DNAinfo – Emily Frost
“Elizabeth Willaum, the director of HudsonWay Immersion School, doesn’t speak too much English with the school’s 60 or so students, some of whom are as young as 2 years old…DNAinfo sat down with Willaum to find out more about HudsonWay and why she believes Mandarin is so vital…”Mandarin has continued to be a critical language — critical because [China] is the fastest-growing economy. The learning of Mandarin is an asset to children: It makes them marketable in their adulthood. That’s one of the strongest reasons…There’s also the [positive] impact on the brain…It makes for children who grow up to be highly efficient and sharper in their thinking…Language is like the window to a culture. When children learn other languages, they open up a window into that culture. It provides children an environment in which they learn to tolerate and appreciate people who are not like them. It allows them that multicultural lens and the ability to really navigate other cultures.””(more)