Immersion school parents

[Anonymous]

I am having some struggles understanding the culture around the immersion school my kids go to.

It seems that so many families don't care and don't even try to speak the immersion language. I get that they may never speak it, but is it hard to at least try to seem interested?

At a recent 1st grader's birthday party, the parents didn't even know the happy birthday song in that language. After 4 years of their kid immersed in that language??

I just don't get it. Can anyone explain to me?

It seems such a waste to have kids in an immersion school if the parents aren't supporting/encouraging it

Rant over.

[Anonymous]

They're doing it because it's the best school they got into overall. Or, one parent handles the language stuff but that parent was not at the party.

Some people have more important things going on in their lives, like actual serious problems that are more important.

If you need all parents at your school to be motivated, you're going to be very unhappy in this school system.

[Anonymous]

Younger children learn new languages more easily than adults. I would not assume they do not value the immersion experience because they themselves do not have any cultural ties to the language or do anything much to support the language outside of school.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, my kids go to an immersion private school and I would be doing them more harm than good trying to learn the language and use the same language at home to support them. I tried in the beginning but they are just leaps and bounds ahead of my ability to learn the it and my pronunciation and grammar are laughable compared to where they are in their ability to speak/read/write that second language. Unfortunately I missed the boat to fluently learn a second language, but my kids will be bilingual and that is what matters to me. They have plenty of ways to use and practice the language outside of school without my help.

[Anonymous]

Many parents are not good at other languages and are embarrassed to be bad at them.

Some do not see the school’s mission as theirs to implement. It is something that their child is doing, not them.

[Anonymous]

I find it confusing that you would presume to know whether the parents did or did not speak the language outside the party. Maybe they speak the immersion language at home and chose not to speak it at the party for whatever reason. For all you know they speak five different languages at home. You have no idea. Stop worrying so much about other people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, my kids go to an immersion private school and I would be doing them more harm than good trying to learn the language and use the same language at home to support them. I tried in the beginning but they are just leaps and bounds ahead of my ability to learn the it and my pronunciation and grammar are laughable compared to where they are in their ability to speak/read/write that second language. Unfortunately I missed the boat to fluently learn a second language, but my kids will be bilingual and that is what matters to me. They have plenty of ways to use and practice the language outside of school without my help.

OP here. Okay. I guess I must have different relationships with my kids. I want to know what they're learning, and they seem to have a fun time and take pride in trying to teach and correct me in my efforts. I guess I would feel pretty disappointed if (at least at this young age, preK3-2nd grade), I couldn't at least get a basic understanding of what they're learning in school. It seems a lot of parents don't really care about that.

[Anonymous]

Did you start this thread just to talk about how you're a much better parent, then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, my kids go to an immersion private school and I would be doing them more harm than good trying to learn the language and use the same language at home to support them. I tried in the beginning but they are just leaps and bounds ahead of my ability to learn the it and my pronunciation and grammar are laughable compared to where they are in their ability to speak/read/write that second language. Unfortunately I missed the boat to fluently learn a second language, but my kids will be bilingual and that is what matters to me. They have plenty of ways to use and practice the language outside of school without my help.

OP here. Okay. I guess I must have different relationships with my kids. I want to know what they're learning, and they seem to have a fun time and take pride in trying to teach and correct me in my efforts. I guess I would feel pretty disappointed if (at least at this young age, preK3-2nd grade), I couldn't at least get a basic understanding of what they're learning in school. It seems a lot of parents don't really care about that.

Are you waiting for a parade or something? I guess you must just care more than everyone. You must just be the only parent who gaf about their kid's education, because you stumbled through cumpleanos feliz with the first graders. What an icon, what an inspiration!

[Anonymous]

Oh, are we ranting about immersion in DC? Cool, here's mine:

It annoys me that immersion spots are awarded based on the lottery with no effort to show whether parents will be committed to the immersion aspect, which means that my tax dollars in DC go to provide immersion education to the kids of parents who DGAF about it and make no effort, while my kid was locked out of immersion programs due to bad lottery luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it confusing that you would presume to know whether the parents did or did not speak the language outside the party. Maybe they speak the immersion language at home and chose not to speak it at the party for whatever reason. For all you know they speak five different languages at home. You have no idea. Stop worrying so much about other people.

