In the last 20 years, the Asian American population has increased by 81 percent, making it the current fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States. Despite this dramatic population change, Berkeley High School has yet to expand its language department, with the majority of the languages taught being of European origin. At the same time, student interest in Asian languages has increased and Asian communities are in need of greater representation. BHS should expand its language department in order to provide more resources and educational opportunities to students.
Learning these languages would allow students to communicate with a wider range of people. In addition, it would allow students to seek new international opportunities for work and travel. Students seem to be aware of these benefit and many are passionate and curious about learning Asian languages. According to the California Department of Education, Japanese was the fifth most chosen language to learn in California public schools.
At the same time, many students currently enrolled in Mandarin have had to take on dual-enrollment classes because there is not enough space for them in the BHS Mandarin classes. “Dual enrollment is a long process, and it’s an extra time commitment,” John Lao, a freshman said. “The Mandarin program is too small for the influx of students,” he continued.
Spending time on extra dual-enrollment classes makes it extremely difficult for students to study their language of choice. By expanding the Asian language department, more Mandarin-speaking teachers could be hired, leading to a larger and better-equipped Mandarin department.
While Asian languages are of great interest to many students, there is a lack of Asian teachers in our schools. The U.S. Census Bureau found that only two percent of the nation’s teachers identified as Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI). Having educators who share similar experiences and teach Asian languages would help combat this lack of representation.
In response, California recently allocated five million dollars to the Asian Language Bilingual Teacher Education Program Consortium (ALBTEP). The funds went to teacher development, while also benefiting over 200 current student teachers seeking credentialing in Asian languages. By taking advantage of these resources, BHS could more easily begin the diversification of its Asian language department, promoting Asian representation and culture.
In the end, expanding Berkeley High School’s Asian language department is a pivotal step in growing Asian representation and building a more diverse and welcoming school. The undeniable benefits of learning Asian languages as well as the clear student interest are signs that BHS must take this transition seriously.