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Do All American Schools Need to Teach Chinese?

Given the growth of the Chinese economy, Sweden's considering adding Chinese classes to grade schools. Should we be doing the same?

Given the phenomenal growth of the Chinese economy, more American schools are adding Mandarin Chinese to their foreign language offerings. But no Western nation is taking Chinese language education more seriously than Sweden. Time reports that the Swedish education minister Jan Björklund recently announced plans to add Chinese to their nationwide grade school curriculum. According to Björklund, learning Chinese is going to "be much more important, from an economic perspective" than the traditionally offered European languages. Do American schools need to do the same to stay economically competitive?

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Word Lens App by Quick Visual Translates Through IPhone Video Watch This Cool Video Translation App Turn Spanish Signs Into English

Point your camera at a Spanish sign and your screen will show it in English. Like Photoshopping real life, in real-time, with a foreign language.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2OfQdYrHRs

New iPhone app translates basic Spanish via video on your cell phone: fun to play around with, not so good for Cervantes.

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Making Pint-Sized Authors in Los Angeles with 826

826LA's Executive Director Joel Arquillos gives some perspective on how to teach Latino students and dishes some project-based learning tips.

Former Bay Area high school social studies teacher Joel Arquillos dedicated his life to writing, but unlike so many others who moved to Los Angeles, he's not pitching screenplays. The 38 year-old Executive Director of writing and tutoring nonprofit 826LA wants to equip the next generation of L.A. kids with the writing chops they need to hit it big in Hollywood, or bring in the As at Harvard.

Arquillos manages two 826 offices in Los Angeles—one in Echo Park and one in Venice—and oversees the organization's savvy push toward running programs on school campuses. Last year 826LA taught writing to over 6,000 students, many of whom come from low-income, Latino backgrounds.

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