According to a study called “Becoming Citizens of the World,” China, India and Japan are expected to make up half of the world’s Gross Domestic Product within 30 years. In addition, more than 307,000 Ohioans work in export-related jobs, and 644 foreign-owned businesses from 37 countries employ more than 39,000 workers in Ohio.
The district’s curriculum director, Lani Wildow, said that if the world’s population was only 100 people but had the same ratio of nationalities, 61 people would be from Asia, 12 would be from Europe, 13 would be from Africa and nine would be from Latin America. Only five would be from North America, she said.
“I think sometimes in general we have a perspective that the world is solely about us (America),” she said. “There are so many people in so many other places other than North America.”
Of all the languages spoken in the world, Chinese leads by a large margin, with 1.9 billion speakers. Spanish is second, with 400 million speakers, and English is third, with 335 million speakers. With such diversification, world languages are only going to become more important in the future, said Mindy Reed and Cindy Jones, the co-chairs of the language department.
“Especially in Cincinnati, we have some really strong companies — P&G, GE — who have huge contacts with Europe and are always looking for speakers of European languages,” Jones said.
Just as STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering and Math — has become a “buzzword” among educators, so too, have world languages gained importance and impact.
Jones and Reed noted that foreign language skills make an employee more valuable in the global marketplace and provide a competitive edge in career choices. They also noted that four out of five new jobs in the U.S. are created as the result of world trade.
Currently, Fairfield offers Spanish, French and German. Jones and Reed believe Chinese should be first, because one-fifth of the world speaks it, and because it’s spoken in other important trade markets like Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines.
Adding the course would require more staffing in Fairfield Schools, according to Wildow.
“You have to find the right person. Without that, this will not go,” she said.
Alternately, the district could also change its language options, adding Chinese and phasing out one of the other languages. No decision has been made yet, but it’s anticipated the board would decide on the matter in November. According to the Ohio Department of Education, 2.5 percent of Fairfield’s 9,500 students are Asian — a number that grew from 222 in 2013 to 235 last year.
Board member Tom Heisler suggested Hindu might be a good language to add, considering how may jobs have been outsourced to India. Board Vice President Balena Shorter suggested the new Fairfield Academy could be used to teach language.
Other Butler County districts have offered Chinese language courses with mixed results.
Lakota Local Schools had planned to add it starting this year, but it was dropped because of low demand and staffing issues, according to spokesman Randy Oppenheimer. Talawanda Schools had offered it for three years, ending it after 2011-2012 due to low enrollment, said Joan Stidham, the director of teaching and learning for that district.
Ross Local Schools is the only Butler County school district that currently offers Chinese language courses.
Ross began offering the language after its French teacher retired in 2008; the district only offers Spanish and Chinese, according to Superintendent Greg Young.
“At that time we thought Chinese would be good language for us to have because of the emergence of China as a world power,” he said. The class has become so popular that the number of students who take Chinese and Spanish is about evenly split.
“Some of our technical teachers, engineering teachers encouraged students to take Chinese because it was a nice complement to their resumes,” said Young. “It’s important to bridge the gap between those two cultures. Our students learning Chinese is one way to take that first step across.”
That runs along the same lines as to why Fairfield wants to expand its language offerings.
“We are preparing our students for the future when we are teaching them a world language, a language they can use in a job that will someday be super beneficial to them,” Jones said.
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