when was mandarin a must learn in schools with free tuition?

[civic94]

im born in the states, and my mom who is born in the 50's told me that when she grew up, mandarin was taught, but the teachers were not that good at mandarin, and tuition was not free, so many kids did not stay in school long enough to learn mandarin completely.

I heard that now schools are free, you just have to buy books. I am in my mid 20's, and many chinese who I met in school know mandarin, so i guess free school + mandarin being taught in school is around the 90's?

it was shocking, I met a girl who says she from guangzhou, but she can only speak mandarin and understands some cantonese... same with another guy i met from fuzhou, he cant speak fujianese, but only speaks mandarin.

so i am guessing most chinese people in china who are at most 30, should be fluent in mandarin, if free schooling was avaliable in the 90's? or even earlier?

my dad, and all my grandparents can not understand a lick of mandarin.

[Mike Hainzinger]

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) had an initiative to make Mandarin a requirement at the primary level, but ultimately, only a few select magnet/charter schools implemented it.

[civic94]

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) had an initiative to make Mandarin a requirement at the primary level, but ultimately, only a few select magnet/charter schools implemented it.

wow.. thats crazy.. growing up in the states, when I was in regular classes in high school, many kids hated to learn spanish, and its needed to graduate high school. its like, this is america why learn spanish?

I dont know how kids will take it, as US and china relations are tensing up (chinese taking all our jobs). I can remeber when I was at school in boston, my school had tons of chinese. and yes, many were getting getting made fun of, and some are robbed and bullied because they are chinese, and many dont fight back. my highschool years were at another place with little chinese, so it wasnt as bad.

I'm pretty sure chicago's schools are bad, and theres a big Chinese populaiton there.

[skylee]

Deleted. I have no business on this thread.

[weigeren]

So, are we talking here about mandarin learning in china in cities / areas where there are other languages , or schools in the US where children can study Chinese as a foreign language ? I am bit confused.

Side note /off topic : in Spain (compulsory education is free) English is taught till the last year of secundary education ... I don't know exactly when children START taking English lessons, because it just changes so every once and then ... ... then there is a second foreign language, most often it is French but some schools offer Chinese ... now, I don't really know if there is ANY level of achievement, but I fear not, since most people here can't speak English, even if they took a lot of time learning the language, and with their second language (which is closer to Spanish) is often worse ... I woulnd't dare to say that a 17 year old here, after finishing seconday school, would be able to speak anything in Chinese, but who never knows...

[civic94]

oops.. i mean in china.. sorry about that. "mike hainzinger" got me sidetracked.

like city and rural, when was there free education and mandatory for kids to learn mandarin, in china. so should all Chinese people in china who are at most 30, would know mandarin fluently?

[edelweis]

is tuition free everywhere in China now?

[Bates]

Not really, but mandarin is a must in communication, many can't understand each other cos the dialect s quite different,// and in some big cities, they usually use mandarin in daily life,a guy grown in such envir even don't need to learn in school,