Sp or Ch language?

[Anonymous]

Just curious whether people think Stokes' French program should be held to the same standards being called for in this thread for YY. If not, why not? What are the differences in the perceptions of and expectations for each?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just curious whether people think Stokes' French program should be held to the same standards being called for in this thread for YY. If not, why not? What are the differences in the perceptions of and expectations for each?

I was told that the French program at Stokes has a high proportion of kids from french-speaking African countries--is that not true?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious whether people think Stokes' French program should be held to the same standards being called for in this thread for YY. If not, why not? What are the differences in the perceptions of and expectations for each?

I was told that the French program at Stokes has a high proportion of kids from french-speaking African countries--is that not true?

It's true, maybe 1/4 of the kids with family ties to Francophone Africa and another good-sized group of AA kids who are ethnically Haitian. There are also Quebecois families, French from France, Switzerland and Belgium, and Americans who learned the language living and working in French-speaking countries.

French isn't nearly as difficult to learn as Chinese, or popular as an immersion language in this day, so Stokes attracts a large % of bilingual parents. I'd wager nearly half. French-speaking administrators routinely do outreach to the French-speaking communities in the District, which can themselves be on the insular side.

Stokes certainly doesn't come across as a school mainly serving affluent families without ties to French culture fleeing bad IB schools.

[Anonymous]

Anybody else unhappy with the idea of DCI being so far up, by Walter Reed? That's more than 10 miles for the Hill families, and there are many at most of the immersion schools.

The location is going to be a real issue for Hill parents, and even Brookland parents.

With Payne, Tyler Traditional, Ludlow-Taylor and Miner still struggling to keep IB families after pres, the immersion schools, particularly YY, get a lot of these kids but may not keep them for MS with a commute that will take an hour in traffic. This is true although Stuart-Hobson attracts few middle-class families, and Eliot-Hine attracts next to none. Moreover, the NY Ave. and Union Station to Bethesda Metro commutes aren't quick.

With Wash Latin probably moving to Fort Totten and Basis opening in Penn Quarter, those will surely remain Hill parents top MS top choices. But what's to be done? It's is a fine facility at Walter Reed and will serve the influential/numerous NW parents well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Over the past 12 months, the big PA initiatives I can think of were constructing the school's playground and holding administrators' feet to the fire over bullying.

What's the deal with the bullying? I've heard rumors, and read the odd snippet on DCUMB, but that's it.

I'm a Chinese immigrant- we have a spot but haven't taken it.

As a kid, I attended a majority AA ES where kids called me "chink" almost every day, accompanied by the dreaded corner-of-eyes pulling gesture. After my family complained, through an interpreter, the bullying accelerated. My Caucasian spouse claims that we have no reason to think our DC would be bullied at YY, but I'm not convinced - kids are cruel, Chinese kids are a very small minority, and there isn't an Asian administrator to talk to, an authority figure who may have had similar experiences (perhaps w/white or Hispanic kids).

I can assure you my SN biracial, 1/2 Asian (not Chinese), 1/2 White child has never been teased or bullied about being Asian, SNs, White, or anything else at YY. I've heard about bullying being an issue in the past in the upper grades on DCUM but our rising Ker has not experienced it and as a SN kid with obvious issues, he is an easy target for bullying and being singled out. The school, teachers and administrators, have all gone out of their way to make sure the school provides an inclusive, nurturing, warm environment. My child loves school and says he'll miss school over the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to a NYC magnet that had test based entrance and was majority Asian b/c of it. While it was a great education, it did not reflect society as a whole. While that is fine for high school, I don't want to send my child to a school especially for early elementary that is like that: The same reason I would never send my child to an immersion Mandarin/Spanish/Korean/Hebrew school or to an public elementary school in an predominant ethnic enclave like Chinatown.

Mandarin is important to our family but so is diversity - the two reasons we did not send DC to private especially for elementary school. Do what you feel fits your family.

No worries mate, YY's population is thought to be around 5% Chinese (adopted girls not included) and 2% fully bilingual. A far cry from the 60% Asian (more than half Chinese) at Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Bronx Tech. By contrast, the MoCo Chinese immersion ES school kids are about 40% Chinese and one-quarter fully bilingual upon entry.

I'm getting quite sick of posters on this thread looking down on adopted children at YY. Those girls are more Chinese than any of you ABCs.

[Anonymous]

My sentiments exactly, PP.
Adopted girls not included???? WTF???? Number one, there are Chinese boys at the school who are adopted. too. Second, these children are native Chinese. Third, they're CHILDREN first, and adopted second. Haven't you ever heard of person-first language?? Do you refer to all children by their biological beginnings?? Jeez. How insensitive are you?????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My sentiments exactly, PP.
Adopted girls not included???? WTF???? Number one, there are Chinese boys at the school who are adopted. too. Second, these children are native Chinese. Third, they're CHILDREN first, and adopted second. Haven't you ever heard of person-first language?? Do you refer to all children by their biological beginnings?? Jeez. How insensitive are you?????

