Chinese Immersion school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not in every case. There are dozens of Chinese-speaking families (American born and foreign) scattered amongst DCPS elementary schools, generally in Upper NW. There are also small Chinese-speaking communities in the VA burbs. They tend to shoot for TJ.

Actually there are quite a few (more than dozens) at Thomson and Seaton, which are not upper NW schools.

[Anonymous]

Curious about the Yu Ying students and wonder if they've taken the YCT tests yet?

http://english.hanban.org/node_8001.htm

I get that standardized tests aren't the be all and end all, but it seems that these could serve as a pretty good gauge of the quality of the Mandarin instruction and learning that goes on at Yu Ying.

I do understand that Yu Ying has created their own testing material, but what I'm hearing here is the ability of students to speak and write Mandarin is weak. I can't imagine waiting until they've graduated with (or apparently without) an IB diploma to find out that Yu Ying students don't really have the ability to communicate in a language they've studied for 14 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree. I think Yu Ying is a fabulous school, but I think the whole learn Chinese thing is a fad. Weren't kids desperate to learn Japanese before that? And then Russian? I think it is great if you learn any foreign language, but this obsession with dialects is laughably pathetic.

Hit send too fast. So my point is that the Chinese these kids are learning is more of a "expand your mind" and "choose to learn more" if needed. It is clear they are actually learning Chinese (not like whatever it is that they so at CMI), but I think obsessing over dialects and accents is a waste of time. If you want to speak with a perfect shanghainese accent, that's great! However only your Chinese grandma will care.

We're very happy with the Chinese at YY, but it's sort of the icing on the cake. Have you seen the school - the actual, beautiful old brick building that was built for monks and has a nature center with outdoor classrooms in the trees? Not even Sidwell looks this good. And the student body is almost entirely higher SES. The test scores are great, but they're not focused on testing because of the IB curriculum. It's like a free private school in the middle of DC.

"And the student body is almost entirely higher SES."

Should YY be proud of that as a PUBLIC charter school in DC?

If Janney, Key, Lafayette, and Mann/Murch (JKLM) are proud of that (which they are), then why shouldn't Yu Ying be as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in every case. There are dozens of Chinese-speaking families (American born and foreign) scattered amongst DCPS elementary schools, generally in Upper NW. There are also small Chinese-speaking communities in the VA burbs. They tend to shoot for TJ.

Actually there are quite a few (more than dozens) at Thomson and Seaton, which are not upper NW schools.

Those schools are both Title I. If OP is looking for a high SES cohort for her DC, she won't find it there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree. I think Yu Ying is a fabulous school, but I think the whole learn Chinese thing is a fad. Weren't kids desperate to learn Japanese before that? And then Russian? I think it is great if you learn any foreign language, but this obsession with dialects is laughably pathetic.

Hit send too fast. So my point is that the Chinese these kids are learning is more of a "expand your mind" and "choose to learn more" if needed. It is clear they are actually learning Chinese (not like whatever it is that they so at CMI), but I think obsessing over dialects and accents is a waste of time. If you want to speak with a perfect shanghainese accent, that's great! However only your Chinese grandma will care.

We're very happy with the Chinese at YY, but it's sort of the icing on the cake. Have you seen the school - the actual, beautiful old brick building that was built for monks and has a nature center with outdoor classrooms in the trees? Not even Sidwell looks this good. And the student body is almost entirely higher SES. The test scores are great, but they're not focused on testing because of the IB curriculum. It's like a free private school in the middle of DC.

"And the student body is almost entirely higher SES."

Should YY be proud of that as a PUBLIC charter school in DC?

If Janney, Key, Lafayette, and Mann/Murch (JKLM) are proud of that (which they are), then why shouldn't Yu Ying be as well?

I don't know if those schools are proud of that fact, but JKLM are high SES by virtue of their IB population. YY is supposed to be a city-wide school, which should reflect the diversity of the district as a whole.

