CMI vs YY for PK3?
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Anonymous
That's all good stuff, but it's not 'simple' to add a language-dominant lottery in DC. It's not a preference a DC charter can offer. YY has lobbied for it. LAMB did it for years, but was busted, and no longer does it (with resulting change in demographics). It doesn't seem to be a preference the charter board is willing to consider...perhaps if all the immersion charter schools banded together, with stats from other districts that allow this, they might have a chance. |
Anonymous
My kid doesn't go to YY and could speak that much Mandarin. |
Anonymous
Just to follow your posts a minute, you live in the US, went to visit China, got pushed and think all Chinese people are rude. Um. Ok. |
Anonymous
He can say what he wants in Chinese, too. He just hates talking to adults and sounds stilted and strange in any language. He is awkward, and so was his host brother who came from China to visit us. I'm happy that my son and his host brother are learning, even if they are both awkward and weird. I don't judge people's children who don't play competitive level sports like mine do, or play instruments, or aren't handsome, or whatever other measurements people have in their heads. Live and let live. |
Anonymous
I live in the U.S. and I have traveled to China for (mostly) work and vacation many times (well over two dozen trips). Based on your comment, you have never traveled to China. Um...Ok. |
Anonymous
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That's all good stuff, but it's not 'simple' to add a language-dominant lottery in DC. It's not a preference a DC charter can offer. YY has lobbied for it. LAMB did it for years, but was busted, and no longer does it (with resulting change in demographics). It doesn't seem to be a preference the charter board is willing to consider...perhaps if all the immersion charter schools banded together, with stats from other districts that allow this, they might have a chance.
I didn't say it would be simple, not after many years living in DC, but I'm not clear why DCPC keeps blocking a development running contrary to best practices on an epic scale. Even turgid, barely competent DCPS embraces, celebrates and builds dual immersion programs. If they want to recruit low SES Chinese speakers, they're there for the taking in the fast food community around town. I'm not abandoning hope that the schools will do the research and band together eventually. It's funny, YY parents fend off native speakers on these threads, rather than seeing them as a resource to harness out of self interest. By contrast, when YY parents hear my kids speaking Chinese around the neighborhood (too often bickering, bragging, whining or complaining), they often want to engage. They ask for tips on how to get their own kids to speak like that. I tell them my children's Chinese is just average for students in our heritage school. We like talking to YY families. Too bad that DCUM often brings out the worst in parents. |
Anonymous
Not buying it, unless you've been hosting Chinese-speaking au pairs since before the boy learned to walk. I've volunteered at YY. I could hardly find a fully bilingual kid there of any age, among scores. I'm not judging anyone's children, it's the model that's flawed. |
Anonymous
2 whole dozen trips? Wow. You sound like an expert. I love how people are making assumptions of a population of 1.3 billion. There are so many ethnicities and cultures. But yeah, you went for work to a major city and saw the summer palace so you can speak about the entire country. Please. |
Anonymous
You sound like someone who has no idea that opinions are largely informed by experience. You also sound like you don't travel much. Bless your heart. |
Anonymous
you realize you are arguing with multiple people right? |
Anonymous
I'm so sorry for your troubles. Please note that YOUR troubles are not mine. Your troubles likely only represent you. Perhaps they are similar to a subset of other people's troubles, but proselytizing for converts just plain odd. In other words, stop being so gobsmacked that people are happy that their kids know some Chinese. Geez. You don't OWN the language. We can play, too. |
Anonymous
Stokes has summer camp too |
Anonymous
| Languages are for communicating. My sister learned Mandarin after college and now runs a business serving Chinese people (in Mandarin). I learned Spanish, Portuguese and another little known language after college. I speak Spanish fluently and use all for work regularly. Isn't it enough to give the kids a good base so they can pursue Mandarin more if they want to? It's not over at 5th grade people. |
Anonymous
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Why not just work hard to teach the kids to speak decent kid Mandarin when they're little, a time when they can learn relatively easily, without having to pay for classes or struggling to find time to study? Yes, there are Americans who learn languages well as adults; most don't.
The YY parents forking out 15-18K a year to host au pairs on J-1 visas, around 10% of the families, understand that there's no time like the present for the kids to learn to communicate well in Chinese. They've quietly built a network for sharing information on how make hosting au pairs work. One mom figured out that Go Au Pair, an agency in Utah, has a big pool of Mandarin speakers ready to roll, with a Mainland partner agency doing a good prepping candidates for visa interviews. Chinese au pair applicants get turned down for J-1 visas at a higher rate than most others, so the visa prep was key. Her discovery, and willingness to spread the word, has helped increase the number of YY families w/au pairs steadily over time. YY au pairs hang out a lot together, and families work to keep strong ones happy, partly so they'll extend for a 2nd year. Families have learned how to sponsor au pairs for student visas, so they can stay longer than 2 years. There are now YY/DCI families who've kept the same strong au pair for 3,4 even 5 years. You can call it Tiger parenting to push hard on building the Chinese communication skills of ES-age kids, or you can call it fun and practical in the century of the rising China. It really is worth visiting a dual-immersion Mandarin program if you can swing it - what an eye opener. |
Anonymous
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7:02 is the perfect example of those wild-eyed panicky parents who got wasted on the KoolAid.
23:11's experience is a happy and much, much, much more dominant one -- without all the panicked, frothing angst. |