CHESHIRE - Quick - how many letters are in the Chinese alphabet? Fifth-grader Clare French didn't take the bait for this trick question during a game show-style skit Tuesday at the Cheshire World Languages' international neighborhood festival.

Mandarin Chinese, which Clare studies, has characters that represent words and phrases rather than letters.

Clare and 11 other students of Chinese, Latin or Spanish displayed to parents what they've learned over the past semester through skits and games Tuesday at the Yellow House on South Main Street, where the language classes are held twice a week.

Cheshire World Languages, founded and run by Lauren Villecco, provides language tutors to elementary schoolchildren. Villecco decided to start the nonprofit organization a year ago since the public schools don't offer languages in the elementary grades and private programs are distant and expensive.

Villecco said there were 12 students in each half-year semester. She hopes to add Hindi, Italian and Arabic.

"I have students lined up, but I don't have teachers," she said.

Villecco is also hoping to run the program in the elementary schools after classes. The schools require private organizations to fund their own insurance for the use of school buildings and Villecco has applied for a grant to pay the insurance.

Classes cost $155 for a 24-session semester.

Parents sometimes have trouble getting their children from school to the classes at the Yellow House on time, she said. Carey French, Clare's mother, said that more parents would enroll their children if the classes were held after school.

French is a Spanish teacher at St. Bridget School and wants her children to learn other languages.

"Clare was very interested at an early age in learning another language," she said.

Ilana Wistinetzki taught the Mandarin classes for the past two semesters and hopes to teach again next year. She was impressed with the enthusiasm of her students.

"They really wanted to learn," she said. "They asked a lot of questions."

Wistinetzki, who knows Mandarin, Hebrew, French and some Japanese, said she has never seen a language program started from scratch by parents.

"This is like community activism at its best," Wistinetzki said. "Being part of it, for me, is the best part of it."

Chinese candies, Spanish cookies and dried fruits that the Romans would have eaten were offered at the festival. Students also participated in skits which they used their second languages and afterward bashed away at a piñata behind the Yellow House.

Dominic Shumilla, a fourth-grade Norton School student, said he's used his Spanish to write to a pen pal in Spain. He's studied Spanish language and culture for the past two semesters.

"It's not just a class," he said. "It's fun."

jbuchanan@record-journal.com

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