Parlez-vous ... Chinese?

• Position: LANGUAGES - Foreign-language classes - Brief article

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

It's bad news for a nation that needs more people to conduct its global business and diplomacy: In the last decade, thousands of U.S. schools have cut back on foreign-language classes, with French taking the biggest hit. The big exception is Chinese, which is now taught in about 1,600 schools, up from 300 a decade ago. And the Chinese A.P. test, which has only been offered since 2007, is expected to pass German this year as the third most tested A.P. language, after Spanish and French.

LANGUAGES OFFERED...