Speaking in Tongues (2009)

While having a diverse ethnic mix of peoples within its borders, institutions in the United States in general strive for a mono-linguistic culture, namely English. However, what is increasingly being offered is language immersion programs in public schools, where everything is conducted in that language, except for the separate English class taught in English. These programs are not only populated by students of that ethnic background, but of other ethnicities as well. Durrell, a black child, is starting in Mandarin immersion. Ethnic Anglo Julian has been in Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin) immersion for nine years. Hispanic Jason, whose parents don't speak English, is in Spanish immersion. And Chinese Kelly, whose parents don't speak Cantonese, is in Cantonese immersion. Parents are choosing to send their children to language immersion programs so that they may be provided greater opportunities in their future. Some parents, however, fear that English will be compromised in the process, although in reality the exact opposite is true. Some also fear that their child's learning of the second language will be hindered by the parents themselves not knowing the language, or conversely that their own fluency in the language is therefore taking their child's valuable time away from learning English. But being in the United States, many children, unless forced to retain that second language, revert to English for socialization in the English dominated culture. Linguistic activist Dr. Ling-chi Wang has proposed what some consider a radical idea for the San Francisco school district: that all public school students become bilingual. He is hoping that Durrell, Julian, Jason and Kelly will be good examples of what can be accomplished by this proposal.