Article: Pennsylvania High School Students' Language Classes Stretch To Include Russian, Arabic, Chinese

From http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/12/high_school_students_language.html

High school students' language classes stretch to include Russian, Arabic, Chinese
By BARBARA MILLER
December 24, 2010

Learning a foreign language in high school is moving beyond the typical Spanish, French and German courses to include Chinese, Russian, Japanese and Arabic in school districts around the midstate.

Xuan Li, a visiting professor for the Confucius Institute at the University of Pittsburgh, is teaching Mandarin Chinese at Carlisle High School this year in a cooperative program through Dickinson College.

Derry Twp. School District also offers Chinese and Japanese through an online program, and Palmyra Area School District has two students taking Arabic this year.

Languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Japanese — with Hindi added this year — are termed “critical” languages, due to the demand from people wanting to learn them, but lack of instructors.

Read the full article at http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/12/high_school_students_language.html