CMI vs YY for PK3?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. Most of the parents I know do not have au pairs or tutors. Some use Chinese apps and movies. The school makes a real effort to provide supplemental materials - Chinese reading apps, aftercare choices in Chinese, etc. that are free. I teach myself the three and four skilled characters and drill my kids myself. There are also camps and weekend classes that are not free, but certainly not as pricey as tutoring or as involved as an au pair.

+1. Same and DS is entering 4th grade. Neither of us know Mandarin and it's fine. We figure if DS did not go to YY, his knowledge of Mandarin would be zero nevermind a bad accent.

DH and I are both bilingual so the only common language in our household is English. We figure any weaknesses in DS's mandarin will be easily correctable after a summer and/or semester aboard in China when he is older.

Want to add that we are very happy with YY's curriculum and how they handle differentiation. DS is 2 grade levels above in English and Math and the school handles it well. Also, they have been very supportive and accommodating about his extracurricular activity in which he excels and competes nationally.

[Anonymous]

Whoah, weaknesses in Mandarin are not "easily correctible" at any age (says the musically talented ABC who speaks two dialects and reads OK, after attending heritage schools on Fri nights from K-12). I even spent a college year at a Chinese univ in a full immersion program without emerging as fluent in either dialect. In our experience, YY only gives good or excellent grades in speaking. Admins know that, with only a handful of true native-speaking kids in the school, speaking Mandarin is tied to SES: money for Chinese au pairs (native speakers without local grandparents often host them), tutors and immersion summer camps, preferably in China. Admins tell the Chinese teachers that it's unfair to grade kids down for speaking/listening ability, so they don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whoah, weaknesses in Mandarin are not "easily correctible" at any age (says the musically talented ABC who speaks two dialects and reads OK, after attending heritage schools on Fri nights from K-12). I even spent a college year at a Chinese univ in a full immersion program without emerging as fluent in either dialect. In our experience, YY only gives good or excellent grades in speaking. Admins know that, with only a handful of true native-speaking kids in the school, speaking Mandarin is tied to SES: money for Chinese au pairs (native speakers without local grandparents often host them), tutors and immersion summer camps, preferably in China. Admins tell the Chinese teachers that it's unfair to grade kids down for speaking/listening ability, so they don't.

That sounds appropriate to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whoah, weaknesses in Mandarin are not "easily correctible" at any age (says the musically talented ABC who speaks two dialects and reads OK, after attending heritage schools on Fri nights from K-12). I even spent a college year at a Chinese univ in a full immersion program without emerging as fluent in either dialect. In our experience, YY only gives good or excellent grades in speaking. Admins know that, with only a handful of true native-speaking kids in the school, speaking Mandarin is tied to SES: money for Chinese au pairs (native speakers without local grandparents often host them), tutors and immersion summer camps, preferably in China. Admins tell the Chinese teachers that it's unfair to grade kids down for speaking/listening ability, so they don't.

Whoah, the YY kids are at an obvious advantage to anyone else in Chinese at the University level, with the exception of those who grew up with Chinese in the house. And, that's what au pairs are for.

[Anonymous]

Anyone else? There are dozens of public Chinese immersion elementary programs around the country these days, particularly on the West Coast. In California, most teach dual/two-way immersion Mandarin.

Having a native speaking au pair in the house without at least one other adult around to speak Chinese with isn't as wonderful as it sounds. Child learners gain tremendously from listening in on, and being a part of, adult conversations. In Spanish, maybe an au pair can do the job alone. Everyday Chinese is a hell of a lot harder than Spanish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoah, weaknesses in Mandarin are not "easily correctible" at any age (says the musically talented ABC who speaks two dialects and reads OK, after attending heritage schools on Fri nights from K-12). I even spent a college year at a Chinese univ in a full immersion program without emerging as fluent in either dialect. In our experience, YY only gives good or excellent grades in speaking. Admins know that, with only a handful of true native-speaking kids in the school, speaking Mandarin is tied to SES: money for Chinese au pairs (native speakers without local grandparents often host them), tutors and immersion summer camps, preferably in China. Admins tell the Chinese teachers that it's unfair to grade kids down for speaking/listening ability, so they don't.

That sounds appropriate to me.