[Anonymous]

YY has wonderful racial diversity but it's true that the % FARMS has been declining for years. I think it's impossible for a single charter school to be all things to all people (language, high test scores, racial diversity, economic diversity, facilities, aftercare, engaged parent community, competent administration, excellent communication, excellent special needs, and so on).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree. I think Yu Ying is a fabulous school, but I think the whole learn Chinese thing is a fad. Weren't kids desperate to learn Japanese before that? And then Russian? I think it is great if you learn any foreign language, but this obsession with dialects is laughably pathetic.

Hit send too fast. So my point is that the Chinese these kids are learning is more of a "expand your mind" and "choose to learn more" if needed. It is clear they are actually learning Chinese (not like whatever it is that they so at CMI), but I think obsessing over dialects and accents is a waste of time. If you want to speak with a perfect shanghainese accent, that's great! However only your Chinese grandma will care.

We're very happy with the Chinese at YY, but it's sort of the icing on the cake. Have you seen the school - the actual, beautiful old brick building that was built for monks and has a nature center with outdoor classrooms in the trees? Not even Sidwell looks this good. And the student body is almost entirely higher SES. The test scores are great, but they're not focused on testing because of the IB curriculum. It's like a free private school in the middle of DC.

"And the student body is almost entirely higher SES."

Should YY be proud of that as a PUBLIC charter school in DC?

If Janney, Key, Lafayette, and Mann/Murch (JKLM) are proud of that (which they are), then why shouldn't Yu Ying be as well?

I don't know if those schools are proud of that fact, but JKLM are high SES by virtue of their IB population. YY is supposed to be a city-wide school, which should reflect the diversity of the district as a whole.

It's based on the lottery. Depends on who applies. It is a lot of work to support Chinese at home for non-Chinese speaking households. That may turn some off.

Anyway I did not see YY saying they were proud of that, only that a poster had liked that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree. I think Yu Ying is a fabulous school, but I think the whole learn Chinese thing is a fad. Weren't kids desperate to learn Japanese before that? And then Russian? I think it is great if you learn any foreign language, but this obsession with dialects is laughably pathetic.

Hit send too fast. So my point is that the Chinese these kids are learning is more of a "expand your mind" and "choose to learn more" if needed. It is clear they are actually learning Chinese (not like whatever it is that they so at CMI), but I think obsessing over dialects and accents is a waste of time. If you want to speak with a perfect shanghainese accent, that's great! However only your Chinese grandma will care.

We're very happy with the Chinese at YY, but it's sort of the icing on the cake. Have you seen the school - the actual, beautiful old brick building that was built for monks and has a nature center with outdoor classrooms in the trees? Not even Sidwell looks this good. And the student body is almost entirely higher SES. The test scores are great, but they're not focused on testing because of the IB curriculum. It's like a free private school in the middle of DC.

"And the student body is almost entirely higher SES."

Should YY be proud of that as a PUBLIC charter school in DC?

If Janney, Key, Lafayette, and Mann/Murch (JKLM) are proud of that (which they are), then why shouldn't Yu Ying be as well?

I don't know if those schools are proud of that fact, but JKLM are high SES by virtue of their IB population. YY is supposed to be a city-wide school, which should reflect the diversity of the district as a whole.

It's based on the lottery. Depends on who applies. It is a lot of work to support Chinese at home for non-Chinese speaking households. That may turn some off.

Anyway I did not see YY saying they were proud of that, only that a poster had liked that.

It's possible for a school to have one position and its community to have one or more different positions.

Personally, I'm becoming exasperated by the recent spike in crime, and I'd like to limit my child's exposure to undesirable elements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you don't understand the difference between accent and dialect in Chinese, or the relationship between dialects (explaining why Mainland Chinese easily transition from a dialect to standard Mandarin in kindergarten, or maybe first grade).