These reactions are knee jerk. Nobody's being insenstive. The girls (more than 90% of the children adopted from China are female), who outnumber bilingual kids at YY, are simply in their own category of kid. 2 obvious reasons for this. They don't learn Chinese at home/aren't bilingual because, in almost every case, their parents are caucasian and haven't lived or worked in China. So they aren't influenced by Chinese culture much more than non-Chinese kids.

My Chinese immigrant spouse is often approached by parents of girls adopted from China in our NW neighborhood. He generally wants to hide when this happens because he's shy and doesn't feel a connection to these parents, or know what to say to them. Generally, they're only experience in China was to pick up their baby or toddler. When you talk to the YY teachers about the adoptees, they know exactly who they are and use specific, and respectful, Cantonese or Mandarin vocabulary to refer to them as a group.

[Anonymous]

+1. Chill out, folks. These are fair points. You can't have meaingful conversations about bilingualism and culture at YY if you're going to pretend that the adopted Chinese kids are no different than those being raised by Chinese-American families who speak dialects at home.

In Chinese culture, there's a strong taboo against adoption that is falling, much like resistance to gay marriage is crumbling around this country, with most older people against and most young people for. If there were more Chinese parents around YY, such a cultural phenomenon wouldn't seem so strange.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1. Chill out, folks. These are fair points. You can't have meaingful conversations about bilingualism and culture at YY if you're going to pretend that the adopted Chinese kids are no different than those being raised by Chinese-American families who speak dialects at home.

In Chinese culture, there's a strong taboo against adoption that is falling, much like resistance to gay marriage is crumbling around this country, with most older people against and most young people for. If there were more Chinese parents around YY, such a cultural phenomenon wouldn't seem so strange.

And what? You want to import this sort of "cultural phenomenon" into a school environment so you can improve the cultural awareness of small children. Adoption is considered almost as taboo as having SNs. SN kids are traditionally hidden away by Chinese families and denied an education to save face. In Chinese culture, adoptees and the handicapped are relegated the status of beggars. Their very existance considered a shameful secret. I personally find all the talk and categorization of "adopted" girls vs those with real Chinese parents offensive b/c I know exactly where it's coming from and it's ugly. No thanks...

[Anonymous]

Adoptees - should read "orphans"

and

"real Chinese" parents

[Anonymous]

To the PP who is worried her child will be bullied. My DC (ABC father, white mother) has not been bullied. There are many children of mixed heritage- that's one reason we love the school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Adoptees - should read "orphans"

and

"real Chinese" parents

you are a racist piece of shit. Take your nastiness and find a hate group on the web. you don't even know what you are saying. i hope no one is as hateful to you as you are being right now to these kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Adoptees - should read "orphans"

and

"real Chinese" parents

you are a racist piece of shit. Take your nastiness and find a hate group on the web. you don't even know what you are saying. i hope no one is as hateful to you as you are being right now to these kids.

No, no, I think what the (first) PP posted is actually true and shouldn't be treated so harshly. This is my first time posting on this thread, but I've been following it. I am an adoptive parent of a Chinese, SN daughter. It is factually true that orphans, first of all, and SN children, secondly, are really looked down upon within Chinese society. It is what it is. First of all, they have no lineage, so they have that working against them. Even their names give them away, because they are given names which denote them as orphans. Secondly, they may have the death knell of being SN, which is a double slam. It is just the way it is, culturally, no social net, etc. I have no misconceptions that this is how my DD may/is(?) viewed by some "old school" Chinese folks, whether they be ABCs, people within China, people here within the Chinese school community, etc. My DD is only 4.5 so I am still deciding whether to enroll her within Chinese school or not, but this is going to be a factor in our decision. But I don't feel any animosity towards the native Chinese for feeling this way. You can't really apply our Western impressions upon their society/background. It's just totally different. As for us and our family, we will just factor this in our decision. But I can't "knock" any native Chinese or ABC for stating it like it is. What can they do? That's how it is. I'm Irish; that would be like slamming the Irish for, I don't know, whatever people slam us for: drinking, etc. Yeah, what can i say? A lot of Irish people drink. A lot of Chinese are biased against orphans and SN. My DD is both of those. What can I do about it? Not much, except ensure that she only views it as an historical and cultural oddity, that has nothing emotionally to do with herself. I think people on this thread who have been slamming the native Chinese and/or ABCs may have their hearts in the right place but may be barking up the wrong tree. If we were to establish a school of English in, say, Saudi Arabia, would we be satisfied with a school that merely taught the semantics of the English language without imparting any US or Western values or history or culture at all? This is the same thing that certain posters on this thread have been calling for/supporting on this thread as it relates to YY or other similar Chinese language schools.

[Anonymous]

First you amen need to stop in regards to no mandarin speaking administrators. YY has a Mandarin speaking administrator. She happens to be biracial, as in Chinese and Black. But, that might not be Chinese enough fro some people on this thread.