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Special school immersing students in foreign languages

08:40 AM PDT on Thursday, August 14, 2008

By JANE MCCARTHY / KING 5 News

SEATTLE - The foreign language most children are offered in school is either Spanish or French, but there is one groundbreaking group bringing language and world experiences to Seattle students. 

The Olympic games have brought a little bit of China across the world.  Students are using the Olympics to plunge into the Chinese culture through a program called One World Now! 

The woman who created One World Now! wanted to give these kids experiences that would allow them to become the next world leaders, and that includes learning foreign languages. They're using part of their summer break to dive into languages not normally offered in school. 

At the language immersion camp, 60 students from Seattle have committed to spending their summer learning languages like Chinese and Arabic. 

"Because from 9-2 they can only speak Chinese, the target language. No English allowed," said Rongfen, teacher. 

No English allowed, which can make for a tricky interview. 

"I'm not supposed to speak in English, but it's okay for the interview," said Dylan Hendricks, student. 

Good thing, because this reporter doesn't know Chinese. 

The students tell us they wanted to embrace the opportunity to learn a language not normally offered in public school. The long term goal is to develop the next generation of global leaders.

But first, these English speakers are going to have to master a foreign language. 

"I'm going to translate for him today," said Ani Chen, student.  

Alex Chen says he'd like to use this language in a career someday, but for now it's tough enough just to get through this interview. 

Some of the students just returned from studying abroad in Morocco, Egypt and China.

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