When Ahmed Amedie, 16, came to Hall County from Ethiopia about six months ago, one of the things he left behind was his native language, Amharic.

"It's a really old language," said the West Hall High School junior. "It's from west Africa; it's really old, and I think more than 20, 30 million people speak it in my country, so it's a big language."

But rather than simply take classes in English, Amedie enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program at West Hall.

Because the program stresses learning in multiple languages - and, most importantly, a student's native language - Amedie will be able to take classes in his native tongue online.

Starting today, Amedie will complete assignments in reading and writing online, while his classmates are taking their English A1 class.

"I've been told I'll write essays, research and stuff like that," he said, which makes it more like a class he would take in his home country. It's "like any other language. Anything you do in English you do in Amharic, too."

Laurie Ecke, the IB coordinator at West Hall, said the school incorporates an online learning component with native Spanish speakers, too. Students take the world literature class that's the equivalent to what would be taught in Spain - or any other foreign country - and through the IB program, educators who are native speakers of the language help facilitate discussions over the Internet.

"The IB program, one of its goals is for students to be able to take literature in their mother tongue, so we have about five or six kids in our Spanish A1 class, which is the same Spanish literature class a student would take in Spain" Ecke said.

The same idea applies for Amedie's class, too.

"We put him in the IB program because he was such a smart, motivated student. We put him in AP English but he was struggling because it's not his native language," she said. "I found out that Amharic was his native language, and I know that IB wanted him to study in his native tongue ... and they do it online.

"His work will be sent to Ethiopia or to someone who is speaking or reading in Amharic, and they will grade him"

The Internet naturally lends itself to learning a foreign language, said Shirish Nadkarni, CEO of the online language learning company Livemocha.

Livemocha allows students - of any age - to sign up for an online curriculum that includes writing and speaking exercises with a component that lets language learners interact with native speakers of the language they're learning.

"Connecting with other people is really important from two aspects, one to make the learning process more relevant and engaging, and the second aspect is connecting with native speakers so you can put into action what you've learned and practice and get feedback," Nadkarni said.

"The great thing about the Internet is that it's really widespread around the world, you have broadband access becoming more prevalent and thanks to Skype you have Voice-over IP becoming more popular.

"And, you have the whole social networking phenomenon where people are connecting with people around the world. Each person can bring their native language expertise to help others around the world."

Like the IB program, Livemocha uses writing and reading exercises in its lessons, but also integrates speaking exercises, too, and allows students to interact with native speakers.

And that's what Amedie was missing from his classroom experience at West Hall - or, anywhere in the United States, since Amharic isn't spoken many places in the country.

"He wanted to pursue this because he wants to hold onto his language," Ecke said. "He wants to be able to speak in it and think in it and write in it, and this offers that opportunity."

It's all part of a greater plan, Amedie said, allowing him to go back to his home country and do good.

"In the long run I want to go back to Ethiopia and help people because we need it," he said. "I might wait for college because I haven't really decided what I want to do, and in order to do that I have to know the language; I have to speak it well. I have to know the language to communicate well."