Asian Language Classes Multiplying With Ethnic Growth

To meet the needs of their fast-growing Asian populations and to prepare students for jobs in the Pacific Rim, many California schools are expanding their foreign language programs beyond the traditional European languages.

Spanish is still the most popular language by far, accounting for more than a third of the state’s total foreign language enrollment. But Japanese and Chinese are the state’s fastest-growing foreign languages, and other Asian languages are gaining ground.

The ABC Unified School District last year seized on the trend and introduced Korean, Tagalog--a language of the Philippines--and Chinese into its high school curriculum.

“I wanted to introduce Asian Pacific languages and cultures because this is the global age, and education has to meet the needs of the future,” said Howard Kim, a trustee in the district.

Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton now offers five levels of Korean, while Arcadia High provides two levels of Mandarin, a Chinese dialect. The school began offering Mandarin this year after Chinese parents launched a grass-roots campaign for the program.

“I found out the school didn’t have Mandarin classes, so I asked why not,” said parent Kay Tseng, who led the effort. “The principal said no one knew how to get it started, so I researched programs at other schools and brought back a proposal.”

In 1981, the state’s public schools offered only 49 classes of Korean, Chinese or Japanese to 1,374 students. Last year, that number increased to 318 classes to 8,518 students. In addition, 475 students are now enrolled in 17 Vietnamese classes across the state.

Although school staffs encourage students from all ethnic backgrounds to sign up for Asian language courses, most students who enroll tend to be of Asian descent. Many Asians whose primary language is English register for these courses to learn their parents’ native language or brush up on their second language skills.

The College Board, a nonprofit education association that sponsors achievement tests, in recent years has adopted Japanese and Chinese language proficiency tests and will introduce a Korean exam in 1997. Many American colleges require their applicants to take at least three achievement tests--now known as the SAT II exam--in a variety of subjects.

At first, the College Board hesitated to expand its testing program because of the high cost. But after years of debate and pressure from the University of California and the California Legislature, the College Board consented.