I expect a change in policy, at least in regards to YY replacing drop-outs with native speakers (as MoCo does), after several years of DCI International Baccalaureate Diploma Chinese examination results have been released. The central IBD Office reports school scores, like states report PARCC scores. The DCPC Board members don't seem to understand (or care?) that the current commitment to one-way immersion does not support strong preparation for students on the DCI Mandarin track, particularly low SES students, enabling them to go on to earn not just the standard IB Diploma, but the more prestigious Bilingual IB Diploma. YY's leadership already gets it. Those interested in the problem will have to wait least seven or eight years for the change. End of story.

Sounds like you don't understand how the Charter system works. As has been explained to you over and over, you cannot differentiate based on language ability when it comes to admission. DCPS is allowed to do it, but it would take an actual act of Congress to change this for the charters. If you're interested in DC, enter the lottery.

As someone who used to work on Wall St, I don't see the point of obsessing over different dialects of Chinese. If you want a native-level Chinese speaker, people straight out of China or Chinese graduates from American universities. No one cares that your American kid's chinese is great because you can always be assured that an actual chinese resident will speak better chinese and probably work harder. I think that Yu Ying is just a great school and I'm happy for those that made that choice and want to expand their minds and learn about an interesting culture and language. Trashing it because the "Chinese is not rigorous enough" is laughable. No one will care about their Chinese ability when they're older, except you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you don't understand the difference between accent and dialect in Chinese, or the relationship between dialects (explaining why Mainland Chinese easily transition from a dialect to standard Mandarin in kindergarten, or maybe first grade).

I expect a change in policy, at least in regards to YY replacing drop-outs with native speakers (as MoCo does), after several years of DCI International Baccalaureate Diploma Chinese examination results have been released. The central IBD Office reports school scores, like states report PARCC scores. The DCPC Board members don't seem to understand (or care?) that the current commitment to one-way immersion does not support strong preparation for students on the DCI Mandarin track, particularly low SES students, enabling them to go on to earn not just the standard IB Diploma, but the more prestigious Bilingual IB Diploma. YY's leadership already gets it. Those interested in the problem will have to wait least seven or eight years for the change. End of story.

Sounds like you don't understand how the Charter system works. As has been explained to you over and over, you cannot differentiate based on language ability when it comes to admission. DCPS is allowed to do it, but it would take an actual act of Congress to change this for the charters. If you're interested in DC, enter the lottery.

As someone who used to work on Wall St, I don't see the point of obsessing over different dialects of Chinese. If you want a native-level Chinese speaker, people straight out of China or Chinese graduates from American universities [b]are preferred over a Chinese speaking American. No one cares that your American kid's chinese is great because you can always be assured that an actual chinese resident will speak better chinese and probably work harder. I think that Yu Ying is just a great school and I'm happy for those that made that choice and want to expand their minds and learn about an interesting culture and language. Trashing it because the "Chinese is not rigorous enough" is laughable. No one will care about their Chinese ability when they're older, except you.

Added sentence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious whether the people who think learning Chinese is a fad are multilingual. I speak 5 languages plus a bit of a 6th, and none of my decisions to learn them were driven by what I perceived to be popular or by other people's opinions. Two were learned for work, one because it happens to be my heritage language and my older siblings speak it, and one because my fiancé speaks it.

The snarky pat of me thinks that this "fad" talk is defensiveness by monolingual people, but I have no basis for that. So fad people - how many languages do you speak?

I speak five languages, my children only speak three. My husband and I send our children to an immersion charter and a heritage school (not Chinese) on the weekend. Most educated people I know think Chinese is a total fad. Sorry Heritage Dad. I'm sure grandma will be impressed with your children's accents, but no one else is going to care.

By the way, if people are looking for a fantastic Chinese speaker of whatever dialect, there are literally millions of Chinese native speakers who speak perfect English and are happy to come here for much less money than Americans would want. Most of them are educated in American or European colleges too. So really, it makes no sense if you're trying to be competitive in the marketplace.

