A famous Chinese proverb goes that "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step".

To see the proverb at work, visit Alexis I. du Pont High School or the Conrad Schools of Science, both in the Red Clay Consolidated School District.

At Alexis I. du Pont, teacher Zhang Jie, known to her faculty colleagues and friends as "Jessie," has already journeyed a thousand miles and then some — nearly 7,000 miles from Anyang, an ancient Chinese capital — to help 34 students take their first baby steps in learning a new language, Chinese.

The words are basic – the names of family members, the rooms of a house, counting from one to ten. The sentence structure is equally simple:  "I love my mother" and "I don't have two cats," for example.

Using handmade flash cards and lots of pictures, encouraging students to work in groups and putting a strong emphasis on conversation, Zhang aims to give her class a strong foundation for building their language skills.

So far, the students are taking to it well.

“Is Chinese hard to learn?” Many may ask such a question.

"It's pretty much the same as learning any other language," said junior Zack Bieliecki.

The difference between the 26-letter alphabet and the more than 10,000 characters used in the Chinese Mandarin dialect hasn't been a problem for junior Aaron Schwartz, at least not yet. "Actually, I kind of like it. One symbol usually means one word and I'm good at memorizing," he said.

The students taking Mandarin language classes at A.I. du Pont believe the language could be an important part of their futures, even if they're not sure what their futures might be.

The program at Alexis I. du Pont and Conrad is called a "Confucius Classroom," an initiative developed by a Chinese nonprofit organization called Hanban (its full name is the Chinese Language Council International), whose missions include promoting the use of the Chinese language internationally and promoting the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language in schools all over the world. By the end of 2010, 369 Confucius Classrooms had been established in 96 nations.

According to Gregory Fulkerson, education associate for world languages and international education at the state Department of Education, the Confucius Classrooms found a home in U.S. schools through a partnership between Hanban and the College Board, which has created a Chinese Language and Culture Initiatives program to support the growth of studies in Chinese language and culture. The program has already placed more than 450 Chinese teachers in U.S. schools.

While on an economic development trip to China in November 2010, Gov. Jack Markell signed a memorandum of understanding with Hanban that would pave the way for Chinese teachers to come to Delaware.

Soon after that, Red Clay officials began considering adding a second foreign language to Conrad's course offerings and Conrad Principal Mark T. Pruitt Jr. expressed an interest in Chinese. Fulkerson told Pruitt that he could apply through the College Board for the Confucius Classroom program. Pruitt shared that information with other Red Clay administrators, and both he and Alexis I. du Pont Principal Kevin Palladinetti filled out the Hanban grant applications.

For Chinese teachers like Zhang and Jiuping Wang, her counterpart at Conrad, the program presents new challenges and offers great potential benefits.

The most significant of those challenges at Mandarin language classes is to adapt her teaching style and develop lesson plans that will keep American students engaged. "In China, my main job is to give a lecture. I do not do any activities for the kids," Zhang said. "Here I have to think of many activities so they learn, so they do not feel it is boring."

To ease the transition to the American school model, Hanban provided four weeks of training in Beijing and the College Board provided two more weeks of instruction at UCLA during the summer, Wang said. "Conrad assigned the best academic mentor to help me," she added.

Zhang's use of flash cards, exercises that match words with pictures and breaking her class into small groups in friendly competitions to see which group makes fewer mistakes show that she has already captured the essence of the American teaching style. Even so, student Schwartz said her classroom management is "a little stricter, more controlled" than other teachers at the school. "I like it," he said.

In addition to their work at Alexis I. du Pont and Conrad, Zhang and Wang are helping launch a Chinese language initiative for students at the MOT Charter School and Dover Air Force Base Middle School, Fulkerson said. Both schools are using online introductory Mandarin Language Classes taught by a Delaware-certified teacher who is based in New York, he said. Zhang and Wang serve as "conversation coaches" for the two schools, using a video-enhanced internet telephone connection to meet with the classes for three sessions each week.

Yes, for A.I. du Pont students, having Mandarin on their resumes doesn't look too bad.