Language school surges in popularity

"She gave us extra classes because we were behind," said Poirier of their teacher Sophia Zhang, praising her diligence. Every Saturday, Zhang teaches a group of about six adult students the basics of Mandarin. None of them are Asian.

"One group of people among the adults want to do business in China," explained Li Si Zhang, the school's principal, about the recent burst of the language's popularity among non-Asians. "Some are interested in Chinese culture, and others have adopted Chinese children. So they want to help their children learn Chinese culture," she explained.

When the West Island Chinese School started up nearly five years ago, around 10 of its students were non-Asian. Today, over 40 of its 300 pupils are non-Asian, said Si Zhang.

Though the Mandarin dialect, the most popular in China, might seem a little daunting to learn at first with over 3,000 characters, vice-principal Bo Feng said it is actually not all that difficult. In Mandarin, he explained, each of the characters is a small word in itself. To form a new word, one word is combined with another. "Two to three thousand words are enough for a basic understanding," he said.

Combining the words "zao" (morning) and "fan" (meal) yields "zao fan," or breakfast, for example. "Wu fan" means lunch.

Besides two hours a week of class, Boudreau and Poirier, who started the course later in the year than their peers, said they had to invest between half an hour to an hour every night to properly learn all of their lessons. Still, they did not find it that difficult.

"It's completely different [to Latin languages], so you don't compare, you just start from blank," said Poirier.

"There are some words that don't mean the same thing in Spanish as they mean in Italian," said Boudreau, who has learned those two languages as well. "You don't have that in Chinese," she said.

Poirier and Boudreau said they both decided to learn the language for fun, but also might have a business opportunity down the line. Their employer, Charles River Laboratories, just opened a branch in Shanghai, they said.

The Nasdaq Stock Market opened an office in Beijing on Monday, and the New York Stock Exchange is set to follow suit next week. "People really need to learn Chinese culture in order to prepare themselves for this economic development," said Si Zhang.

Si Zhang estimated that there are around 5,000 Chinese speakers in the West Island area.