Yu Ying - Do/Can Non-Native Kids Actually SPEAK Chinese?

[Anonymous]

single charter lottery

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two languages at YY open houses? What a question. The head speaks really basic, poorly pronounced Mandarin, and there usually isn't an admin who speaks Cantonese (though some teachers who do). Admins know that a presentation in Chinese would be useless to almost all the parents they attract in the absence of outreach to the immigrant community. They've never bothered and, to my knowledge, don't get complaints about the arrangement.

I hear you, I've been to open houses run in English and Spanish, English and French, and even English and Hebrew in DC public.

Other DC immersion schools run every open house, every PTO meeting, and produce every newsletter and document in both languages. Even when the audience is 98% English dominant or 90% Spanish dominant. It's a matter or practicing what they preach, even if it is 'useless' to many of parents who attend.

But YY doesn't need to practice what it preaches. Few parents can hear the weak Chinese, DCI Chinese IB Diploma exams graded in Geneva (including recorded interviews) haven't highlighted flaws in their model yet, and their WL is the longest in the charter universe. Their location is central and they have lovely facilities and hardly any poors. Also, bilingual American Chinese are resented for their success in this country and career access to the rising China. Accommodating this crowd is very low priority in the DC public school universe.

"Poors" - disgusting.

Are you reading for content or in the hopes of having a knee-jerk reaction? The poster was criticizing YY. The school makes great use of Mandarin to deter FARMs families from applying. Practical approach actually, since common sense dictates that housing project and Section 8 voucher kids need to focus on learning English.

Yikes - "housing project and section 8 voucher kids" = gross gross gross. FWIW, Sonia Sooamayor and Howard Schultz grew up in housing projects. Assumption that poor children don't speak English - scary.

[Anonymous]

Neither spent half their elementary school years in 50% Mandarin immersion. Good call!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Neither spent half their elementary school years in 50% Mandarin immersion. Good call!

Do you honestly believe either of them would have been held back in their education if they had?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two languages at YY open houses? What a question. The head speaks really basic, poorly pronounced Mandarin, and there usually isn't an admin who speaks Cantonese (though some teachers who do). Admins know that a presentation in Chinese would be useless to almost all the parents they attract in the absence of outreach to the immigrant community. They've never bothered and, to my knowledge, don't get complaints about the arrangement.

I hear you, I've been to open houses run in English and Spanish, English and French, and even English and Hebrew in DC public.

Pants On Fire Alert: Sela has never had open houses run in Hebrew in English.

Wrong. If you ask to attend a Sela open house with Hebrew translation, the request will be honored.

That's a totally different thing. Did the PP here who is complaining ask for Mandarin translation, and get turned down? Do they need Mandarin translation? It appears from their posting here that their written English is strong.

Has anyone approached YY in advance and asked for translation and been denied?

[Anonymous]

I swear some posters on this board never read anything else on the internet. How in 2017 could you possibly not know that “poors” is pejorative against people not wanting to go to school with poorer people?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two languages at YY open houses? What a question. The head speaks really basic, poorly pronounced Mandarin, and there usually isn't an admin who speaks Cantonese (though some teachers who do). Admins know that a presentation in Chinese would be useless to almost all the parents they attract in the absence of outreach to the immigrant community. They've never bothered and, to my knowledge, don't get complaints about the arrangement.

I hear you, I've been to open houses run in English and Spanish, English and French, and even English and Hebrew in DC public.

Pants On Fire Alert: Sela has never had open houses run in Hebrew in English.

Wrong. If you ask to attend a Sela open house with Hebrew translation, the request will be honored.

That's a totally different thing. Did the PP here who is complaining ask for Mandarin translation, and get turned down? Do they need Mandarin translation? It appears from their posting here that their written English is strong.

Has anyone approached YY in advance and asked for translation and been denied?

Making someone ask for it is a barrier. It should be done as a standard practice.

It isn't done at DCI either -- I don't think any admin is fluent in any of the target language. And it's an issue for the spanish dominant families in particular, many of whom are NOT fluent in English.

