China Daily – Yong Ho 
What I have witnessed over the past 30 years is the steady rise of Chinese as a preferred foreign language to learn in US schools and society at large. When I was the director of language at the China Institute in New York City in the late 1990s, we had to go to a number of prestigious private schools to plead with the principals to start a Chinese program in their schools. We succeeded in some cases, but failed in others. Now, 20 years later, almost all the private schools in Manhattan have Chinese classes. For a school to have a Chinese program has become a major attraction for parents and their children. (more)