Chinese school / extra-curricular activities for high schoolers (beginner-level)
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Anonymous
| DD took Chinese 1 and 2 at school and really enjoy learning it. She'll take Chinese 3 next year. My husband and I don't speak Chinese but we want to support her interest. Which weekend Chinese schools or after-school activities are appropriate for a high school student? She wants to practice Chinese outside school (summer and weekends). TIA. |
Anonymous
| Is she Chinese? Most are run through churches for Chinese families. |
Anonymous
This. The Chinese schools are run for Chinese families. |
Anonymous
| No, weekend Chinese school has Chinese for foreigner classes. Search “hope Chinese school (several campuses to choose)”, or “American Chinese school” at Rich Montgomery. They all have these types of class. In addition, they also provide calligraphy class, traditional Chinese dancing class that your high schooler might be interested to take. |
Anonymous
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She could also work with a tutor and/or loon for meetup groups to practice. My nerd dad does both because learning mandarin is one of his retirement hobbies.
I think he meets with his zoom tutor weekly or biweekly and then practices all the time between meetings He also watches lots of Chinese movies and shows. |
Anonymous
| There are quite a few Chinese schools in the area, but they usually follow the school calendar. I'm not sure if high school is too late to start though. I would check out Rockville Chinese School. When my daughter went, there were kids of different backgrounds there. I heard Li-Ming Academy has a lottery. I wouldn't attend Hope Chinese School though. It isn't bad, but all of the communication is in Chinese, even for parents. |
Anonymous
| There are always a few non-Chinese kids and many 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 Chinese kids at these schools. Your child will fit in fine. |
Anonymous
Some are, but not all of them. Some have adult classes, some have classes for children of Chinese descent who are being raised in Anglophone households, and some are basically PRC soft power along the lines of the Goethe-Institut or La Maison Francaise. |
Anonymous
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I have a first generation African child that fell in love with the language. She attends a Chinese weekend school at her friend's church in Howard County. They love her and she fits right in. Don't listen to the rude parent above. She is even in China for the summer program with her friend. Depending on where you reside, there are options to take her. But like one parent said above most run with the school year schedule.
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Anonymous
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OP, try https://wdcts.org
They have classes for kids starting at beginner level. The community is very friendly and welcoming, communication is in English and Chinese, and there are non-Chinese kids who attend. |
Anonymous
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OP, you're in luck because I have been researching Chinese school options for my kids. I think your best bet if to find an adult class. Here is one based in Wootton HS: https://www.wsclc.org/classes. Others offer bilingual classes but I think that will be tough for your child because most kids start at K/1st grade so by HS they are probably more advanced. The advantage of joining a Chinese school is that it opens up a lot of cultural activities your child could join because most of these classes have cultural classes and performances galore.
Another option, if your child is mostly interested in the language, is to do online classes from native Chinese speakers. I haven't researched this much but I know they are popular and know of many friends who do this for their kids. The sessions are super cheap (one friend pays $9 for half an hour!, another pays maybe $20/hour), so you could just use it to advance the language more. Good luck and hope your daughter keeps on learning! |
Anonymous
| PP, adding that if she wants to do a non-adult class, it's probably also possible. I don't know how advanced Chinese 3 is, but you would need to call around some schools and get a sense of how intense their curriculum is. The Wootton curriculum is probably on a lower level (they list the text as "Mei Zhou Hua Yu"). Some schools do the Ma Liping curriculum, which is going to be the hardest and you want to avoid that. Avoid Hope Chinese school and Li Ming because they are known to be intense. You also need to consider if the school teaches simplified or trad (I assume your DD is learning simplified). I personally don't think it's a huge deal, esp if you want to focus on comprehension, but may be a deal breaker for some. Sorry if this made it more confusing. My recommendation is to look at WSCLC, followed by American Chinese School, Rockville Chinese School, and Kuangchi (https://ourladyofchina.net/kuangchi). |
Anonymous
| Would recommend hope Chinese school! Majority families are Chinese but all the kids speak English as well. They have lots of varying levels, and she can just start at the very beginning classes. Best way to learn is to fully immerse! As the parent, just get the Google translate app. You can take a picture of communications and get it translated if needed. |
Anonymous
| To the PPs who posted about WSCLC (or others with experience), how rigorous is the program? Is it commensurate with those of RCS, Hope, and others that involve a lot of homework and parental support (at least for the younger kids who need more help getting through the workload)? |
Anonymous
My impression is no. I attended WSCLC obviously many years ago, specifically because it was more laid back than others. I recently contacted them for my own kid and they only have one class per grade, so that makes me feel like it won't be too rigorous. And for comparison, they are using the same textbook for that one grade that American Chinese School is using for their bilingual class. |