There are absolutely people in the class who speak the immersion language fluently, and at least 2 other families I know who speak 2-3 languages in their family.
But at the birthday party, several of the parents made it clear they don't know any of the language and never learned happy birthday. I started to wonder if this is the culture, I don't like it and I don't understand it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, my kids go to an immersion private school and I would be doing them more harm than good trying to learn the language and use the same language at home to support them. I tried in the beginning but they are just leaps and bounds ahead of my ability to learn the it and my pronunciation and grammar are laughable compared to where they are in their ability to speak/read/write that second language. Unfortunately I missed the boat to fluently learn a second language, but my kids will be bilingual and that is what matters to me. They have plenty of ways to use and practice the language outside of school without my help.

OP here. Okay. I guess I must have different relationships with my kids. I want to know what they're learning, and they seem to have a fun time and take pride in trying to teach and correct me in my efforts. I guess I would feel pretty disappointed if (at least at this young age, preK3-2nd grade), I couldn't at least get a basic understanding of what they're learning in school. It seems a lot of parents don't really care about that.

Different strokes. Your parenting style is good for you. You don't need to criticize others' in order to feel better about yourself and your kids. Not sure why you "are struggling" to understand this. Seems like a veiled humble brag. Find something to do that can help build your inner self confidence. If that is learning a new language, so be it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, are we ranting about immersion in DC? Cool, here's mine:

It annoys me that immersion spots are awarded based on the lottery with no effort to show whether parents will be committed to the immersion aspect, which means that my tax dollars in DC go to provide immersion education to the kids of parents who DGAF about it and make no effort, while my kid was locked out of immersion programs due to bad lottery luck.

OP here. I hear you!!! This is part of my rant!!! Why are people putting their kids in an immersion school and not even encouraging their child to speak the language? There are classmates in 2nd grade who literally never speak the language! The teachers don't "push" them to speak so they stumble through, and without parents encouraging them to learn and try, it just seems.... Such a wasted opportunity. I absolutely would be supportive of the immersion schools to provide some weight to families who actually want to learn the language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, my kids go to an immersion private school and I would be doing them more harm than good trying to learn the language and use the same language at home to support them. I tried in the beginning but they are just leaps and bounds ahead of my ability to learn the it and my pronunciation and grammar are laughable compared to where they are in their ability to speak/read/write that second language. Unfortunately I missed the boat to fluently learn a second language, but my kids will be bilingual and that is what matters to me. They have plenty of ways to use and practice the language outside of school without my help.

OP here. Okay. I guess I must have different relationships with my kids. I want to know what they're learning, and they seem to have a fun time and take pride in trying to teach and correct me in my efforts. I guess I would feel pretty disappointed if (at least at this young age, preK3-2nd grade), I couldn't at least get a basic understanding of what they're learning in school. It seems a lot of parents don't really care about that.

Different strokes. Your parenting style is good for you. You don't need to criticize others' in order to feel better about yourself and your kids. Not sure why you "are struggling" to understand this. Seems like a veiled humble brag. Find something to do that can help build your inner self confidence. If that is learning a new language, so be it.

OP here. Honestly, I am more worried about the culture, like, is it worth it to be at this school. This isn't a humble brag. I'm honestly worried about the culture and fitting in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, my kids go to an immersion private school and I would be doing them more harm than good trying to learn the language and use the same language at home to support them. I tried in the beginning but they are just leaps and bounds ahead of my ability to learn the it and my pronunciation and grammar are laughable compared to where they are in their ability to speak/read/write that second language. Unfortunately I missed the boat to fluently learn a second language, but my kids will be bilingual and that is what matters to me. They have plenty of ways to use and practice the language outside of school without my help.

OP here. Okay. I guess I must have different relationships with my kids. I want to know what they're learning, and they seem to have a fun time and take pride in trying to teach and correct me in my efforts. I guess I would feel pretty disappointed if (at least at this young age, preK3-2nd grade), I couldn't at least get a basic understanding of what they're learning in school. It seems a lot of parents don't really care about that.

My kids are annoyed at my non-native pronunciation and get frustrated because I am not fluent like their teachers and classmates. They don't need me to help them - they are quite independent and self sufficient. I know plenty about what they are learning at school and I'm proud that they can run circles around me in this language and don't need my help. I have a different approach; I want them to be independent. I don't need to be intricately involved in their language learning. They've got this!