Chinese, Spanish integrated into local schools

Students at South Fork Elementary School are speaking Chinese- in the classroom. It’s part of the language immersion program.

Half of the classes are in English and the other half are in Mandarin. Part of the class is like a typical language class, but the other part is learning subjects like math in Chinese.

This is the second year the language immersion program has been in the school.

The school principal said it’s been very successful so far.

In addition to learning a language, there have been other benefits.

“The ability to learn about another country we probably never would have studied, at least this in depth, and to learn about their culture to have teachers from China come in,” said Principal Richard Howard.

Jefferson Elementary also has the language immersion program. Students there are learning Spanish.