Yu Ying

[Anonymous]

Hello, there's more than one native speaker who's down on YY on these threads.

Sorry, not buying that there are several fully bilingual families behind your kid's class at YY.

What we observed is that there are far more bilingual Chinese-speaking parents involved than kids. When we were enrolled in 2015, admins told us that there were at least two dozen fully bilingual kids in the school. No way, almost all of these kids only spoke a little of the family's dialect, and maybe some Mandarin. The Chinese taught was a joke to our children.

Over the years, I've observed that DC parents whose kids speak Chinese almost never go for YY. Not that the situation is of concern to the parents they get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We got in to Yu Ying and I am nervous - never actually thought we would get in. I am bad at languages. If my kid struggles what happens? What if your kid is at an immersion school and ends up sucking at learning a foreign language? You either continue through with bad grades or go back to general lottery? I could really use some advice.

My best advice is stay out of DCUM forums centering on Washington Yu Ying.
For whatever reason it instigates some kind of Montagues vs Capulets reaction in people.
Like in the Shakespearean play the opponents in these threads can be described as "two households, both alike in dignity"...
And like in the Shakespearean play they wage war based on some unknown "ancient grudge"...
Stay out of it if you know what's best.
Focus on your little Romeo or your little Juliet and leave the bickering to the "experts"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello, there's more than one native speaker who's down on YY on these threads.

Sorry, not buying that there are several fully bilingual families behind your kid's class at YY.

What we observed is that there are far more bilingual Chinese-speaking parents involved than kids. When we were enrolled in 2015, admins told us that there were at least two dozen fully bilingual kids in the school. No way, almost all of these kids only spoke a little of the family's dialect, and maybe some Mandarin. The Chinese taught was a joke to our children.

Over the years, I've observed that DC parents whose kids speak Chinese almost never go for YY. Not that the situation is of concern to the parents they get.

Fact is, YY isn't a program with a system in place to serve students who arrive speaking good Chinese (including expat kids whose parents are not native speakers), and to support their language learning.

Admins won't tell you this, no, but you can find out easily enough on the native speaker grapevine around town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got in to Yu Ying and I am nervous - never actually thought we would get in. I am bad at languages. If my kid struggles what happens? What if your kid is at an immersion school and ends up sucking at learning a foreign language? You either continue through with bad grades or go back to general lottery? I could really use some advice.

My best advice is stay out of DCUM forums centering on Washington Yu Ying.
For whatever reason it instigates some kind of Montagues vs Capulets reaction in people.
Like in the Shakespearean play the opponents in these threads can be described as "two households, both alike in dignity"...
And like in the Shakespearean play they wage war based on some unknown "ancient grudge"...
Stay out of it if you know what's best.
Focus on your little Romeo or your little Juliet and leave the bickering to the "experts"

Lol. Can we have this as a sticky on the YY threads?

[Anonymous]

Totally agree with above. Defending YY on DCUM is a losing battle and has been since the year it started. You can look at it as an amazing FREE opportunity to expose your kids to Chinese, one that is accessible equally to every family in DC. Or you can be outraged at the fact that it doesn't design its program to meet the needs of the small percentage of native speakers that are able to win the lottery, or the privileged families that can afford to supplement. The fact is, it is a public school. No one is entitled to have their particular needs prioritized above everyone else's.

[Anonymous]

Agree, the idiocy never ends on these YuYing threads, but not for the reasons above. Some of us want better than "exposure" to a language in DC public schols. Some of us want the best shot of our kids actually SPEAKING the language, and knowing the culture. Duh. We went with Oyster. Dingalings the more you fight having the particular needs of native speakers "prioritized" in your program, the tougher it's gonna to be for your own learners to speak well. It seems that you guys will cut off your noses to spite your faces every time. You deserve your kids lame Chinese. Of course it's not FREE. The crappy Chinese is coming at the expense of their other subjects, 50% of the time. If I were a YY parent, I'd be dashing, no sprinting, to MoCo on my weekends to make sure my kids interacted with peers who really speak CHinese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree, the idiocy never ends on these YuYing threads, but not for the reasons above. Some of us want better than "exposure" to a language in DC public schols. Some of us want the best shot of our kids actually SPEAKING the language, and knowing the culture. Duh. We went with Oyster. Dingalings the more you fight having the particular needs of native speakers "prioritized" in your program, the tougher it's gonna to be for your own learners to speak well. It seems that you guys will cut off your noses to spite your faces every time. You deserve your kids lame Chinese. Of course it's not FREE. The crappy Chinese is coming at the expense of their other subjects, 50% of the time. If I were a YY parent, I'd be dashing, no sprinting, to MoCo on my weekends to make sure my kids interacted with peers who really speak CHinese.

