Yu Ying

[Anonymous]

Okay thanks! Fingers crossed.

[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.

No worries, lady. No kid struggles with Mandarin at YY, at least on paper. All the kids earn good grades for speaking (even if they can hardly speak after many years in the school). The standards for Mandarin aren't high (and the results are seldom good for the families who don't supplement extensively) and the great majority of the parents like it that way. My 4 and 5 year olds speak better Chinese than many YY kids in 4th and 5th grades. I tell you this as a native speaker who volunteers at the school from time to time and has done for a decade.

I have nothing to do with this school and no desire for my kids to learn Mandarin, but your post sucks. Does the school know someone who apparently volunteers there bashes the kids' command of Mandarin in public forums? Have you thought about the fact that for many kids there, YY is a much better education than their alternatives? Have you considered that prolonged exposure to a language has benefits (cognitive, cultural exposure, etc.) even if full fluency is not achieved? Or do you simply perseverate on how it's not fair that native speakers have no preference at this public school? Because from past posts, that seems to be the underlying sentiment.

I understand the value of native speakers in an immersion school--my child attends an immersion school with a significant number of native speakers, and it definitely helps--but YY appears to have a lot of other strengths. Kids who want to continue pursuing Mandarin after YY will have a good foundation. It's okay if full fluency is not achieved by age 10.

Good luck to all who placed here, and good luck to your kids!

[Anonymous]

(There are students at YY who are IB for Janney and Lafayette. They literally WON the lottery.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chinese immersion aside, are YY parents satisfied with the instruction & learning in other subjects?

Bump.

Yes, we've generally been very happy with it. The one thing I would flag is writing, which is not totally surprising given that only 1/2 their time is spent in English. We are going to try Writopia to help with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(There are students at YY who are IB for Janney and Lafayette. They literally WON the lottery.)

Seriously? People zoned for Janney and Lafayette go to YY? Is YY that good?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(There are students at YY who are IB for Janney and Lafayette. They literally WON the lottery.)

Seriously? People zoned for Janney and Lafayette go to YY? Is YY that good?

Now, they're just being greedy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

No worries, lady. No kid struggles with Mandarin at YY, at least on paper. All the kids earn good grades for speaking (even if they can hardly speak after many years in the school). The standards for Mandarin aren't high (and the results are seldom good for the families who don't supplement extensively) and the great majority of the parents like it that way. My 4 and 5 year olds speak better Chinese than many YY kids in 4th and 5th grades. I tell you this as a native speaker who volunteers at the school from time to time and has done for a decade.

I have nothing to do with this school and no desire for my kids to learn Mandarin, but your post sucks. Does the school know someone who apparently volunteers there bashes the kids' command of Mandarin in public forums? Have you thought about the fact that for many kids there, YY is a much better education than their alternatives? Have you considered that prolonged exposure to a language has benefits (cognitive, cultural exposure, etc.) even if full fluency is not achieved? Or do you simply perseverate on how it's not fair that native speakers have no preference at this public school? Because from past posts, that seems to be the underlying sentiment.

I understand the value of native speakers in an immersion school--my child attends an immersion school with a significant number of native speakers, and it definitely helps--but YY appears to have a lot of other strengths. Kids who want to continue pursuing Mandarin after YY will have a good foundation. It's okay if full fluency is not achieved by age 10.

Good luck to all who placed here, and good luck to your kids!

That poster is just nasty and you can always identify her with the "parents like it that way" comment. That is just patently absurd--parents accept it because they accept the fact that, as a PP pointed out, DC demographics & the lottery make it impossible to get the critical mass of native Chinese speakers necessary to attain fluency. Now watch her come back with some bla bla about how YY fails to do any outreach in the Chinese community. Just ignore her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

No worries, lady. No kid struggles with Mandarin at YY, at least on paper. All the kids earn good grades for speaking (even if they can hardly speak after many years in the school). The standards for Mandarin aren't high (and the results are seldom good for the families who don't supplement extensively) and the great majority of the parents like it that way. My 4 and 5 year olds speak better Chinese than many YY kids in 4th and 5th grades. I tell you this as a native speaker who volunteers at the school from time to time and has done for a decade.

I have nothing to do with this school and no desire for my kids to learn Mandarin, but your post sucks. Does the school know someone who apparently volunteers there bashes the kids' command of Mandarin in public forums? Have you thought about the fact that for many kids there, YY is a much better education than their alternatives? Have you considered that prolonged exposure to a language has benefits (cognitive, cultural exposure, etc.) even if full fluency is not achieved? Or do you simply perseverate on how it's not fair that native speakers have no preference at this public school? Because from past posts, that seems to be the underlying sentiment.