Some of us would prefer a more serious language program, working around limitations imposed by federal charter law, than what's "appropriate." YY could offer summer immersion camps with fees on a sliding scale. Many parents would happily pay. They could also start testing alleged heritage speakers for speaking ability on arrival and publishing the results. MoCo is doing all this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whoah, weaknesses in Mandarin are not "easily correctible" at any age (says the musically talented ABC who speaks two dialects and reads OK, after attending heritage schools on Fri nights from K-12). I even spent a college year at a Chinese univ in a full immersion program without emerging as fluent in either dialect. In our experience, YY only gives good or excellent grades in speaking. Admins know that, with only a handful of true native-speaking kids in the school, speaking Mandarin is tied to SES: money for Chinese au pairs (native speakers without local grandparents often host them), tutors and immersion summer camps, preferably in China. Admins tell the Chinese teachers that it's unfair to grade kids down for speaking/listening ability, so they don't.

Whatever... I am the pp with the kid who is a rising fourth grader at YY. We are happy with the Mandarin taught at YY. I am a native speaker of another language and learned English after immigrating here. If my kid wants to improve his Mandarin, he can always go live and work in China like I did when I came to the USA and at least in his case, he'll have some background in Mandarin unlike me.

If DS did not attend YY, his knowledge of Mandarin will be zero. We chose YY over a highly regarded monolingual private school for elementary school and will do it again. DS will be going to private school for middle and high school in NYC.

So don't send your kid to YY if you think the Mandarin is inadequate. There are plenty of people who think otherwise and hope for luck in the lottery. Your complaints frankly sounds like sour grapes that dialect speakers are not given preference in admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoah, weaknesses in Mandarin are not "easily correctible" at any age (says the musically talented ABC who speaks two dialects and reads OK, after attending heritage schools on Fri nights from K-12). I even spent a college year at a Chinese univ in a full immersion program without emerging as fluent in either dialect. In our experience, YY only gives good or excellent grades in speaking. Admins know that, with only a handful of true native-speaking kids in the school, speaking Mandarin is tied to SES: money for Chinese au pairs (native speakers without local grandparents often host them), tutors and immersion summer camps, preferably in China. Admins tell the Chinese teachers that it's unfair to grade kids down for speaking/listening ability, so they don't.

That sounds appropriate to me.

Some of us would prefer a more serious language program, working around limitations imposed by federal charter law, than what's "appropriate." YY could offer summer immersion camps with fees on a sliding scale. Many parents would happily pay. They could also start testing alleged heritage speakers for speaking ability on arrival and publishing the results. MoCo is doing all this.

I love it when people suggest what another enterprise should just "offer." Have you created a business plan? What's the curriculum? What's the staffing model? How many students will enroll (lower bound, estimated mean, upper bound)? What will be the costs and what's the price structure?

You realize that you're talking about creating a private program within a public school, right? This isn't an extension of what Yu Ying currently offers - that's a state-funded (or district-funded) model. This is entirely different. Nice that MoCo does it, have you considered moving there? Because DC does not. What's your proposal? What are the specifics?

If it's so easy, then you should have something in mind. Let's hear it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoah, weaknesses in Mandarin are not "easily correctible" at any age (says the musically talented ABC who speaks two dialects and reads OK, after attending heritage schools on Fri nights from K-12). I even spent a college year at a Chinese univ in a full immersion program without emerging as fluent in either dialect. In our experience, YY only gives good or excellent grades in speaking. Admins know that, with only a handful of true native-speaking kids in the school, speaking Mandarin is tied to SES: money for Chinese au pairs (native speakers without local grandparents often host them), tutors and immersion summer camps, preferably in China. Admins tell the Chinese teachers that it's unfair to grade kids down for speaking/listening ability, so they don't.

That sounds appropriate to me.

Some of us would prefer a more serious language program, working around limitations imposed by federal charter law, than what's "appropriate." YY could offer summer immersion camps with fees on a sliding scale. Many parents would happily pay. They could also start testing alleged heritage speakers for speaking ability on arrival and publishing the results. MoCo is doing all this.

I love it when people suggest what another enterprise should just "offer." Have you created a business plan? What's the curriculum? What's the staffing model? How many students will enroll (lower bound, estimated mean, upper bound)? What will be the costs and what's the price structure?

You realize that you're talking about creating a private program within a public school, right? This isn't an extension of what Yu Ying currently offers - that's a state-funded (or district-funded) model. This is entirely different. Nice that MoCo does it, have you considered moving there? Because DC does not. What's your proposal? What are the specifics?

If it's so easy, then you should have something in mind. Let's hear it.

Ummmm...a lot of DC charters have summer camps so I don't think this idea is all that crazy...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoah, weaknesses in Mandarin are not "easily correctible" at any age (says the musically talented ABC who speaks two dialects and reads OK, after attending heritage schools on Fri nights from K-12). I even spent a college year at a Chinese univ in a full immersion program without emerging as fluent in either dialect. In our experience, YY only gives good or excellent grades in speaking. Admins know that, with only a handful of true native-speaking kids in the school, speaking Mandarin is tied to SES: money for Chinese au pairs (native speakers without local grandparents often host them), tutors and immersion summer camps, preferably in China. Admins tell the Chinese teachers that it's unfair to grade kids down for speaking/listening ability, so they don't.

