Naomi Demott and Liliana Hall are among the last class of Chinese 5 students. Having taken Chinese since their eighth grade year, the girls art. Naomi plans to further her Chinese education in college, taking it as a minor. Lilliana is already fluent in another language, but she plans to stay in touch with her Chinese language skills. Demott comments, “We’ve been practicing Chinese for so long I sometimes find myself writing my Chinese name on papers for other classes.” With the middle school program shutting down, students hoping to take their Chinese education to the furthest level will only be able to go to Chinese 4 before graduating.

 The middle school Chinese program has been extremely important in the motivation and start for Demott and Hall, “I learned about the [Chinese] class during the middle school foreign language orientation. I wouldn’t have heard about it otherwise.” Hall finds it strange that soon enough Chinese 5 will be obsolete. “It’s weird to see the class end. I remember [Chinese] being my favorite class and it’s kind of sad that no more kids will be able to take it in middle school.”  

As of 2021, the only foreign language class middle school students are able to take is Spanish 1. Students that take 4 years of Spanish are able to take AP Spanish. There is no opportunity for this in the Chinese program, and after this year there will not even be an opportunity for the year 5 independent study.

According to Cambridge University psychology experts, learning a foreign language is extremely beneficial. Hall adds, “Learning another language has opened up different pathways in my brain, it makes me think more about word order and grammar.”  Hall and Demott’s class originally began with around 20 students, and as the years continued and the global pandemic strained learning, the class came down to 4 students, and then finally just the two of them. “What keeps me motivated is honestly just being able to say I did it.” Their commitment to their education is quite admirable, and impressive. Mr. Kleinsmith, the Chinese teacher, adds, “ I try to give fifth-year students a lot more freedom and creativity when it comes to choosing material to study, so it ends up being a lot of fun, I think…I've been pleased to see that these students do an excellent job of taking control of their own learning.”