Yu Ying

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We know four families at our DCPS who mostly speak Chinese at home with ES age kids. We come together to organize Chinese New Year celebrations at the school. The kids' Chinese sounds terrific to me (though they use a lot of slang), the PP who spent a decade working in China.

We've asked, and none of these families has ever applied to YY. The parents say they're not interested in becoming token bilingual families there, and don't like how they've never been able to find a senior admin who speaks good Chinese or is ethnic.

You can claim that the tiny, and dwindling size of the Chinese bilingual community (it's actually growing steadily) is all that keeps the numbers down. It's obviously not.

Any source for this? I just looked and this article from a couple of years ago states that DC's Chinatown has decreased greatly over the years:

"The population of Chinese Americans in Chinatown has shrunk from a high of 3,000 to about 300 — half of whom are now fighting to be able to stay."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/dcs-chinatown-has-only-300-chinese-americans-left--and-fighting-to-stay/2015/07/16/86d54e84-2191-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html?utm_term=.7c09e0d2f468

Now, it could be that Asian Americans are increasing slightly in other areas of DC, particularly upper NW, but I thought the focus here re: YY was forming relationships with the Chinatown bilingual community. If that is indeed the focus, it seems understandable if YY is not reaching out to this tiny group. And I say that even though the model of two-way immersion is definitely valuable--it just doesn't seem feasible with Mandarin in the DC context.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know four families at our DCPS who mostly speak Chinese at home with ES age kids. We come together to organize Chinese New Year celebrations at the school. The kids' Chinese sounds terrific to me (though they use a lot of slang), the PP who spent a decade working in China.

We've asked, and none of these families has ever applied to YY. The parents say they're not interested in becoming token bilingual families there, and don't like how they've never been able to find a senior admin who speaks good Chinese or is ethnic.

You can claim that the tiny, and dwindling size of the Chinese bilingual community (it's actually growing steadily) is all that keeps the numbers down. It's obviously not.

Any source for this? I just looked and this article from a couple of years ago states that DC's Chinatown has decreased greatly over the years:

"The population of Chinese Americans in Chinatown has shrunk from a high of 3,000 to about 300 — half of whom are now fighting to be able to stay."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/dcs-chinatown-has-only-300-chinese-americans-left--and-fighting-to-stay/2015/07/16/86d54e84-2191-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html?utm_term=.7c09e0d2f468

Now, it could be that Asian Americans are increasing slightly in other areas of DC, particularly upper NW, but I thought the focus here re: YY was forming relationships with the Chinatown bilingual community. If that is indeed the focus, it seems understandable if YY is not reaching out to this tiny group. And I say that even though the model of two-way immersion is definitely valuable--it just doesn't seem feasible with Mandarin in the DC context.

I posted a few pages back. Chinatown's population has been shrinking since the '68 riots, but the immigrant and ABC population of DC has been growing slowly but steadily since the 90s. Between the 2000 and 2010 censuses, the population climbed by several thousand (tiny group?). There are around 7,000 of us. The census doesn't ask how many of the new arrivals are bilingual, but many are, particularly the New Yorkers and Californians. When we started taking our older child to a weekend heritage school in MoCo some years ago, there were a handful of DC Chinese families involved. Now there are two dozen, not just NW families. Nobody currently enrolled at YY, but several of the families tried the program (and advised the others not to). Some of us are involved in the church in Chinatown and the Benevolent Society (mainly assisting the elderly housing community) but don't live there. Most of us speak Cantonese as our first dialect, but we want our children to learn Mandarin, so we use the heritage schools. The kids do around 30 minutes of Chinese HW a night, and attend class for several hours on a weekend afternoon. Not that any of this is relevant to YY.

[Anonymous]

YY parent here and has been for 7 years and like every school YY has its issues but I would say this. MY DC has taken and passed all the hanban.org exams from the YCT to HSK (still working on some HSK) we had no Au pairs and don't speak Chinese at home. DC has also won tons of speech competition against kids of native speaking parents. DC may be the exception to the rule but we got exactly what we wanted out of the school. Small class size, warm safe environment and DC made great friends. DC was awarded scholarship to 2 top private school in the area, so at the end of the day it may not work for all and some will get more out of it than others but to say no kid has come out speaking Chinese properly is untrue and my kid is the proof of that without added help.

[Anonymous]

Some native speaking DC parents, not just ABCs but Chinese immigrants who came to the US as adults, don't emphasize speaking Chinese in the home. I often hear YY parents say "that student is a native speaker; the parent(s) speaks Chinese." Then you speak Mandarin to the kid and realize that parent(s) aren't committed to raising him or her bilingual. Or you meet an ABC who doesn't speak Chinese quite fluently, and are blown away by how well next generation speaks, generally with a lot of help from extended family and babysitters.

