When Suzanne Mammel brought her adoptive daughter Lily from China to Canada five years ago, she hoped to give Lily a solid understanding of her native language and culture.

With little knowledge of Mandarin, Mammel enrolled Lily in the private school system, but her ultimate goal was to find a program that would allow Lily to speak and learn Mandarin on a daily basis.

Last September, Mammel, an Ancaster resident, discovered the English-Mandarin program at Hamilton’s Prince Philip Elementary School. Beginning in Junior Kindergarten, the program is fully funded by the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board.

Prince Philip, on Rifle Range Road, is the first school in Hamilton to offer the Mandarin-focused program and just the third such school in Canada. The English-Mandarin program is often referred to as Mandarin Immersion.

Before enrolling in the English- Mandarin bilingual program, Lily, 6, knew only a few Mandarin words like, “Hello,” “Goodbye” and “I love you.” Today Lily’s vocabulary, both in English and Mandarin, is growing at a remarkable level.

“She knew some very basic phrases,” said Mammel. “But now, she’ll babble on to me and I don’t understand a lot of it.” In an interview, Lily responds in Mandarin. Her words translated to English are, “Mommy only knows a tiny bit.” Mandarin is spoken by more than 885 million people worldwide.

In Hamilton, there are over 9,000 Mandarin speakers. The English- Mandarin program began as a pilot project at Prince Philip. It is open to students from anywhere in the city, although out-of-catchment transportation is unavailable.

Before and after-school care is offered in addition to an International Language After School program in Mandarin.

After seven months of the program, Lily can conduct complete conversations in Mandarin with her teacher, classmates and parents.

The students are encouraged to speak in Mandarin whenever possible inside the classroom.