Greenwich Time
Lisa Chamoff
November 20, 2010
There had already been a full day of school for the children who were busy at work in a small classroom at Second Congregational Church on a recent afternoon.
Still, the small group was buzzing with energy as the kids jumped from an activity with paper and glue sticks, to singing a song, and then playing a game with flashcards.
The entire time, teacher Jing Tan rarely spoke a word of English, encouraging her students to master the correct pronunciation of the Chinese characters they recognized.
It was one of the newest classes for the Chinese Language School of Connecticut, a Greenwich-based nonprofit school that teaches Mandarin Chinese as a second language, with lessons on Chinese culture, to children and adults.
Recently, the eight-year-old program has started to grow, reaching families that, for a variety of reasons, want their children to learn Chinese.
Classes at various levels have been held on Sundays at Eastern Middle School. After hearing feedback from parents, the school decided to add a weekday program, and secured space at Second Congregational Church.
A private tutoring program has also tripled in size since 2007, said Susan Serven, the school's president. It started with 45 students and has grown to about 130.
The school attracts students from a variety of backgrounds. Many have parents who emigrated from China and want their children to learn or retain the language, while some parents have adopted children and want them stay connected with their Chinese heritage.
Others, recognizing China's emerging importance in the global economy, are learning Chinese at local schools and are looking for additional classes and tutoring.
In the winter, the school will be launching a prepatory course for students taking the Advanced Placement Chinese Language and Culture exam, which Serven said doesn't seem to be offered by most test-preparation companies.
"This is another need that has spurred us to expand," she said.
The school's classes range in price from $630 to more than $1,300.
As an executive recruiter, Holly McCarthy said she sees that China has become an economic force. The Westport resident's two sons, 7-year-old Jack and 9-year-old Liam, were simply intrigued by Asian culture by taking martial arts classes. They also learned, when visiting friends in Ohio over the summer, that the public schools in Cleveland had begun teaching Chinese.
"My children heard that and they were fascinated," said McCarthy, after dropping Jack and Liam off at the two-hour-long Level 1 class at Second Congregational.
Greenwich resident Chelsea Kirwan enrolled her 7-year-old twin daughters in the program on the recommendation of one of their teachers at Convent of the Sacred Heart school. The girls, Lilbet and Felicity, already speak fluent French after enrolling in the French American School of New York in Scarsdale, N.Y.
"I think Mandarin is a great language to learn," Kirwan said. "I think it helps women in business."
The program, Kirwan said, produces results.
"They really are there to teach the kids how to speak Mandarin," she said. "This is really a language-immersion program."
McCarthy said she overheard her sons talking to a friend about their classes, which they've been attending for the past two months. When the friend asked them why they were learning Chinese, they said it was so they could have a secret language that their mom didn't understand. Although the boys don't speak Chinese much at home, they seem to be picking it up fast, she said.
"I hope that it increases in popularity," McCarthy said. "I think it's going to be an important thing for our kids to understand over the next 20 years."
The 
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