Chinese, not a language many think about learning. At East students are fortunate that they are able to finish out their last years of Chinese thanks to teacher Chun-Yi Su, also known as Coral, from North Star High School. After previous Chinese teacher Wen-Li Xu left, Coral Su took over and is teaching eighth period Chinese three and four to students here at East over zoom.

After Wen-Li left, East wasn’t able to hire another teacher, so thanks to Coral, third and fourth year students are able to finish. Without this opportunity some students may have gone to a different school or just not taken another language.

“I would have probably transferred schools to take this,” junior, Samar Khudidah said.

Similarly, sophomore Cooper Morgan said, “I was planning on not taking another language.”

And their decision may have an impact on their future education. According to the University of Nebraska at Lincoln’s website, over fifty of their majors require the equivalent of four high school years of the same language. Popular majors include ones such as economics, political science, advertising, etc. So if these students weren’t able to continue Chinese, many of their opportunities for college would have been limited, unless they were willing to take that course in college, which costs more and in general college classes are usually harder.

Looking towards the teacher that is making this possible, Coral Su, already has a full schedule, but is happy to be teaching students at East.

“I teach three classes at North Star High School, one class at Goodrich Middle School, and one zoom class at East this year.” Chun-Yi Su said

So why was she willing to do this? Teaching students at a different high school, while on zoom?

“That is my responsibility, because I love to see a good conclusion, and I hate to see you come this long way.” Coral Su said.

For many teachers it is important and exciting to see their students fully complete a class, and so they take the responsibility to make it possible for that to happen. East also means something to Ms. Su.

“I used to teach at East, I started teaching at East in 2011, for the first three years of my teaching career, then I decided to travel between two schools, so that is why I stay at North Star High School.”

Sadly Chinese most likely won’t be offered as a new class for students to take. But what will the future of Chinese look like for the students who are already in Chinese and only need one more year?

“We will continue over to Chinese 4 to finish up, but then after that I am not really sure.” Ms. Su said.

Getting a full education in any subject is important, and Chinese is a unique language that has many benefits. And it is incredibly sad to see that it won’t be offered at East any longer.