Pew Notes Growth in Chinese language instruction in American Schools

The Pew Charitable Trust blog stateline.org reports:

American students have been learning to say "hola" and "bonjour" for years now, but lately, more and more of them are learning to say "ni hao."

Interest in learning Chinese has surged in the United States, as China has risen as a global and economic power. In 2000, there were about 5,000 students studying Mandarin Chinese in U.S. public schools, according to the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Now that number is between 30,000 and 50,000, leaving states and districts scrambling to find enough qualified teachers.