Mandarin Immersion Affects the Education in Richmond

Mandarin may not be one of Canada's official languages, but more Richmond residents speak it than French. And yet roughly 10 per cent of Richmond students are enrolled in French immersion. A group of parents are hoping to give students another language option in Richmond elementary schools: Mandarin.
The Richmond Committee for Mandarin for BC Schools plans to make a formal presentation to the board of education June 29 to lobby for a new Mandarin immersion program, starting in Kindergarten. We're not approaching this from the angle of a heritage language," said Teresa Pan, who chairs the committee.
Richmond has a population of 173,565, of which 75,725 are of Chinese descent, according to Statistics Canada. Only 1,155 Richmond residents claim French as their mother tongue. But it's not Richmond's demographics that are being used as the principal argument for Mandarin immersion -- it's global economics.
The idea is to prepare children for a world in which Mandarin is expected to be the "powerhouse language" of the future, especially in the business world, said Pan. Neither Pan (who is Caucasian), nor her husband (who is fourth-generation Chinese on his mother's side) speak Mandarin. Pan's husband speaks enough Cantonese to order dim sum, she added. However, they would like their children, aged seven, four and 14 months, the chance to learn a second language, and believe Mandarin will be the most valuable. "There are a number of Caucasian, English-speaking parents who recognize that Mandarin is the language of the future," Pan said. Global economics may be the motivation behind Mandarin immersion, but local economics may be a major problem.
School board said the push for some kind of Mandarin instruction in Richmond is not new, but to make it work there will need to be a critical mass of students to justify it. They also consider it is tough enough for the school board and teachers to get their hands on teaching resources for French immersion, so they wonder how difficult it might be to build a new library and locate other teaching resources for a full curriculum offered in Mandarin.