Language instruction at CMI in the upper elementary grades

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do the students master the tones?

Of course, that's a basic part of chinese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can any CMI parents tell me more about the foreign language instruction in the upper elementary grades? Do students continue to take both Spanish and Chinese? How much instructional time is provided, and do you feel your DCs are developing much ability to speak the language? TIA.

To actually answer your question, my child has chinese 2x weekly and Spanish 2x weekly. She also is in a chinese Immersion club after school @ CMI. She has taken to Chinese and has progressed much better than Spanish.

Exposure is code for a total waste of time. But if it sounds cool when you tell your neighbors, then who cares whether you're totally wasting your child's time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the students master the tones?

The school is 3 years old and language instruction is part time. What do you think?

p

The school is four years old, and if you were familiar with Chinese and how it is taught - you'd know that learning tones is pretty basic in early childhood it's harder with adults who aren't always able to differentiate some of the very subtitle differences.

And we get it, you don't like CMI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can any CMI parents tell me more about the foreign language instruction in the upper elementary grades? Do students continue to take both Spanish and Chinese? How much instructional time is provided, and do you feel your DCs are developing much ability to speak the language? TIA.

To actually answer your question, my child has chinese 2x weekly and Spanish 2x weekly. She also is in a chinese Immersion club after school @ CMI. She has taken to Chinese and has progressed much better than Spanish.

Exposure is code for a total waste of time. But if it sounds cool when you tell your neighbors, then who cares whether you're totally wasting your child's time.

you obviously care. You care a lot. You are posting regularly on a thread about a school your child doesn't even attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the students master the tones?

Of course, that's a basic part of chinese.

Which is why the question is being asked. A couple hours of Mandarin "exposure" isn't going to yield familiarity with the tones.

No one is saying it isn't cute. It's just not worth much of anything, other than you telling your inlaws that snowflake is "learning Chinese."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the students master the tones?

Of course, that's a basic part of chinese.

Which is why the question is being asked. A couple hours of Mandarin "exposure" isn't going to yield familiarity with the tones.

No one is saying it isn't cute. It's just not worth much of anything, other than you telling your inlaws that snowflake is "learning Chinese."

I'm not sure if you mean to be disrespectful, or if you are just naturally rude.

Learning a language isn't cute. In fact, language exposure or any learning isn't cute. Using that term to try and belittle a child's learning makes you seem small.

I don't tell my inlaws my child is learning Chinese, since my father-in-law speaks Chinese he can judge how much learning she is doing for himself.

Perhaps you focus on the school your child attends?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the students master the tones?

Of course, that's a basic part of chinese.

Which is why the question is being asked. A couple hours of Mandarin "exposure" isn't going to yield familiarity with the tones.

No one is saying it isn't cute. It's just not worth much of anything, other than you telling your inlaws that snowflake is "learning Chinese."

God I hate when people use the term snowflake.

[Anonymous]

I just want to point out that it is MULTIPLE people posting about this, not just one. Please don't fall trap to the classic, "oh it's just this one disgruntled jerk, don't listen to them" trap.

Secondly, the language situation at CMI is really bizarre and worth a discussion. Every time this is brought up, anyone who points out what a weird setup this whole dual exposure thing is, there is at least one CMI booster who tells us to mind our own business. I'm sorry, but I'd love any study or anything that shows this is effective at all. And as a tax paying parent in DC, I think I have the right to question this unorthodox system. Not sure why people are so defensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just want to point out that it is MULTIPLE people posting about this, not just one. Please don't fall trap to the classic, "oh it's just this one disgruntled jerk, don't listen to them" trap.

Secondly, the language situation at CMI is really bizarre and worth a discussion. Every time this is brought up, anyone who points out what a weird setup this whole dual exposure thing is, there is at least one CMI booster who tells us to mind our own business. I'm sorry, but I'd love any study or anything that shows this is effective at all. And as a tax paying parent in DC, I think I have the right to question this unorthodox system. Not sure why people are so defensive.

Good grief, I'm a YY parent and even I find your attitude (and the multiple others you claim are posting here) to actually be the ridiculous and bizarre element to this conversation.

There is NO way for exposure to be a bad thing, and many ways for it to be a good thing. When many of us were school-age, most people in the US didn't even think about or have the opportunity to learn another language until 5th or 6th grade, or high school for some. Anything that gets young kids learning different words, learning about other cultures, planting seeds of interest in other parts of the world, is a GREAT THING.

You act like people here are claiming their kids will be fluent when they finish CMI. I don't see anyone saying anything close to that, so your comments about it "not being effective at all" make no damn sense. And honestly, if you're so worried about your tax money, why aren't you starting threads about how dismal some DCPS schools and some charters are, how ineffective they are, and questioning why that is a legit use of your money? Why don't you complain about something that is actually a problem?

[Anonymous]

I absolutely disagree that exposure to languages is worthless. I think even small amounts of language exposure is important and this article summarizes nicely my feelings on the subject.

http://blog.languagelizard.com/2011/09/12/learning-foreign-languages-5-reasons-why-a-small-amount-of-language-exposure-is-beneficial/

Other non-immersion schools offer language instruction as a special a couple times a week (i.e., language exposure) and no one seems to have a problem with these other schools so I'm not sure why this is even an issue.

[Anonymous]

Why two different languages, that's bizarre. Have parents choose one and stick with it throughout the years at the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why two different languages, that's bizarre. Have parents choose one and stick with it throughout the years at the school.

I'm a language immersion advocate myself, but if you aren't doing that, why not give exposure to two languages? They aren't going to be fluent in either but it is a good start to recognizing the different types of languages out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the students master the tones?

The school is 3 years old and language instruction is part time. What do you think?

This! Some of these posters are so dumb it's beyond ridiculous!

[Anonymous]

I'm from Europe, so maybe my view is different. We had language exposure (similar to this module) at my school. English was one of my exposure languages.

Not sure why people find it so bizaar and ridiculous and a waste of time. Lucky for you, it's not your school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can any CMI parents tell me more about the foreign language instruction in the upper elementary grades? Do students continue to take both Spanish and Chinese? How much instructional time is provided, and do you feel your DCs are developing much ability to speak the language? TIA.

To actually answer your question, my child has chinese 2x weekly and Spanish 2x weekly. She also is in a chinese Immersion club after school @ CMI. She has taken to Chinese and has progressed much better than Spanish.

Exposure is code for a total waste of time. But if it sounds cool when you tell your neighbors, then who cares whether you're totally wasting your child's time.

Actually, no. When I was a kid in Florida, I was in a gifted program and got Spanish 3 x week in 2nd through 5th grade. It sparked my interest and I continued to take Spanish in middle school and high school. I was decent enough when I graduated that I could have conversations and get along while travelling. I took enough classes for a minor in college, became fluent, got a job that required me to be bilingual after college, and continue to be a proficient speaker today (though my writing skills have deteriorated since that job). And I am a white girl from a white family with no other Spanish speakers.

Getting formal exposure to another language did 2 things for me:
1. It made me interested in other languages and made me want to learn more.
2. I believe that the early exposure may have made it easier for me to eventually fully learn the language, and may have made it easier to learn additional languages. I have an easy time with languages in general and can get along quite well in Italian and decently in French, but I've also had to learn some Czech and a few other Slavic languages due to sheer geography, and I had an easier time than my peers.

And yes, I'm a CMI parent. I don't care if my kid actually ends up learning any substantial amount of Spanish or Mandarin. That outcome is way less important than my child becoming interested in other languages and cultures. Curiosity and a desire to learn is what they're trying to cultivate. The measure of success here is not that my kid has or has not mastered the high questioning tone.