Studying a 'strategic' language.

• Position: Chinese

An estimated 50,000 U.S. students, from kindergarten through high school, are now Learning the world's most-spoken language: Mandarin Chinese. With encouragement from the American and Chinese governments, the number of Chinese-language programs in the U.S. has tripled in 10 years. According to Scott McGinnis of the Defense Language Institute in Washington, "Chinese is strategic in a way that a lot of other languages aren't," because of China's rapid growth as a military and economic power. Last year, the Chinese Education Ministry donated 3,000 textbooks to the Chicago school. system for...