You're not very bright if you're equating Oyster and YY, DCPS and charter, Spanish and Chinese. We made the same calculation you did and went with Chinese because Spanish is too easy. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

I’m a newly matched YY family and completely overwhelmed by these threads :/

[Anonymous]

What you want to do if you harbor ambitions of making YY work for years is to make a point of talking to upper grades parents. Almost everybody loves the early childhood program, K, maybe 1st, but then doubt starts creeping in.

If you're ambitious where the Mandarin goes, talk to native speakers from outside the school community who speak to upper grades YY kids. We started hosting Chinese au pairs after neighbor of many years who's a native speaker admitted that he could hardly communicate with our children (1st and 2nd graders) in Mandarin. Pricey for us to host au pairs, but no regrets.

I'm in the camp of parents who want a different principal. WE're not the majority, but we're here.

[Anonymous]

Does school leadership including the board acknowledge these issues? I’m concerned about Mandarin proficiency but also other things I’ve read in this and another thread about gaps in basic curriculum (ELA and math). Are they working to address it? Are these gaps due to the schedule- 1 day english/ 1 day Mandarin? (Not enough communication between teachers)? How are the Science and art programs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a newly matched YY family and completely overwhelmed by these threads :/

I am too... but we are still going to send our kid to YY in the fall.

More than anything, these threads have been a good intro to the unique & absurd politics surrounding the school. Better to find out early and online than late and in person, I guess.

But compared to the problems we've witnessed in other area schools, none of these complaints comes even close to being serious enough to deter us. Clearly some people feel super passionately about these issues, but to us they are small potatoes. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a newly matched YY family and completely overwhelmed by these threads :/

I am too... but we are still going to send our kid to YY in the fall.

More than anything, these threads have been a good intro to the unique & absurd politics surrounding the school. Better to find out early and online than late and in person, I guess.

But compared to the problems we've witnessed in other area schools, none of these complaints comes even close to being serious enough to deter us. Clearly some people feel super passionately about these issues, but to us they are small potatoes. Sorry.

I'm newly matched also for prek4. But I'm not listening to any of these YY haters who just wish their kids got in. Take their advice with a grain of salt...or less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a newly matched YY family and completely overwhelmed by these threads :/

I am too... but we are still going to send our kid to YY in the fall.

More than anything, these threads have been a good intro to the unique & absurd politics surrounding the school. Better to find out early and online than late and in person, I guess.

But compared to the problems we've witnessed in other area schools, none of these complaints comes even close to being serious enough to deter us. Clearly some people feel super passionately about these issues, but to us they are small potatoes. Sorry.

I'm newly matched also for prek4. But I'm not listening to any of these YY haters who just wish their kids got in. Take their advice with a grain of salt...or less.

You will likely have a great experience. Be happy.

But know that the haters (and it is a small group) are not people who wished their kids got in, but people whose kids attended for a period of time and left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree, the idiocy never ends on these YuYing threads, but not for the reasons above. Some of us want better than "exposure" to a language in DC public schols. Some of us want the best shot of our kids actually SPEAKING the language, and knowing the culture. Duh. We went with Oyster. Dingalings the more you fight having the particular needs of native speakers "prioritized" in your program, the tougher it's gonna to be for your own learners to speak well. It seems that you guys will cut off your noses to spite your faces every time. You deserve your kids lame Chinese. Of course it's not FREE. The crappy Chinese is coming at the expense of their other subjects, 50% of the time. If I were a YY parent, I'd be dashing, no sprinting, to MoCo on my weekends to make sure my kids interacted with peers who really speak CHinese.

If you are so careful to get flawless language instruction than you should have gone elsewhere. Oyster doesn’t even teach grammar until middle school. Look at all past threads. Lots of aggressive behavior from teachers, young kids being screamed at, super strict discipline. It was a hard pass for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a newly matched YY family and completely overwhelmed by these threads :/

I am too... but we are still going to send our kid to YY in the fall.

More than anything, these threads have been a good intro to the unique & absurd politics surrounding the school. Better to find out early and online than late and in person, I guess.

But compared to the problems we've witnessed in other area schools, none of these complaints comes even close to being serious enough to deter us. Clearly some people feel super passionately about these issues, but to us they are small potatoes. Sorry.

I'm newly matched also for prek4. But I'm not listening to any of these YY haters who just wish their kids got in. Take their advice with a grain of salt...or less.

That's because you don't speak Chinese, hon, probably don't know anybody who does, and your kid is still a toddler.

Let me guess, you don't know where Chinese is widely spoken in the world (other than in Mainland China), or the major Chinese dialects and where they're spoken. Quick, rush to Wikipedia before you respond.

It concerns some of the upper grades parents that this town's native speakers have pretty much ignored our program all along. Somebody in charge ought to be paying attention and asking why.

All small potatoes when MOST UPPER GRADES KIDS CAN PASS THE PARCC (UNLIKE IN YOUR RUN OF THE MILL DC PUBLIC SCHOOL).