Disadvantages of a bilingual school

[Anonymous]

Yes, I also agree with this. My child will stay at Yu Ying as long as it is working, but even if she makes it through 8th grade, I think she will have to go to China as an exchange student in high school or college to really get the benefit of all the work she is doing now. This is just one small step. I really hope that Yu Ying works on some sort of school partnership with a school in China that will include homestays--I know from experience in learning a 2nd language that this is really a crucial leap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would you put your child through 3 or 4 years of Chinese immersion if you "know" you will leave? It isn't some type of party trick or feather in your cap. Those children work really hard to learn Chinese. I'm flummoxed and saddened that you've already decided that you are okay with discarding that effort.

Agreeed. If you're going to do it, plan to stay for the long haul and supplement the English outside of class.

[Anonymous]

I know a student who left Yu Ying last year after 3 years there. Her Chinese is already mostly gone despite her parents efforts to keep up a tutor once a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would you put your child through 3 or 4 years of Chinese immersion if you "know" you will leave? It isn't some type of party trick or feather in your cap. Those children work really hard to learn Chinese. I'm flummoxed and saddened that you've already decided that you are okay with discarding that effort.

Agreeed. If you're going to do it, plan to stay for the long haul and supplement the English outside of class.

While we're confident that we can supplement well enough through the early grades, we're not sure about the higher grades if we stay at Yu Ying. Would love to stay for the language and our wallet, but can't risk DC not getting a first rate education. Since YY is a young school and still in the process of working out the kinks who knows when they'll achieve that level.

All the schools we are looking at for high school require entrance testing as do the schools we are considering for 4th grade. While I'm not worried about testing in 3rd grade, I am worried that DC will fall behind in other subjects like math if we stay longer. So after 3rd grade, the Chinese will be supplemented. DC will have had 5 yrs of Chinese immersion and be old enough to spend summers in China at cultural/language camp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know a student who left Yu Ying last year after 3 years there. Her Chinese is already mostly gone despite her parents efforts to keep up a tutor once a week.

Fwiw either she left at the end of the year and has lost her Chinese in 6 weeks or she left after fewer than 3 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So after 3rd grade, the Chinese will be supplemented. DC will have had 5 yrs of Chinese immersion and be old enough to spend summers in China at cultural/language camp.

My God! Why don't you just move to China?

[Anonymous]

PP wrote: I know a student who left Yu Ying last year after 3 years there. Her Chinese is already mostly gone despite her parents efforts to keep up a tutor once a week.

This statement isn't even possible. The school has only existed for 3 years. So if the student left last year they would have only been at the school for 2 years. Of course - a child who was only in the school in Pre-K and K would lose the language quickly. I don't think the arguments have been to only have your child in an immersion school for PreK and K and think that they will be able to maintain the language. I do think that if they stay through 4th or 5th and start in PreK that they will have a better shot - assuming that the parents will provide significant tutoring and immersion opportunities.

The fact that parents leave schools around 4th and 5th grade for private schools is nothing new. This has been happening for years and will continue to happen - even for YY students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So after 3rd grade, the Chinese will be supplemented. DC will have had 5 yrs of Chinese immersion and be old enough to spend summers in China at cultural/language camp.

My God! Why don't you just move to China?

We go every summer anyway to visit grandparents who live in Asia so it's not a big deal. Grandparents usually spend summers in China.

[Anonymous]

18:08, there was a child who left last year, about 1/2 way through, so if it's possible that this student had 2.5 years at Yu Ying.

The Chinese instruction is largely curriculum-free and is taught by inexperienced young native speakers. It's not exactly the ideal situation for language instruction. Of course the English curriculum is equally weak and is also taught by inexperienced teachers.

Yu Ying needs to spend some serious coin next year hiring real teachers. Especially for the third and fourth grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:18:08, there was a child who left last year, about 1/2 way through, so if it's possible that this student had 2.5 years at Yu Ying.

The Chinese instruction is largely curriculum-free and is taught by inexperienced young native speakers. It's not exactly the ideal situation for language instruction. Of course the English curriculum is equally weak and is also taught by inexperienced teachers.

Yu Ying needs to spend some serious coin next year hiring real teachers. Especially for the third and fourth grade.

Not at YY so I don't know what you mean by weak instruction. Have you observed the teachers in action? Are you basing your opinion on student performance? I am genuinely interested as I have heard others say this about YY and other schools, monolingual and bilingual and I want to know how someone comes to this conclusion. If a child is doing okay (proficient) or well (advanced) based on testing and report cards, how do you know if the curriculum is weak? My parents didn't put much thought into my education (I went to average parochial schools and my brother to urban public schools) and it never became an issue because my brother and I always did well and ended up at top tier universities. Now as a parent, I wonder should I be worried about weak English and math curriculum? I want my child to learn a second language and see advantages to this but after reading these posts it makes me think that past a certain grade, e.g. 3rd, parents are looking for strong teachers and curriculum to insure their child's entry into a good high school and eventually college. Should I be concerned if my child (so far) is a good student and seems to do well without any struggle?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:18:08, there was a child who left last year, about 1/2 way through, so if it's possible that this student had 2.5 years at Yu Ying.

