Mr.Han had once compared the Mandarin program to the “Titanic”. It was sailing smooth until it hit an iceberg that made the class sink deep and reach the end of their journey. What was that iceberg?  That issue was the interest of the students.

Mr. Oshodi stated, “When polled, students have offered a variety of reasons why they now prefer French and the always popular Spanish.”

The school board had been watching students, “gradually drift away,” said Mr.Oshodi. It started in 2015 when there were five classes (2 Mandarin I classes, 2 Mandarin II classes, and 1 Mandarin III class). Then in in 2016 it declined to 4 classes (1 Mandarin I class, 2 Mandarin II classes, and 1 Mandarin III class).

That’s when Mr. Han, the Mandarin teacher, knew that the class was coming to an end. The nitty-gritty parts of the story he refused to tell, “It’s personal, a personal story between me and my students.”

There was no confirmation of Mandarin 3 and this caused the student Riggs Von Ardaniel (10) to drop the class.

Von Ardaniel said, “There was a possibility there would be no Mandarin 3 so I took Spanish.”

This does not worry the students though, Brianna Sison(10) says, “Even though it isn’t confirmed, i’m not stressing because I can just take college classes at LMC.”

Community college classes are an alternative to taking classes at high school, to take Mandarin there it is worth at least 2 years of normal class.

Although the class is soon to be gone, the memories made in Mandarin will last for longer.