You can't tell how well an ethnic kid is going to speak Chinese by hearing the parents speak.

[Anonymous]

This is true. Also true that many older YY students (and now DCI Chinese track students), can hardly speak Chinese and know little about Chinese culture (they get a Disney version from YY).

These are the main reason that most of us in this city who speak Chinese at home with kids decided to ignore YY some years back.

No point in paying attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is true. Also true that many older YY students (and now DCI Chinese track students), can hardly speak Chinese and know little about Chinese culture (they get a Disney version from YY).

These are the main reason that most of us in this city who speak Chinese at home with kids decided to ignore YY some years back.

No point in paying attention.

Ignore? Based on this thread, you seem downright obsessed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some native speaking DC parents, not just ABCs but Chinese immigrants who came to the US as adults, don't emphasize speaking Chinese in the home. I often hear YY parents say "that student is a native speaker; the parent(s) speaks Chinese." Then you speak Mandarin to the kid and realize that parent(s) aren't committed to raising him or her bilingual. Or you meet an ABC who doesn't speak Chinese quite fluently, and are blown away by how well next generation speaks, generally with a lot of help from extended family and babysitters.

You can't tell how well an ethnic kid is going to speak Chinese by hearing the parents speak.

This.

It is true for any language. Not just Chinese in particular. I have friends who are native Spanish or Portuguese speakers failed to raise their kids bilingual. It depends a lot on the kids too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is true. Also true that many older YY students (and now DCI Chinese track students), can hardly speak Chinese and know little about Chinese culture (they get a Disney version from YY).

These are the main reason that most of us in this city who speak Chinese at home with kids decided to ignore YY some years back.

No point in paying attention.

Ignore? Based on this thread, you seem downright obsessed.

This. Bizarre behavior. Instead of just saying “This school is trash” once and stating why like most “normal” DCUM posters (lol), he comes back to address every. single. positive post. He says basically slightly different iterations of the same thing. Yes, obsessed seems fair to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a deranged native Chinese speaker, white guy in fact. But a skeptic nonetheless. Flame away.

Oh expert, do you speak Chinese? Let us guess, you don't. Do you have ethnic Chinese friends or relatives? Let us guess, none of those. Have you lived, worked or traveled extensively in any Chinese-speaking country? Let us guess, you haven't. What do you know about Chinese language and culture? Let us, guess, very little.

Not convinced that Chinese immersion is going anywhere for your family. If the school were half as wonderful as you describe, the local ethnic bilingual Chinese community would be trying as hard to get their litle ones in as Latinos try for Oyster. Seems that DC Chinese don't bother with YY.

The fact that the speakers of this language all but ignore this fabulous school says that something's rotten in this rosy picture. In Lower Manhattan,where I lived before DC, the ethnic Chinese families I rubbed shoulders with reported that they were eager to get their kids into PS Mandarin immersion programs. They often failed, but boy did they try.

At no point did I refer to any person as deranged, nor did I flame. I simply shared my experiences, as well as some real facts, about YY and why it operates the way it does.

I can completely understand why families of Chinese descent in NYC are keen to get in to Mandarin immersion public schools. There is a large enough Chinese speaking community in NYC to support two-way immersion. As I explained, pretty clearly I think, there just isn't a large enough Chinese speaking community in the District to maintain that kind of program, and charter law doesn't allow for funneling the few Chinese speaking families who live here into YY to create that balance.

Also, as I indicated above, I'm continually shocked at the level of gross vitriol and personal attacks that DCUM seems to thrive on. In fact I do speak Mandarin (I read and write too, but I'm a bit rusty these days from lack of practice). In fact I have lived in China - way back before it was cool. All of which is how I know that my kids' Chinese is conversant, not fluent. And I'm perfectly ok with that.

I think the problem is perhaps peoples' expectations. YY is a very good school that does a fantastic job with the resources available, and teaches all of the kids that walk in the doors. YY is not a private school that can choose who to teach, and charge them lots of money for the privilege. It is a public charter school. My kids are happy, supported, and learning. I never had an expectation that my kids would walk out of 5th grade sounding like a native Mandarin speaker. I do expect them to work hard, try their best, learn and grow, and I expect their school to support them in that endeavor. So far it has gone pretty well.

Important question:
If the kids' Chinese competency is conversant rather than fluent, and teaching occurs in Chinese every other day, what does this mean for kids' retention of the subjects taught during Chinese language days? We are okay with conversational ability, rather than fluency, but would worry if that undercuts learning in other standard subjects like math, science, and reading. Parents who have been to YY past K, please pleaselet us know your experiences on this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a deranged native Chinese speaker, white guy in fact. But a skeptic nonetheless. Flame away.

Oh expert, do you speak Chinese? Let us guess, you don't. Do you have ethnic Chinese friends or relatives? Let us guess, none of those. Have you lived, worked or traveled extensively in any Chinese-speaking country? Let us guess, you haven't. What do you know about Chinese language and culture? Let us, guess, very little.

