Sp or Ch language?

[Anonymous]

Do what you think is best for your kid, but for the love of God, stop thrashing a school in which you have little to nil knowledge. For, other people are trying to do what they think is best for their child by enrolling said child at YY

Stop thrashing? 1st time I've posted on a YY thread. Before stumbling across other impressions of the principal, I thought, hmm, maybe she was just having a bad day when she went off at me for addressing her in Mandarin. Draw your own conclusions but there are probably more ethnic Chinese floating around DC than you think; 5,000+ of us according to the 2010 census.

[Anonymous]

Stop quibbling about obvious typos and move on. YY isn't the school for your child obviously for all the reasons you keep complaining about. You have no ties to the school other than complaining about not getting preferential treatment due to your ethnic heritage - which the school has shown no intention of changing. MOVE ON and give constructive comments to the school your DC actually will attend. That school may actually care about your opinion.

[Anonymous]

So please move to the 'burbs and/or get "your kid to heritage Chinese lessons" and immersion school there. Your attitude is precisely why we would never dream of send our non ethnic Chinese kid to a heritage Chinese school even though we want them to learn Chinese. Snotty, exclusive and non-diverse racially with an attitude about being ABCs - not exactly welcoming to others.

Yu Ying is VERY diverse and accepting of differences: the only commonality being the kids are there to learn Mandarin. You and your family won't fit in.

New poster here, also ethnic Chinese. The thing of it is, Chinese culture isn't diverse or very accepting of differences, helping explain why few of us ABCs are dying to live in China, whatever fabulous career opportunities we might have there. If this bothers you, it might be worth asking why you're exposing your kid not only to Mandarin, but to a culture that isn't known for openess. Case in point: when I brought home a black boyfriend in college, my entire extended family hit the roof; the members would hardly speak to me for months. And when I hinted to my mom that my partner and I might adopt from Ethiopia, similar reaction. My read on the other ethnic Chinese posters is they're saying that it's a culture you might want to take warts and all, or not take. If your kids continue learning Mandarin, in China, down the road won't they be in for a shock at how unwelcoming to others Chinese culture can feel, particularly if the others are black? At least the Spanish immersion programs aren't teaching Spanish mainly to white and black kids, they've truly got a mix.

[Anonymous]

Bizarro.

[Anonymous]

I'm from Asia so I'm very familiar with how insular and prejudiced it can be. In my country, we are very homogeneous racially, unlike China, but we still manage to be tribal by region, city and accent, down to which university and high school and even elementary school one attended. Will not matter if you are born, raised and speak the language - even monolingually: once a foreigner, always a foreigner. Unfortunately a common theme in many Asian countries with a culture of ancestor worship. Difficult for Americans to comprehend if at all. And in my opinion, acceptance of anyone as an American is what makes this country great.

As another pp pointed out, YY is a Chinese school in the US and not in China so it's nice that it's run like one. We want DC to learn Mandarin for the same reason it's so popular in Asia. It's business. No illusion whatsoever that he will be viewed as anything but a foreigner even with a perfect Shanghai accent.

[Anonymous]

Excuse me, Ms. Thiang!

Spanish is enjoyed by human beings of many racial genes and so, increasingly is Mandarin.

[Anonymous]

Difficult for Americans to comprehend if at all. And in my opinion, acceptance of anyone as an American is what makes this country great.


Right on!

[Anonymous]

I'm not ethnic Chinese, but my Mandarin-speaking child was turned away in the YY lottery. I see those advocating for more BILINGUAL kids to be admitted being called names on this thread and cringe.

My kid learned Mandarin while we lived in China from his birth to age 4. He was cared for by his Mandarin-speaking mom (missionary family w/long history in China), nanny and preschool staff. He still learns Mandarin at home.

At a YY info evening, I asked whoever was running the session the following: If my son didn't get in before whatever the lottery cut-off age they mentioned--I think it was 2nd grade--could he, as a Mandarin speaker, attend later, replacing a kid who'd dropped out? That way, he could stay until 5th and go on to whatever feeder MS developed. I was treated rudely and told ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Is it any wonder that DCUMD posters question the way YY interacts with the bilingual community? Sheesh.

As for racial predujice in Chinese culture, it is odd to Americans, but it's also very much a factor, so no use getting bent out of shape about it. I remember my kid once refusing to eat at an Indian restaurant because "Indians are dirty people," something he learned from Chinese caregivers (commonly held view even in the Chinese diaspora). When I discovered that the YY principal was black I thought, oh right, a practical approach to drawing in the area Chinese community. YY could have done a nation-wide search to find and hire at least one experienced ethnic Chinese administrator. There are school districts in California where half the administrators are Chinese.

[Anonymous]

Before I get pilloried for the above post, I'll add that, at YY, I asked if my kid could take both English & Mandarin placement tests before being admitted. I suggested that, if he wasn't able to perform at whatever the school considered grade level for both languages, he wouldn't be eligibile to attend, so no "preferential treatment" involved in admitting him later to replace a dropout.

I was told that YY would prefer that the school's upper grades population be much smaller than the lower grades than to admit kids like mine to keep numbers up.

