team of six teachers providing the language lessons say they are amazed at the children’s progress.

“They have literally no accent. It’s just perfect,” said Margaret Fang, who teaches Chinese to first- and second-graders. “This is the best time for them to learn. I use a technique called ‘total physical response.’ We use finger-pointing, nursery rhymes and songs. It’s very easy for them to pick up.”

The teachers were recruited by McLinn for their language skills and cultural knowledge. Most are teaching for the first time in the Los Angeles city schools.

More than half the students in the language program are from Marvin Avenue Elementary, which houses the magnet center. The others are bused in by the district from across the city.

Parents say they have already seen a difference in their children’s attitudes toward learning since the school year began.

“The languages are helping them use their minds more,” said Virginia Thomas, whose two daughters, China Thomas, 6, and Amber Spurlock, 9, are enrolled in the Chinese and Japanese classes, respectively.

“Not only do you have to use English, you have to do your homework in Chinese and Japanese. It stretches their minds,” she said. “In just 10 days, (China’s) handwriting, her reading and math improved. I couldn’t believe it. I had tears in my eyes.”

Parents and students pick the language the children will learn, based on the children’s interest and the availability of the classes.

McLinn said the Russian class was the hardest to fill, because most students opted for Chinese and Japanese studies. To keep each class under 30 children, she assigned some students to the Russian class, which pleasantly surprised many children.

“I didn’t know there was a Russia,” said Kurtis Greene, 9. “So I wanted to try it. And I just got the hang of it.”

McLinn said all the parents agreed to her requirement that children do three hours of homework every night, and teachers say the students seem to enjoy the challenge.

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“The children in other schools could do much more (homework) than they are,” said German teacher Ziazie. “It’s only that they are not challenged enough. These children realize homework is just emphasizing what they learned during the day. They’ve gotten used to it. This kind of routine is very good for the children.”

Parents and teachers say the only thing worrying them now is that there is no public middle school in the city with such extensive foreign language offerings.

“I’m sure the success of this program will probably motivate administrators at the middle school level to provide a similar program to act as a feeder school to this one,” said Richard Battaglia, who coordinates the school district’s 132 magnet centers and schools. “L.A. is a very multicultural community. It’s part of the Pacific Rim. There are more than 80 languages spoken in the city. This (kind of program) is something a city like L.A. with its cosmopolitan setting should have.”

For now, people at the school take pleasure in the permanent imprint they know they are leaving on the youngsters’ minds, even though the children say they are sometimes teased when they try out their new language skills.

“My friends laugh at me,” says Anysse Wilmore, 9, who studies Japanese. “They should be laughing at themselves because I’m getting a chance to learn something different, instead of just English.”