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Best school for foreign language if not WIS?
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Anonymous
| If you are interested in Chinese, Sidwell has an excellent program beginning at the middle school level. |
Anonymous
| WIS also has a Chinese immersion at the middle school level. |
Anonymous
| Washington Latin offers Chinese starting in 8th grade. Not immersion, but you're required to take four years of whatever modern language you choose. |
Anonymous
| Yu Ying is wonderful. I would definitely check it out. It's still very small and just getting on its feet but the environment is so warm and welcoming, the teachers are great and the parents are all really committed. Great after care too. |
Anonymous
| Boy, this Yu Ying booster is starting to sound desperate. |
Anonymous
| How is Washington Latin's Chinese program this year? I heard the teacher was a disaster last year. |
Anonymous
|
Your child won't get much out of elementary school language programs unless you make a real effort to give him/her the opportunity to further use the language outside of school. There are so many ways to do this -- books, music (there are online kids radio stations in Spanish for example), kids theatre, and having them actually use it.
We're in a public immersion school in Arlington - Arlington also is rolling out Spanish in various elementary schools 3 times a week. They did a presentation on where a kid would be in terms of fluency in each of these programs. There was no comparison - the kids who get Spanish a few times a week at school from kindergarten onward would still be at the beginner level in 6th grade. |
Anonymous
| I agree with PP. We even tried to supplement with a language tutor once a week in elementary school, and it didn't help. Immersion is the way to go if fluency is your priority. |
Anonymous
| 12:48 and 12:59 - thank you. This is exactly the information I've been trying to get (I'm not the OP, but I'm also interested in this issue), and your posts were very helpful. |
Anonymous
| Norwood offers Spanish starting in Kindergarten, Chinese and French beginning in Fifth, and Latin beginning in sixth. Culture is taught as part of the study of the language. |
Anonymous
|
I was the 12:48 poster. The other thing about immersion vs. classes is that the child has a much better chance of developing a native or near-native accent through immersion. Our DC has a friend in one of the Arlington schools that offer Spanish three times a week - the parents report that the child's pronunciation is really bad (although in fairness the child just started). But without some extra effort outside of school, the pronunciation likely won't be what it would be if the child was learning through immersion.
Immersion's the way to go if you really value foreign language learning. I know kids who've started languages in elementary school and even later in the case of Chinese and who are really damn good -- but they're good because they're kids who have innate ability to learn languages. Relatively few people have that ability. |
Anonymous
screw you! |
Anonymous
| 16:09 again. Sorry, that was immature. I was trying to be helpful and just found this comment incredibly obnoxious. |
Anonymous
I am glad someone else found this comment offensive. Thank you, 16:09. If Washington Yu Ying was a private school, this forum would be all over trying to find out more. But because it is a public charter, then any promotion of the school "sounds desparate". What sounds desparate to me is everyone trying to clamor their way into the top 3 of elitist schools..... |
Anonymous
| Try looking at the Maret School. They offer in school language classes in french, spanish, latin, and chinese. They will also help you find an excellent tutor and give you credit for taking another language with that tutor. Students who have taken languages with tutors have taken several different languages including arabic, greek, and gaelic. |