That sounds appropriate to me.

Some of us would prefer a more serious language program, working around limitations imposed by federal charter law, than what's "appropriate." YY could offer summer immersion camps with fees on a sliding scale. Many parents would happily pay. They could also start testing alleged heritage speakers for speaking ability on arrival and publishing the results. MoCo is doing all this.

I love it when people suggest what another enterprise should just "offer." Have you created a business plan? What's the curriculum? What's the staffing model? How many students will enroll (lower bound, estimated mean, upper bound)? What will be the costs and what's the price structure?

You realize that you're talking about creating a private program within a public school, right? This isn't an extension of what Yu Ying currently offers - that's a state-funded (or district-funded) model. This is entirely different. Nice that MoCo does it, have you considered moving there? Because DC does not. What's your proposal? What are the specifics?

If it's so easy, then you should have something in mind. Let's hear it.

Ummmm...a lot of DC charters have summer camps so I don't think this idea is all that crazy...

Really? That's splendid! Tell us please which DC charters run a "summer immersion camp"? The sort which might be described as "more serious language program, working around limitations imposed by federal charter law"? The sort for which "many parents would happily pay"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoah, weaknesses in Mandarin are not "easily correctible" at any age (says the musically talented ABC who speaks two dialects and reads OK, after attending heritage schools on Fri nights from K-12). I even spent a college year at a Chinese univ in a full immersion program without emerging as fluent in either dialect. In our experience, YY only gives good or excellent grades in speaking. Admins know that, with only a handful of true native-speaking kids in the school, speaking Mandarin is tied to SES: money for Chinese au pairs (native speakers without local grandparents often host them), tutors and immersion summer camps, preferably in China. Admins tell the Chinese teachers that it's unfair to grade kids down for speaking/listening ability, so they don't.

That sounds appropriate to me.

Some of us would prefer a more serious language program, working around limitations imposed by federal charter law, than what's "appropriate." YY could offer summer immersion camps with fees on a sliding scale. Many parents would happily pay. They could also start testing alleged heritage speakers for speaking ability on arrival and publishing the results. MoCo is doing all this.

I love it when people suggest what another enterprise should just "offer." Have you created a business plan? What's the curriculum? What's the staffing model? How many students will enroll (lower bound, estimated mean, upper bound)? What will be the costs and what's the price structure?

You realize that you're talking about creating a private program within a public school, right? This isn't an extension of what Yu Ying currently offers - that's a state-funded (or district-funded) model. This is entirely different. Nice that MoCo does it, have you considered moving there? Because DC does not. What's your proposal? What are the specifics?

If it's so easy, then you should have something in mind. Let's hear it.

Ummmm...a lot of DC charters have summer camps so I don't think this idea is all that crazy...

Really? That's splendid! Tell us please which DC charters run a "summer immersion camp"? The sort which might be described as "more serious language program, working around limitations imposed by federal charter law"? The sort for which "many parents would happily pay"?

Mundo Verde runs a full-day K-4th grade summer camp program for three weeks. Parents pay on a sliding scale. The school doesn't stop at handing out good grades for Spanish when kids can hardly speak or understand. Honestly, no language but Spanish is taught via "immersion" in this city. Learning a language 2 1/2 days a week only from teachers alone for around 8 months a year isn't immersion. Sounds good, but isn't. No wonder more and more parents pay to supplement. We've been hosting Chinese au pairs for years. YY parents often approach us to ask if our current au pair can tutor - more do this with each passing year. Our au pairs sometimes make more tutoring than we pay 'em as per State Dept. rules. The YY parents organization should fundraise to help pay tutors.

[Anonymous]

It's only Spanish. It is the easiest language for an English-speaker to learn.

[Anonymous]

YY offered summer camp/ school for two weeks each summer until a couple of years ago, when the District cut out funding for summer school for non at-risk kids. It was free except for aftercare. They could bring it back on a paid basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's only Spanish. It is the easiest language for an English-speaker to learn.

Well, at least those kids are actually bilingual--and truly fluent in their second language. The vast majority of YY students? Not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's only Spanish. It is the easiest language for an English-speaker to learn.

Well, at least those kids are actually bilingual--and truly fluent in their second language. The vast majority of YY students? Not so much.

...cause and effect here. Much higher pool of native Spanish speakers + much easier to learn Spanish.