[Anonymous]

PP, the reason that a Mandarin-fluent child can't be admitted after 2nd grade is that the school's charter forbids it. DC charter school law forbids making admission contingent on any sort of placement test. I can't imagine this part of the law ever changing.

The line about preferring smaller upper grades sounds like an attempt to put a good spin on an unfortunate constraint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Re MV getting over 1/3 spanish speaking students, I'm amazed and impressed. However, there are 10x as many Hispanics as Chinese in DC so it would be very hard to YY to do likewise. Less than 1% of the DC population is Chinese.

It is hard when YY doesn't try hard. Where’s the outreach? My family frequents venues popular with area E. Asians (certain supermarkets, dim sum places, cultural centers, heritage language schools), as well as reads Chinese newspapers and watches ethnic TV geared to local consumption. YY has little or no presence where the Chinese are. And, yes, having a black principal who doesn’t speak Chinese well certainly doesn't help. Argue that we know "nil" about the school, fine, but we know our culture well enough to get that the make-up of the administration transmits a clear message "school unwilling to meet Chinese community halfway.” The arrangement wouldn’t be objectionable if public monies weren’t behind charters. We aren't involved enough to "hate" YY.

[Anonymous]

Whoa, fire the principal because she's black? I can't imagine a worse lesson for kids (in any language).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not ethnic Chinese, but my Mandarin-speaking child was turned away in the YY lottery. I see those advocating for more BILINGUAL kids to be admitted being called names on this thread and cringe.

My kid learned Mandarin while we lived in China from his birth to age 4. He was cared for by his Mandarin-speaking mom (missionary family w/long history in China), nanny and preschool staff. He still learns Mandarin at home.

At a YY info evening, I asked whoever was running the session the following: If my son didn't get in before whatever the lottery cut-off age they mentioned--I think it was 2nd grade--could he, as a Mandarin speaker, attend later, replacing a kid who'd dropped out? That way, he could stay until 5th and go on to whatever feeder MS developed. I was treated rudely and told ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Is it any wonder that DCUMD posters question the way YY interacts with the bilingual community? Sheesh.

As for racial predujice in Chinese culture, it is odd to Americans, but it's also very much a factor, so no use getting bent out of shape about it. I remember my kid once refusing to eat at an Indian restaurant because "Indians are dirty people," something he learned from Chinese caregivers (commonly held view even in the Chinese diaspora). When I discovered that the YY principal was black I thought, oh right, a practical approach to drawing in the area Chinese community. YY could have done a nation-wide search to find and hire at least one experienced ethnic Chinese administrator. There are school districts in California where half the administrators are Chinese.

1. No one was being mean when you were told "absolutely not". It is a PCSB policy and they won't budge. YY has tried. You seem to be making this a school-level decision when in fact it is not.
2. A national search was done and there were NO qualified Chinese administrators who wanted to take on a brand new charter school in DC.
3. No one in the school believes that their non-Chinese child will be mistaken for a Chinese person or expects their language facility to be viewed as perfect by the Chinese. People in this world do business activities, socialize, and communicate with people from other countries who do not speak their language perfectly. Yet somehow we have global trade and enterprises.
4. Many of our families have lived and traveled in China and elsewhere in China and Asia and not felt or seen the prejudice you discuss. Many natives of these countries are thrilled when our families and kids attempt communication in Chinese. Don't you know that the first step in combating prejudice is to have authentic interactions that dispel stereotypes?
5. Why is it so important to you to portray your own people (and even child!) in such a negative light? Are you the spokesperson for China and the Chinese?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, the reason that a Mandarin-fluent child can't be admitted after 2nd grade is that the school's charter forbids it. DC charter school law forbids making admission contingent on any sort of placement test. I can't imagine this part of the law ever changing.

The line about preferring smaller upper grades sounds like an attempt to put a good spin on an unfortunate constraint.

So how was my daughter able to lottery into Washington Latin for 7th grade, without having studied Latin before? She was put in "catch up" Latin classes there so she could join the rest of her grade in standard classes eventually (as almost all the other kids had started Latin in 5th). I can't see the DC Charter Board having a problem with kid coming into YY through a "replacement lottery," like the one Latin runs for grades above 5th. YY might have a problem with this, but the DC Charter Board? The PP wasn't asking for a special "placement," he was asking for an appropriate education for his child, like ours gets at Latin.

[Anonymous]

Many of our families have lived and traveled in China and elsewhere in China and Asia and not felt or seen the prejudice you discuss.

Then they didn't get too far inside Chinese culture. I often take on Old Country relatives when they put down AAs, Indians etc. Such prejudice is standard among members of the older generation - maybe you need to speak a dialect to know how pervasive it is. YY's principal is the butt of jokes in MoCo which I don't like, but there you go.

I know 30-something, Mandarin-speaking ABC PS administrators in NYC who say they would've been thrilled to take on YY if they'd been made aware that an admin position was open there. Installing this principal wasn't the brightest move - it has hurt outreach efforts. But then the District Chinese community is indeed very small, and DC charter and the YY PA do what they like.