Yu Ying

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

What level HSK could your child pass after 7 years at Yu Ying? It's great he could do all the YCT exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

PP here. Not at all obsessed and have only responded a couple times here--I'm just someone who's been watching this thread with incredulity. I don't think the thread was even geared to native speakers who could not care less about YY, but to people who have kids learning Mandarin as a second language, and what they could expect in terms of fluency/general experience.

Also, I'd point out that your assertion that these days most native speakers could not care less about YY seems in direct contradiction to your observation that there has been a modest uptick in native speaking families over the years at YY.

As for private, good luck. We recently moved a kid to private from a Deal feeder, and while we're happy, it's not all a bed of roses.

[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.

Let's be honest: It was decided by reader's votes...who also happen to be YY parents.

YY is not the best school in DC by any metric, other than it's the best/ONLY public Chinese immersion school in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Let's be honest: It was decided by reader's votes...who also happen to be YY parents.

YY is not the best school in DC by any metric, other than it's the best/ONLY public Chinese immersion school in DC.

NP. Duh. Of course people familiar with a school/restaurant/store/gym are the ones voting for “best of” in this poll. That’s how it works. It’s based on the opinion of people who know the establishment and care enough to vote. It’s fine if you don’t agree the the results but that’s your opinion. It’s a poll that doesn’t mean anything, regardless of the category. I will never understand why some of you take every opportunity to bash the school. If you don’t like the school, why are you even on this thread?

[Anonymous]

Waiting to hear what level HSK from that PP...
My non-native speaker elementary kid just got Novice3 on the APPL after three years of Mandarin Chinese—APPL is far more difficult IMHO.

[Anonymous]

You know that APPL is more difficult than HSK because you speak Mandarin? I have news for you, Novice3 is the level of a Chinese-speaking 3 year old. You must not host Chinese au pairs.

There has been a modest uptick in the number of native-speaking adults putting their children's names in the YY lottery in the last few years, vs. an increase in the number of kids who speak Chinese coming to YY. Families whose little kids who speak good Chinese (any dialect, an indication that these families aren't highly assimilated to Western culture) at ages 3-7 still avoid YY almost to a family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know that APPL is more difficult than HSK because you speak Mandarin? I have news for you, Novice3 is the level of a Chinese-speaking 3 year old. You must not host Chinese au pairs.

There has been a modest uptick in the number of native-speaking adults putting their children's names in the YY lottery in the last few years, vs. an increase in the number of kids who speak Chinese coming to YY. Families whose little kids who speak good Chinese (any dialect, an indication that these families aren't highly assimilated to Western culture) at ages 3-7 still avoid YY almost to a family.

So, after 3 years of part time Chinese (15-25 hours a week) her kid speaks as well as a child who has had 3 years of 24/7 Chinese?

That’s great!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know that APPL is more difficult than HSK because you speak Mandarin? I have news for you, Novice3 is the level of a Chinese-speaking 3 year old. You must not host Chinese au pairs.

There has been a modest uptick in the number of native-speaking adults putting their children's names in the YY lottery in the last few years, vs. an increase in the number of kids who speak Chinese coming to YY. Families whose little kids who speak good Chinese (any dialect, an indication that these families aren't highly assimilated to Western culture) at ages 3-7 still avoid YY almost to a family.

So, after 3 years of part time Chinese (15-25 hours a week) her kid speaks as well as a child who has had 3 years of 24/7 Chinese?

That’s great!

Well, you can't compare the language ability of a 3-year old to a much older kid.

[Anonymous]

NP who plans to turn down YY spot for our IB dcps this week.

Apparently, at YY, any Chinese your kid can mumble, read and write for your 50% of classroom time over many years is considered great by all involved. Not impressed!

[Anonymous]

+1!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Let's be honest: It was decided by reader's votes...who also happen to be YY parents.

YY is not the best school in DC by any metric, other than it's the best/ONLY public Chinese immersion school in DC.

NP. Duh. Of course people familiar with a school/restaurant/store/gym are the ones voting for “best of” in this poll. That’s how it works. It’s based on the opinion of people who know the establishment and care enough to vote. It’s fine if you don’t agree the the results but that’s your opinion. It’s a poll that doesn’t mean anything, regardless of the category. I will never understand why some of you take every opportunity to bash the school. If you don’t like the school, why are you even on this thread?

These are the same readers who voted Hot N Juicy Crawfish as the best restaurant in the city. So there’s that.

[Anonymous]

I’m finding that these negative YY posters make me all the more interested in the school. By many measures including the QSRs and the year to year growth metrics, the school is hitting it out of the ballpark. Not really sure what draws so much negativity but it seems there is some low key racism involved. Good riddance to those who have moved on—the school will only get stronger without you there.

[Anonymous]

No dog in this fight, but the weak Chinese can't be explained by "racism" on the part of the native speakers who avoid the school.

Most of the racism seems to be going in the other direction (not too many high achieving bilingual ethnics, please, they'll screw stuff up for us).

[Anonymous]

I also don’t have a dog in the fight, but “weak Chinese” compared to native speakers wouldn’t worry me. Much more difficult language with less accessibility to resources like you’d find here for Spanish or French. I’d be more concerned if other fundamentals were also seriously lagging. It seems the school has room for improvement in ELA and Math, but is still far ahead of other bilingual schools in DC.

[Anonymous]

How about weak Chinese period? I'm not a native speaker, but my Mandarin is OK because I lived in China for a long time and use it at work. I know a dozen YY families with upper grades kids from the neighborhood. None host au pairs, or seem committed to Chinese studies. The kids spoken Chinese simply isn't good. ELA and Math at YY are not actually far ahead of Oyster.