When asked why they choose Chinese for their children, many parents cite the international status that China has gained due to its tremendous economic growth in recent years, while others refer to the linguistic status of Mandarin Chinese as the most widely-spoken language in the world. At YHIS, we also believe Chinese language education is particularly well-suited to the early education setting because Mandarin Chinese is defined by the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. State Department as a “Category 3” language, one of the most difficult languages to learn for native English speakers. Attaining fluency in Mandarin Chinese requires 2200 class hours, with about half that time preferably spent studying in-country.


YHIS' early language acquisition strategy is a key feature of the program. Chinese is a tonal language with a logographic writing system, not based on the Latin alphabet. Therefore, it is important to start learning Chinese at a young age, when children are developmentally attuned to distinguishing tonal and visual variations.