Kyle Rothstein, a seventeen-year-old American teenager, is very popular in Shanghai because he speaks Chinese almost like a native.
His father, Jay Rothstein, knew that China would
become more and more important in the present-day
world economy, and he enrolled Kyle in an
English-Mandarin school in San Francisco when he
was five years old.
"I knew that this decision would not be easy," his
father said. Kyle often cried, saying, 'I'm not
Chinese. Why do I have to learn Chinese?'"
But soon the benefits became obvious. At the age
of twelve, Kyle had socialized with two American
presidents and with a large number of Chinese officials
and celebrities, and he also had appeared in four
Chinese television programs.
Now, at the age of seventeen, Kyle lives in Shanghai
and is the lead actor in a film, "Milk and Fashion,"
about a young American living in China. His father
is the producer of the film.
A growing number of Americans now believe that Chinese
is the language of the future. In the year 2000
(two thousand) 5,000 (five thousand) Americans in
our primary and secondary schools studied Chinese.
Today the number is around 50,000 (fifty thousand).
Kyle's father, who could not practice Chinese with
his son because he doesn't speak the language, took
his son to the tourist sites of San Francisco in
search of Chinese travelers. On finding them, he
introduced Kyle to them saying, "I have found this
kid on the street. He speaks only Chinese. Can
you talk with him? Can you find out what he likes
to eat? Can you take him to China?"
The reaction generally was "What? How's that?
Wow!" Soon Kyle became an unofficial ambassador
from San Francisco to the Chinese tourists who came
to the city, and in 1998 (nineteen ninety-eight)
Kyle and his father were part of the official
delegation that accompanied President Clinton on
a trip to China.
Most of Kyles friends in China are expatriates because
the cultural differences between Chinese and American
teenagers, he has found, present really huge cultural
barriers, and he has not been able to find some really
good friends among his Chinese contemporaries.
But Kyle is very popular among his teachers. "He
is the first American high-school student that we
have been able to enroll in a Chinese class for
natives," said Sally Zhang of the Jin Cal High School.
"Most of our students think that learning English
is important, and the presence of an American student
who speaks Chinese very well is a source of inspiration
for all of them."