AL.com – Jon Anderson
“The Hoover school system this coming school year is adding Mandarin Chinese to its foreign language offerings, making Hoover and Spain Park high schools the first public schools in the Birmingham area to offer the language in-house, officials said. Hoover just hired a Chinese language instructor…His name is Steven Frost, a North Carolina native who has lived and worked in China…The expansion of U.S. businesses into China creates many opportunities for U.S. business people who speak Chinese, Frost said. With a burgeoning population, China is the biggest market for U.S. automakers and Apple. Beyond the economic incentives associated with learning Chinese, Frost is keen on the cognitive benefits of learning the language. Alphabet-based languages such as English engage just one hemisphere of the brain, but character-based languages such as Chinese engage both hemispheres. “For me, teaching kids to think is the most important part,” he said. “Chinese is really great because it opens kids’ minds.””(more)