Mandarin

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
1) Threads are not "owned".
2) McLean HS may start offering Mandarin shortly- it depends on how many students rising from Chesterbrook want to keep it. Otherwise, they will have the Marshall option.
3) Yes, you can transfer to a school that offers Mandarin if your in bound school does now. However, it might not be the closest school to you that offers Mandarin. the school also has to be open for transfers.

FCPS has already told McLean HS it won't get Chinese next year.

Kind of sucks, really. There are lots of Asian-American families, APS has Chinese, Langley offers Japanese and Russian, Marshall has Chinese, and McLean gets the same boring choices available in the 1960s (French, German and Spanish, and one of the Spanish teachers is such an evil witch that students will drop the language rather than run of the risk of getting assigned to her).

McLean's a good school, but if I had a child who was really talented at a foreign language I'd move to another district.

Oh, rats. That's really too bad. I would think there would be a very large, population of kids who would be interested in at McLean HS too. That is really too bad.

We currently live in the Herndon HS district and my older daughter is only 7 so I am trying to scout things out to prepare if we need to move to a different district or not. Herndon HS has very boring, 1960s "World Language" choices too: French, German, Latin, Spanish. I personally have nothing against any of these languages; I myself took Latin and Spanish back in the day. But that personally does us no good at this point: we want Mandarin and my older DD already been taking it for years and loves it so I'd really like to provide her the opportunity to continue on through hs.

Well, thank you for your reply!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you Chinese? Why would you want to take Mandarin?

You are joking, right?

No, I wasn't. I don't understand why someone would take Chinese in this area otherwise. It doesn't have any real utility unless you anticipate living and working in China.

Not the person you are responding to, but. . .

That's great. Now, can you stop clogging up my thread where I am trying to find out some concrete information here?

1) How can I find out which schools other than Marshall and TJ (if any) offer Mandarin? I have already looked on FCPS website. Short of randomly selecting each school and searching out the info within the site, I am not seeing any way to search for this. (?)

2) If you are zoned for a school that does not offer Mandarin, can you switch to one that does offer it?

1) Threads are not "owned".
2) McLean HS may start offering Mandarin shortly- it depends on how many students rising from Chesterbrook want to keep it. Otherwise, they will have the Marshall option.
3) Yes, you can transfer to a school that offers Mandarin if your in bound school does not. However, it might not be the closest school to you that offers Mandarin. the school also has to be open for transfers.

Reply to your #3 above: Thanks so much! It is good to know this! So how does one's child get to and from school if it is not your districted school? Do you have to drive them?

It is up to the parents to figure out the transportation, that could mean that the parent's drive them or they hire someone or the student drives him/herself.

Ok, thanks. I kind of figured that is how it would be. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
1) Threads are not "owned".
2) McLean HS may start offering Mandarin shortly- it depends on how many students rising from Chesterbrook want to keep it. Otherwise, they will have the Marshall option.
3) Yes, you can transfer to a school that offers Mandarin if your in bound school does now. However, it might not be the closest school to you that offers Mandarin. the school also has to be open for transfers.

FCPS has already told McLean HS it won't get Chinese next year.

Kind of sucks, really. There are lots of Asian-American families, APS has Chinese, Langley offers Japanese and Russian, Marshall has Chinese, and McLean gets the same boring choices available in the 1960s (French, German and Spanish, and one of the Spanish teachers is such an evil witch that students will drop the language rather than run of the risk of getting assigned to her).

McLean's a good school, but if I had a child who was really talented at a foreign language I'd move to another district.

I know of a few MHS students who have taken or take Russian at Langley the first period of the day and drive back to McLean during Highlander time. I don't know of any who do the same with Marshall with Chinese- so it is possible without losing an elective and taking FCPS transportation midday. The parents did the driving until the student got the license.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
1) Threads are not "owned".
2) McLean HS may start offering Mandarin shortly- it depends on how many students rising from Chesterbrook want to keep it. Otherwise, they will have the Marshall option.
3) Yes, you can transfer to a school that offers Mandarin if your in bound school does now. However, it might not be the closest school to you that offers Mandarin. the school also has to be open for transfers.

FCPS has already told McLean HS it won't get Chinese next year.

Kind of sucks, really. There are lots of Asian-American families, APS has Chinese, Langley offers Japanese and Russian, Marshall has Chinese, and McLean gets the same boring choices available in the 1960s (French, German and Spanish, and one of the Spanish teachers is such an evil witch that students will drop the language rather than run of the risk of getting assigned to her).

McLean's a good school, but if I had a child who was really talented at a foreign language I'd move to another district.

I know of a few MHS students who have taken or take Russian at Langley the first period of the day and drive back to McLean during Highlander time. I don't know of any who do the same with Marshall with Chinese- so it is possible without losing an elective and taking FCPS transportation midday. The parents did the driving until the student got the license.

Oh, this is good to know. Ok, thanks, PP.

[Anonymous]

Why can't your daughter just continue with Mandarin instruction outside of school? I don't see how Mandarin 101 in high school is going to be of any use to her if she already has the basics down at age 7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can't your daughter just continue with Mandarin instruction outside of school? I don't see how Mandarin 101 in high school is going to be of any use to her if she already has the basics down at age 7.

Does anyone have any experience with testing out of Level 1/Level 2 of Mandarin? I understand there is a test offered in FCPS, but wondering if people do this? We have been taking Mandarin outside of school for several years and are now thinking DC will not benefit from an entry level class.