[ImFatYoureFat]

The problem with this (at least in theory) is that unless US schools devote as much time to learning mandarin, or spanish for that matter, as chinese and taiwanese schools spend teaching english the effort is useless. I have studied mandarin for several years and traveling to anywhere outside of rural china makes my efforts seem largely pointless. There is always a chinese person who speaks far better english than I do mandarin. Essentially unless these schools plan on starting kids in mandarin from kindergarten an going through high school and using it for at least 3 hours every school day, these kids are never going to catch up to chinese children's second language proficiency.

[Jd]

Moreover, the Chinese do not want to speak Chinese with you but would prefer English.

That said, this is only true in certain circumstances and among the younger generation. Among bureaucrats, for example, you will be hard pressed to find good English spakers.