[Anonymous]

It is a barrier. We turned a spot at YY after attending an open house with my mother, whose English is weak. She insisted that we must be in the wrong place because nobody in the room was speaking Chinese. I'd actually asked her to attend on her own, which would have been an even bigger mistake than attending together. We've been approached by parents at our church who speak little English asking if we think they should attend a YY open house and put in for the lottery. We say no point, you won't be able to follow what admins are saying unless you bring along your own translator. They use Thomson ES where a Chinese interpreter/early childhood teacher is almost always available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two languages at YY open houses? What a question. The head speaks really basic, poorly pronounced Mandarin, and there usually isn't an admin who speaks Cantonese (though some teachers who do). Admins know that a presentation in Chinese would be useless to almost all the parents they attract in the absence of outreach to the immigrant community. They've never bothered and, to my knowledge, don't get complaints about the arrangement.

I hear you, I've been to open houses run in English and Spanish, English and French, and even English and Hebrew in DC public.

Pants On Fire Alert: Sela has never had open houses run in Hebrew in English.

Wrong. If you ask to attend a Sela open house with Hebrew translation, the request will be honored.

That's a totally different thing. Did the PP here who is complaining ask for Mandarin translation, and get turned down? Do they need Mandarin translation? It appears from their posting here that their written English is strong.

Has anyone approached YY in advance and asked for translation and been denied?

Making someone ask for it is a barrier. It should be done as a standard practice.

It isn't done at DCI either -- I don't think any admin is fluent in any of the target language. And it's an issue for the spanish dominant families in particular, many of whom are NOT fluent in English.

I agree that it's a barrier. But it's a little disingenous to claim that all the other immersion schools don't have this barrier, if in fact some of them (e.g. Sela) do.

[Anonymous]

No one actually compares Sela with the DCI feeders. And last I heard, they arent doing full immersion anymore.

All of the other feeders do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one actually compares Sela with the DCI feeders. And last I heard, they arent doing full immersion anymore.

All of the other feeders do it.

Either someone thinks they're doing bilingual English/Hebrew meetings at a DCI feeder, or the person I replied to was actually comparing Sela and Yu Ying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one actually compares Sela with the DCI feeders. And last I heard, they arent doing full immersion anymore.

All of the other feeders do it.

Either someone thinks they're doing bilingual English/Hebrew meetings at a DCI feeder, or the person I replied to was actually comparing Sela and Yu Ying.

Sela is separate from the DCI feeders.

Among the DCI feeders, only YY does not routinely communicate with its extended school community in two languages.

DCI communicates with its parents and prospective parents in English. DCI is also very clear that DCI is not an immersion school, so perhaps they think that makes it ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one actually compares Sela with the DCI feeders. And last I heard, they arent doing full immersion anymore.

All of the other feeders do it.

Either someone thinks they're doing bilingual English/Hebrew meetings at a DCI feeder, or the person I replied to was actually comparing Sela and Yu Ying.

Sela is separate from the DCI feeders.

Among the DCI feeders, only YY does not routinely communicate with its extended school community in two languages.

DCI communicates with its parents and prospective parents in English. DCI is also very clear that DCI is not an immersion school, so perhaps they think that makes it ok.

Wait. DCI isn't a language immersion school? Then what is it, and what's the point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one actually compares Sela with the DCI feeders. And last I heard, they arent doing full immersion anymore.

All of the other feeders do it.

Either someone thinks they're doing bilingual English/Hebrew meetings at a DCI feeder, or the person I replied to was actually comparing Sela and Yu Ying.

Sela is separate from the DCI feeders.

Among the DCI feeders, only YY does not routinely communicate with its extended school community in two languages.

DCI communicates with its parents and prospective parents in English. DCI is also very clear that DCI is not an immersion school, so perhaps they think that makes it ok.

Wait. DCI isn't a language immersion school? Then what is it, and what's the point?

It is a IB school with advanced language studies (or beginner language, if you are entering new at 6th or 9th).

Students take a minimum of 2 classes in their target language in middle school (social studies + their language) and sometimes an elective will be in their language if the teacher is fluent in their target language -- for the other students that elective will be in English.

It's not like the feeders which teach everything in the target language, depending on the day or the week. But that immersion approach ends for all the students after 5th grade.

This shouldn't come as a surprise -- read their charter application and their website.

[Anonymous]

Adding for clarification / further example -- all math, science and theory of knowledge classes at DCI are in English.