Not convinced that Chinese immersion is going anywhere for your family. If the school were half as wonderful as you describe, the local ethnic bilingual Chinese community would be trying as hard to get their litle ones in as Latinos try for Oyster. Seems that DC Chinese don't bother with YY.

The fact that the speakers of this language all but ignore this fabulous school says that something's rotten in this rosy picture. In Lower Manhattan,where I lived before DC, the ethnic Chinese families I rubbed shoulders with reported that they were eager to get their kids into PS Mandarin immersion programs. They often failed, but boy did they try.

At no point did I refer to any person as deranged, nor did I flame. I simply shared my experiences, as well as some real facts, about YY and why it operates the way it does.

I can completely understand why families of Chinese descent in NYC are keen to get in to Mandarin immersion public schools. There is a large enough Chinese speaking community in NYC to support two-way immersion. As I explained, pretty clearly I think, there just isn't a large enough Chinese speaking community in the District to maintain that kind of program, and charter law doesn't allow for funneling the few Chinese speaking families who live here into YY to create that balance.

Also, as I indicated above, I'm continually shocked at the level of gross vitriol and personal attacks that DCUM seems to thrive on. In fact I do speak Mandarin (I read and write too, but I'm a bit rusty these days from lack of practice). In fact I have lived in China - way back before it was cool. All of which is how I know that my kids' Chinese is conversant, not fluent. And I'm perfectly ok with that.

I think the problem is perhaps peoples' expectations. YY is a very good school that does a fantastic job with the resources available, and teaches all of the kids that walk in the doors. YY is not a private school that can choose who to teach, and charge them lots of money for the privilege. It is a public charter school. My kids are happy, supported, and learning. I never had an expectation that my kids would walk out of 5th grade sounding like a native Mandarin speaker. I do expect them to work hard, try their best, learn and grow, and I expect their school to support them in that endeavor. So far it has gone pretty well.

Important question:
If the kids' Chinese competency is conversant rather than fluent, and teaching occurs in Chinese every other day, what does this mean for kids' retention of the subjects taught during Chinese language days? We are okay with conversational ability, rather than fluency, but would worry if that undercuts learning in other standard subjects like math, science, and reading. Parents who have been to YY past K, please pleaselet us know your experiences on this point.

They continue to work on math and other projects on Chinese days, just in Chinese (Arabic numbers). They learn specialized Chinese vocabulary that is related to the current unit of study so that they can just continue on no matter what day of the week it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is true. Also true that many older YY students (and now DCI Chinese track students), can hardly speak Chinese and know little about Chinese culture (they get a Disney version from YY).

These are the main reason that most of us in this city who speak Chinese at home with kids decided to ignore YY some years back.

No point in paying attention.

Ignore? Based on this thread, you seem downright obsessed.

This. Bizarre behavior. Instead of just saying “This school is trash” once and stating why like most “normal” DCUM posters (lol), he comes back to address every. single. positive post. He says basically slightly different iterations of the same thing. Yes, obsessed seems fair to say.

NP and a YY mom. You seem to be the most obsessed.

What I'm hearing here is that most native speakers could care less what happens at YY these days, different than 4-5 years ago. What I read here mirrors the sense you get at the school. There's been an uptick in the # of kids whose parents speak Chinese enrolling over the years, but a really modest one (1-2 kids per class in early childhood classes an d K). We haven't been thrilled with Chinese instruction at YY. We're moving on to a private next year w/a strong (stronger?)all around program.

Give it a rest arleady.

[Anonymous]

+1000

[Anonymous]

Washington City Paper Best Of 2018:

Best Elementary School
Washington Yu Ying PCS

https://local.washingtoncitypaper.com/publication/best-of-dc/2018/people-and-places/best-elementary-school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Washington City Paper Best Of 2018:

Best Elementary School
Washington Yu Ying PCS

https://local.washingtoncitypaper.com/publication/best-of-dc/2018/people-and-places/best-elementary-school

Decided by the scientific method of.... reader's votes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Washington City Paper Best Of 2018:

Best Elementary School
Washington Yu Ying PCS

https://local.washingtoncitypaper.com/publication/best-of-dc/2018/people-and-places/best-elementary-school

Decided by the scientific method of.... reader's votes.

Got damn does everything have to be a friggin pissing-contest complete with urinalysis to test for disorders?
It's friggin FYI not empirical evidence of educational excellence that you have to challenge and question.
And speaking of FYI - yes it was determined by readers votes. And...so the hell what?
Are you insinuating that people's opinions aren't worth a damn? Are you saying people's opinions don't matter?
If that's the case what the hell are you doing on DCUM offering your opinions for?!!
Sheesh