HHS expands with XingXing Academy

When the XinXing Chinese immersion program began at Eisenhower Elementary 11 years ago, it was the first of its kind for the Hopkins Public Schools District. This year, the program has expanded to HHS.

“The students get a great chance to fully immerse into the language. We prepare our students to be global citizens,” said Ms. Xin Zhang, world language.

Zhang, who is Chinese herself, has been teaching Chinese for nine years in the United States, four of which she has spent in the district. This is her first year teaching at HHS.

With the decision to start an immersion program, Hopkins followed the example of dozens of other districts in Minnesota. However, in 2007, the district was only the second to offer Chinese in the Twin Cities.

430 of the district’s 7,700 students are currently enrolled in XinXing academy, which translates to “a new start,” 22 of whom recently transferred to HHS. They all came from West Junior High, as there are no Chinese classes being offered at North Junior High. The students have been taking classes together since first grade.

“We are all really close and even though we have our own groups of friends, there are always people you can talk to,” said Mei Wieland, sophomore.

Wieland’s mother, Molly Wieland, is the coordinator for the XinXing Academy. She taught French at HHS for 19 years and coordinates other language programs, such as Juntos and the K-12 world language program.

A trip to China in 2016 has strengthened the bond among the students in the program.

“First, they went to Beijing for one week, being able to see the Great Wall and also the Forbidden City,” Zhang said. “Then they got the opportunity to live with a family in Shanghai for one week. They were able to go to school with their siblings and really immerse into the language.”

The students had little trouble communicating in Chinese during their trip, whether it was at the grocery store or in school.  

“We only speak Chinese in class. The class is really interactive and once a week, we have to rate ourselves. We have to rate our Chinese speaking performance,” said Leora Derechin, sophomore.

However, Zhang has a list of improvements for the following years.

“I want the students to have the chance to talk to more, actual Chinese people (besides just me). I also want them to immerse more deeply into the language- they should have spontaneous conversations in Chinese. Another thing we are working on is the extension of the College in the Schools (CIS) program,” Zhang said.

All other languages spoken at HHS, including Spanish, French and German, already offer CIS courses.

Despite just learning the language, students get a chance to learn about Chinese culture and history, which is necessary to know for the AP exam. The first class has already taken the AP exam, with 19 out of the 22 students passing.

With this broad understanding of China, the students will have opportunities to work with or in the country. In three years, when the first class will have graduated, the students will have a new start, a xīnxíng.