Lakewood ES or Chinese Immersion Program @ Potomac ES

[Anonymous]

We will be moving to Lakewood district and just got invitation to Chinese immersion program @Potomac ES. We are deciding if we should go with Chinese immersion. We are not Chinese speaking family. Which one would you pick and why? All comments/thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Nobody speaks Chinese in your family, but you were invited to that program?

[Anonymous]

Which is more important to you, being in school with your neighbors or having your child do Chinese Immersion. That is what it comes down to.
For me, going to a neighborhood school would win out unless I had a real reason to do immersion. There is a sense of community in going to the neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

You were accepted or you got information about the program? If you're not in the Potomac ES district, then the program is via lottery. It's only partial immersion and I would probably opt for my kid to attend the neighborhood school. And this is speaking as someone who applied for the Spanish immersion lottery (and did not get in.)

[Anonymous]

We got a phone call that there is a space for our DD, we were on the wait list. I like that it is partial because DD can learn in English too. Thanks for all the comments.

[Anonymous]

If you are on the fence, don't do it. There are lots of families dying to get into the Chinese immersion program. Give the slot to them!

[Anonymous]

Lakewood ES is a great school. If it is really important to you that your child be in an immersion program, then go with the Chinese Immersion program. FWIW - I have a friend whose kids were in teh French Immersion program. Her kids speak and write french fluently; however, when they write in English, their grammer is off and they have a lot of spelling errors. The French "rules" don't apply to English and they struggle when they enter Middle School - and not only in english classes, but other subjects as well. For example, when try to show the Average (mean), they didn't know the English word and tried to explain in a round about way what they were doing.

I am biased and feel that our children should recieve an hour instruction each day on a language rather than immerse them in a language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lakewood ES is a great school. If it is really important to you that your child be in an immersion program, then go with the Chinese Immersion program. FWIW - I have a friend whose kids were in teh French Immersion program. Her kids speak and write french fluently; however, when they write in English, their grammer is off and they have a lot of spelling errors. The French "rules" don't apply to English and they struggle when they enter Middle School - and not only in english classes, but other subjects as well. For example, when try to show the Average (mean), they didn't know the English word and tried to explain in a round about way what they were doing.

I am biased and feel that our children should recieve an hour instruction each day on a language rather than immerse them in a language.

If you do chinese immersion your children will never be fluent like they would be in French or Spanish. It's a much more difficult language to acquire, especially when you end up with so many native speakers in your class. i totally agree with PP regarding an hour instruction rather than immersion.