By MICHAEL NUNES
Staff Writer
EAST BRUNSWICK — Students in the district could learn how to say “nin hao” (hello) as early as the next school year.
“Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world. So there is a global reason for our students to learn this language,” Debra Gulick, director of curriculum and instruction, said, explaining that Spanish and English are the second and third most widely spoken languages respectively.
With ongoing talks about next school year’s budget underway, the district is considering adding Mandarin to the other four languages already taught in East Brunswick schools, according to Gulick.
Gulick delivered a primarily budget presentation for her department at the Feb 4 Board of Education meeting, which included funding for the new language.
“I am very happy that Mandarin is being introduced,” said Kevin McEvoy, who was a board member at the time before recently being sworn in as mayor of East Brunswick. He also commented that Mandarin is already being offered in the nearby Edison school system.
“We’re starting to talk about it. It’s proposed in the budget, which indicates it’s a language of need and it’s a very important language,” Gulick said, continuing that a survey conducted in June sent out to parents, which garnered around 1,000 responses, showed an interest in the language.
With budget constraints, the future of Mandarin in the district is still unclear.
“In a district that really has to make tough decisions about how we use a limited budget it isn’t something that we have been able to do. We do believe we need to start thinking about it, though, for the future,” Gulick said.
“The budget process is long, and we won’t even see a tentative budget proposed until the very end of March, so right now it’s only a discussion.”
Currently the only foreign languages taught in the district are French, Spanish, Italian and German.