In Brentwood, seven-year-old Kennedy is one of a few dozen children learning basic Mandarin from Elizabeth Fraley, a former teacher who started her own consulting, tutoring and summer camp business, Kinder Ready and Elementary Wise.

  • More parents putting kids through Mandarin lessons
  • Mandarin takes many more hours to master than Spanish
  • Parents feel language could be important in global economy

“I would say in the last five years, parents have really shown a great interest in Korean and Chinese,” Fraley said, who studied in Korea while getting her graduate degree in education. Now, she’s brushing up on her Mandarin as well to keep up with the demand from parents.

Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Japanese are considered the most difficult languages for English speakers to master, requiring about 2,200 hours of study, according to the Foreign Service Institute. Romance languages like Spanish take just 600 hours.

“It definitely takes time to learn, but young children pick up languages much faster,” Fraley said.

Kennedy’s mom is considering taking her family on the road and traveling the world, so she’s exposing her kids to both Mandarin and Spanish.

But for other parents, it’s about thriving in a global economy.

“Even yesterday I was at a three-year-old’s home, and his father is intent on him taking over the business world,” Fraley said.

As for Kennedy, her mom believes Mandarin is the new piano lesson. A difficult skill her kids will thank her for eventually.