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When Samantha Packard takes the stage next month in a middle school play, she will portray a fox who speaks Japanese fluently. For the Schaumburg eighth-grader, who has never set foot in Japan, it is a role nearly nine years in the making.
The performance is the culmination of a bold dual-language experiment that started when Packard, a student at Addams Junior High School, was in kindergarten. One of 11 graduates from the state's only Japanese-English public school program, she easily navigates between languages.
"I think it's probably easier to learn a language when you're younger," said Packard, 14, of Schaumburg.
In a program launched in 2001, 21 students at Dooley Elementary School in Schaumburg embarked on their educational career by alternating daily between Japanese and English instruction. Divided evenly between native speakers of English and native speakers of Japanese, the class in Community Consolidated School District 54 used an immersion method to bridge language and cultural gaps.
An academic challenge for some, a life-changing experience for others, the odyssey has produced a tight-knit group of teens, whose diverse backgrounds have fused into a bilingual melting pot.
"I think we were kind of like the guinea pigs, because we were the first class," said Meghan Shaughnessy, 13, of Schaumburg. "It was a blessing. I made a lot of good friends through the program."
The program was prompted — and funded in part — by the influx of Japanese corporations in the northwest suburbs, officials said.
District 54 serves 14,218 students at 27 elementary schools in Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Elk Grove Village, Roselle and Hanover Park. All district students are eligible to participate.
"We have a lot of families who move into the Schaumburg District 54 area because we have this," said Marion Friebus-Flaman, Dooley's principal. "We do have a number of phone calls every year from people saying, ‘Where do I need to buy my house so that I could be part of that program?' "
Demand is growing, with 183 students enrolled this year from kindergarten through sixth grade. Another 22 in the seventh and eighth grades are enrolled in the middle-school program at Addams, where they meet twice each day for language instruction and science class, co-taught in Japanese.
Facing a budget shortfall, the district cut more than 130 positions and $4.75 million from the 2010-2011 school year, but spared the dual language program. It's supported by grants from the Schaumburg-based division of Omron Corp. and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Chicago.
Interest is so high that Omron also funds a weekly adult Japanese class for Dooley parents.
"I'm never going to be fluent in the language, but I'm trying to get a basic grasp on it," said Sarah Mawhorr, 42, of Schaumburg, attempting to keep up with her daughter, Laura, a first-grader.
Miho Nakagawa is in her first year at Addams after four years of teaching Japanese in Chicago public high schools. She says the dual language program gives students a significant leg up.
"In Chicago, the high school students are learning it as a foreign language, while these students are learning Japanese like a native language," Nakagawa said. "They get much more Japanese language skills, as well as cultural understanding. They're way ahead."
While Addams plans to add more classrooms as the program advances, Township High School District 211, which takes students from Dooley and Addams, has no plans to offer Japanese. So students may have to say goodbye to their studies in that language once they enter high school.
"As we've told District 54 for several years now, we are not planning to offer Japanese," said Jeffery Butzen, associate superintendent for instruction at District 211.
In a mailing sent out recently, District 211 suggested students consider taking extra classes at the private Futabakai School in Arlington Heights — on their own dime and time — with the possibility of receiving transfer credits.
Resigned to switching language studies when he enters Schaumburg High School in the fall, Isaiah Carrington, 14, of Hanover Park, reflected on his pioneering accomplishments.
"It was really hard for me to get the hang of it — trying to balance learning English and Japanese at the same time," Carrington said. "When I was in kindergarten, I couldn't even read English books, so I was overwhelmed."
Most of the students will have roles in the play, an adaptation of the Japanese fable, "Gon, the Little Fox." The performance will be May 1 at the Schaumburg Community Recreation Center.
One of the more advanced students, Healy Gier, 14, of Hanover Park, intends to continue her studies privately, regardless of whether Japanese is offered in high school. A fan of anime — a style of Japanese animation — Gier is planning to attend college in Japan, where she hopes to eventually live and work as a comic book artist.
"I think in Japanese now, more than English," Gier said. "When I do math, I have to translate it in my head."