The Chinese instruction is largely curriculum-free and is taught by inexperienced young native speakers. It's not exactly the ideal situation for language instruction. Of course the English curriculum is equally weak and is also taught by inexperienced teachers.

Yu Ying needs to spend some serious coin next year hiring real teachers. Especially for the third and fourth grade.

Not at YY so I don't know what you mean by weak instruction. Have you observed the teachers in action? Are you basing your opinion on student performance? I am genuinely interested as I have heard others say this about YY and other schools, monolingual and bilingual and I want to know how someone comes to this conclusion. If a child is doing okay (proficient) or well (advanced) based on testing and report cards, how do you know if the curriculum is weak? My parents didn't put much thought into my education (I went to average parochial schools and my brother to urban public schools) and it never became an issue because my brother and I always did well and ended up at top tier universities. Now as a parent, I wonder should I be worried about weak English and math curriculum? I want my child to learn a second language and see advantages to this but after reading these posts it makes me think that past a certain grade, e.g. 3rd, parents are looking for strong teachers and curriculum to insure their child's entry into a good high school and eventually college. Should I be concerned if my child (so far) is a good student and seems to do well without any struggle?

"ensure"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The Chinese instruction is largely curriculum-free and is taught by inexperienced young native speakers. It's not exactly the ideal situation for language instruction. Of course the English curriculum is equally weak and is also taught by inexperienced teachers.

I must say that your assumption is off base and ill-informed. The YY curriculum uses the IB PYP curriculum framework: http://www.ibo.org/pyp/. Having seen the school's learning outcomes and other very detailed curriculum documents for each of grades posted at the school, on the portal, outlined in the homework, etc. it is clear that you are not speaking from first hand knowledge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree. We plan on leaving after 2/3rd. Simply don't know how the education will be in the later grades and not willing to risk it.

That's funny, we've heard very flattering things about the 1st grade English teachers! I have time to wait and watch this unroll. I think it's very encouraging that all of the teachers and even some former teachers decided to come back for this year. That means that not only does the school have confidence in them, but they have confidence in the school.

We'll supplement with study abroad or trips abroad or a Chinese exchange student or something. I'm not worried. There are bilingual schools all over the world that do an excellent job with math and science instruction. That's why there are so many foreign students in the engineering and science programs of our best universities. Non-native students appear to better at the hard sciences than Americans. Maybe it's the second language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree. We plan on leaving after 2/3rd. Simply don't know how the education will be in the later grades and not willing to risk it.

That's funny, we've heard very flattering things about the 1st grade English teachers! I have time to wait and watch this unroll. I think it's very encouraging that all of the teachers and even some former teachers decided to come back for this year. That means that not only does the school have confidence in them, but they have confidence in the school.

We'll supplement with study abroad or trips abroad or a Chinese exchange student or something. I'm not worried. There are bilingual schools all over the world that do an excellent job with math and science instruction. That's why there are so many foreign students in the engineering and science programs of our best universities. Non-native students appear to better at the hard sciences than Americans. Maybe it's the second language.

Not the second language. I have nieces and nephews who attend school in an Asian country and their math curriculum is MUCH more rigorous and more is expected of them in subjects like math and science at all grade levels. Sorry to say other than magnet schools like TJ, Stuy, Bronx Sci, etc. public school math and science education generally is terrible in the U.S.. Also, note that at the schools I mentioned, the majority of students are Asian. Generally, Asian parents also expect more/better in math and science.

[Anonymous]

A lot of those foreign students, as brilliant as they are, speak poor English. It's their motivation to study and suceed not the language anyway. We declined YY but I'm still a supporter because we need more strong schools in this town. Best of luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree. We plan on leaving after 2/3rd. Simply don't know how the education will be in the later grades and not willing to risk it.

That's funny, we've heard very flattering things about the 1st grade English teachers! I have time to wait and watch this unroll. I think it's very encouraging that all of the teachers and even some former teachers decided to come back for this year. That means that not only does the school have confidence in them, but they have confidence in the school.

We'll supplement with study abroad or trips abroad or a Chinese exchange student or something. I'm not worried. There are bilingual schools all over the world that do an excellent job with math and science instruction. That's why there are so many foreign students in the engineering and science programs of our best universities. Non-native students appear to better at the hard sciences than Americans. Maybe it's the second language.