Nhu-Hao Duong’s button face brightened with a big smile when her kindergarten teacher held up a flashcard next to the word on the board that it matched: carotte, French for the bright orange vegetable favored by Bugs Bunny.

“Oui,” the 5-year-old Vietnamese-American girl shouted in chorus with her 16 classmates, who speak French all day in their kindergarten class at the Rogers Heights Elementary School in Bladensburg.

Nhu-Hao’s class is one of three foreign language immersion program kindergarten classes being taught in French in Prince George’s County for the first time this year.

The classes are part of a system of 29 magnet schools offering special programs to attract white children to schools in predominantly black neighborhoods. They were among the first of the magnet programs to fill up, according to school spokesman Brian J. Porter.

From 9:08 a.m., when French immersion class starts with the Pledge of Allegiance in French, until class ends at 3:08 p.m. after playtime, bilingual teachers speak only French to the children.

And less than two months into the program, most of the children already are sprinkling their English sentences with French words at home, according to about 30 parents who gathered Wednesday night at the school.

Like several parents, Shelley Kallop said that her daughter Erica, a bubbly child with a ponytail that reaches to her waist, uses French words at unexpected moments.

“We went to McDonald’s and she said, ‘Let’s manger [eat],’ ” Kallop said. “So it comes out at the strangest times. And she stood on the step today and said, ‘I’m petite [small] and you’re grande [large].’ “

Some parents said their children are falling behind in English skills, increasing the need for the parents’ help at home on reading and writing in their native tongue. And the long days at school, combined with the rapid-fire French instruction, can be difficult and tiring for the children, several parents said.

Still, most parents enthusiastically supported the program, saying that learning a foreign language will give their children advantages later when they compete for college admission and for jobs.

“We thought that [her son] would benefit a lot, like in college and finding a job and just by being surrounded by different cultures,” said Alice Flowers of Seat Pleasant. She added that she wishes she had been able to speak French when she worked as a secretary at the International Monetary Fund.

Nhu-Hao’s mother Hao Tuong Duong, a 38-year-old pharmacist who fled Vietnam with her husband in 1975, likes the program so much that she plans to enroll her 3-year-old son at Rogers Heights Elementary School when he is old enough.

“I’m really impressed and I don’t see any problems, especially with my daughter,” Duong said. “She really loves her school and her teacher. And she loves French.”

Two of the county’s French immersion kindergarten classes are at Rogers Heights. The third is at Shadyside Elementary School in Suitland. A total of 61 5-year-olds are enrolled in the programs.

According to county school officials, French immersion first-grade classes are planned next year for the two elementary schools. And each year as this first group progresses through the sixth grade, French immersion classes will be set up to accommodate them, while new students continue to enter the program at the kindergarten level.

Once the children reach junior high school age, they will enter the traditional school structure.

Nationally, there are about 30 foreign language immersion programs in French, Spanish, German or Chinese, including a 14-year-old French program in Montgomery County. Neither Fairfax County nor District of Columbia schools offer daylong immersion programs, according to education officals.

Peggy Hool, 33, a language pathologist from Greenbelt, said her husband Leo, 34, waited in line all day at Eleanor Roosevelt High School to enroll their son Kevin in the Rogers Heights program.

“This is when their language system is most receptive,” she said, adding that Kevin “is already counting to 10 in French, and he’s teaching his little brother, too.”

Like kindergartners everywhere, the 5-year-olds at Rogers Heights learn colors, shapes, numbers and words — but in French. In the school’s computer laboratory, even the “Stickybears Shapes” games — a program to help children identify shapes — are played in French.

When they need to use the bathroom, the children ask, “Les toilettes, s’il vous plait?”

When they want a drink of water, it is: “De l’eau, s’il vous plait?”

“We already have several translators in the class,” said Nhu-Hao’s teacher, Felicia Neufeld, a 52-year-old former college instructor who was raised in France. “Have you ever heard your child repeat — to the tone — what you have said? I’ve got at least two ‘Parisians’ who say what I do, down to my worst.”



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