Hope grandma is happy.

I'm PP who asked about the "fad" comment. I'm not heritage dad.

I don't agree with the bolded point above -- I've hired at least a half dozen native Chinese speakers who were graduates of prestigious US schools for roles where Chinese and English language skills were important (in marketing and in software development). To be honest, it was a pretty hit or miss process. I was much more impressed with a US-born consultant who had attended school in China and learned Chinese there. My direct personal experience was that this US-born Asian-Americans who really deeply got US culture and was reasonably fluent in Chinese (and also spoke Japanese) did EXTREMELY well --- moving up rapidly through the ranks of the global manufacturing company where I was working and then going out on his own as a consultant and coming back at a much higher pay rate. His expertise was more in logistics and management, but several times I was able to get a one sentence email from him as a favor that cleared up a question that had our Chinese native speaker translators and communications people (for whom English was a second language) deeply puzzled. I know that he was able to do the same thing on a daily basis for logistics and engineering groups in situations where the US and Shanghai teams were talking past each other, and it was that ability that really made him in demand as a consultant.

[Anonymous]

To the PP convinced that the DC Public Charter Charter Board, along with YY and DCI parents and admins, will sit up and notice eventually when the DCI seniors don't ace IBD Chinese exams, ha. Forget it. This isn't MOCO. Those responsible will declare victory regardless.

Banneker's IBD scores have been really low since the 1990s and nobody cares. What will happen is that affluent DCI parents who are serious about kids scoring high on the tests will find pricey ways to supplement, with summer immersion camps etc. The difference between IB Standard Level and Higher Level, and Standard Diploma versus Bilingual Diploma will be lost on the rest. DCI won't even require all students to take the full IBD, which although this happens at suburban programs in this metro area (Rockville HS, Washington-Lee, Bethesda Chevy-Chase, Albert Einstein in Wheaton etc.).

[Anonymous]

suburban International Baccalaureate Diploma programs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the PP convinced that the DC Public Charter Charter Board, along with YY and DCI parents and admins, will sit up and notice eventually when the DCI seniors don't ace IBD Chinese exams, ha. Forget it. This isn't MOCO. Those responsible will declare victory regardless.

Banneker's IBD scores have been really low since the 1990s and nobody cares. What will happen is that affluent DCI parents who are serious about kids scoring high on the tests will find pricey ways to supplement, with summer immersion camps etc. The difference between IB Standard Level and Higher Level, and Standard Diploma versus Bilingual Diploma will be lost on the rest. DCI won't even require all students to take the full IBD, which although this happens at suburban programs in this metro area (Rockville HS, Washington-Lee, Bethesda Chevy-Chase, Albert Einstein in Wheaton etc.).

Agree with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the PP convinced that the DC Public Charter Charter Board, along with YY and DCI parents and admins, will sit up and notice eventually when the DCI seniors don't ace IBD Chinese exams, ha. Forget it. This isn't MOCO. Those responsible will declare victory regardless.

Banneker's IBD scores have been really low since the 1990s and nobody cares. What will happen is that affluent DCI parents who are serious about kids scoring high on the tests will find pricey ways to supplement, with summer immersion camps etc. The difference between IB Standard Level and Higher Level, and Standard Diploma versus Bilingual Diploma will be lost on the rest. DCI won't even require all students to take the full IBD, which although this happens at suburban programs in this metro area (Rockville HS, Washington-Lee, Bethesda Chevy-Chase, Albert Einstein in Wheaton etc.).

Actual Ib graduate here- the PP above "Heritage Dad"- has no clue what he's talking about. Students are required to take 3 higher level subjects and the remaining subsidiary subjects for the IB diploma. You don't get a "higher level" diploma.

Just ignore him. He must be so pathetic and sad if he spends all his time trashing a DC school when he's stuck out in MoCo.