I understand the value of native speakers in an immersion school--my child attends an immersion school with a significant number of native speakers, and it definitely helps--but YY appears to have a lot of other strengths. Kids who want to continue pursuing Mandarin after YY will have a good foundation. It's okay if full fluency is not achieved by age 10.

Good luck to all who placed here, and good luck to your kids!

What's too bad that the PP whose post "sucks" is right.

PP isn't the only one who's been disappointed w/Mandarin instruction at YY over the years. If this is "bashing," call me a basher among many.

What happens is that many random parents like OP, with no particular interest in having their children learn Chinese well, drift into YY mainly because they got lucky in the lottery and their IB DCPS schools suck. Meanwhile, many parents who would be a lot more serious about the Mandarin (including native speakers) don't have access to the school.

YY doesn't raise standards for Mandarin because it has to serve the families parents it gets, not the parents it wants. Nothing to be done but supplement expensively (and expensively) to make sure that your own YY kid's Mandarin is decent eventually, if that's what you want.

Signed
Parent with two children on DCI advanced Chinese track

[Anonymous]

OP here - This is for PK4. Will learning to write suffer? How do they teach English writing if its Chinese only in PK level?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

No worries, lady. No kid struggles with Mandarin at YY, at least on paper. All the kids earn good grades for speaking (even if they can hardly speak after many years in the school). The standards for Mandarin aren't high (and the results are seldom good for the families who don't supplement extensively) and the great majority of the parents like it that way. My 4 and 5 year olds speak better Chinese than many YY kids in 4th and 5th grades. I tell you this as a native speaker who volunteers at the school from time to time and has done for a decade.

I have nothing to do with this school and no desire for my kids to learn Mandarin, but your post sucks. Does the school know someone who apparently volunteers there bashes the kids' command of Mandarin in public forums? Have you thought about the fact that for many kids there, YY is a much better education than their alternatives? Have you considered that prolonged exposure to a language has benefits (cognitive, cultural exposure, etc.) even if full fluency is not achieved? Or do you simply perseverate on how it's not fair that native speakers have no preference at this public school? Because from past posts, that seems to be the underlying sentiment.

I understand the value of native speakers in an immersion school--my child attends an immersion school with a significant number of native speakers, and it definitely helps--but YY appears to have a lot of other strengths. Kids who want to continue pursuing Mandarin after YY will have a good foundation. It's okay if full fluency is not achieved by age 10.

Good luck to all who placed here, and good luck to your kids!

What's too bad that the PP whose post "sucks" is right.

PP isn't the only one who's been disappointed w/Mandarin instruction at YY over the years. If this is "bashing," call me a basher among many.

What happens is that many random parents like OP, with no particular interest in having their children learn Chinese well, drift into YY mainly because they got lucky in the lottery and their IB DCPS schools suck. Meanwhile, many parents who would be a lot more serious about the Mandarin (including native speakers) don't have access to the school.

YY doesn't raise standards for Mandarin because it has to serve the families parents it gets, not the parents it wants. Nothing to be done but supplement expensively (and expensively) to make sure that your own YY kid's Mandarin is decent eventually, if that's what you want.

Signed
Parent with two children on DCI advanced Chinese track

So... it sounds like OP doesn't need to worry if her kid ends up struggling to learn Chinese well. But if she wants to supplement, her kid will learn a lot more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(There are students at YY who are IB for Janney and Lafayette. They literally WON the lottery.)

Seriously? People zoned for Janney and Lafayette go to YY? Is YY that good?

It is apparently that good to them.

[Anonymous]

Hardly any JKLM zoned parents choose YY, a few dozen at most.

Some of us think that our kids have more than enough "cognitive benefits."

If an "immersion" public ES isn't serious about teaching a language for 8 years for whatever reasons, I'd pass. You don't want kids who are weak in two language come middle school by high SES DC standards. No shortage of YY kids in that category.

[Anonymous]

My second child (DD) got into Yu Ying's PK3 and her brother is on the waitlist for 1st grade, currently at #3. Any idea of how likely he would get a spot and enroll? Obv, it would make things very challenging if they went to different schools. Having both in YY is really important to us. Thx!

[Anonymous]

We thought we were golden at YY until we moved on to a top DC private for 6th grade. The school made our kid take a remedial English course the summer before enrolling (although he got 5s on the PARCC for ELA) and wasn't impressed with his Chinese either. They interviewed him partially in Mandarin.

We're AA and don't speak Chinese at home. Wish things were different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hardly any JKLM zoned parents choose YY, a few dozen at most.

Some of us think that our kids have more than enough "cognitive benefits."

If an "immersion" public ES isn't serious about teaching a language for 8 years for whatever reasons, I'd pass. You don't want kids who are weak in two language come middle school by high SES DC standards. No shortage of YY kids in that category.

"A few dozen" = "hardly any" ?