<p>I would say the majority of the kids taking mandarin in the native speakers class can not read Chinese but can speak Mandarin. This is just like schools that offer spanish for native speakers. Many of these kids know slang and speak quickly but could never pass the AP spanish test due to the grammer unless they took a class. The worst thing is putting them in the regular classes and they get all the attention from the teacher since they can joke around with them in spanish. That is what happened to my son.</p>