Options for Language Instruction after DCPS Cuts?

[Anonymous]

Why do I get the impression that you've never studied Chinese and never will.

Trust me, learning earning the "basics to have a conversation" of any dialect of Chinese is around five times harder than for any variant of Spanish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do I get the impression that you've never studied Chinese and never will.

Trust me, learning earning the "basics to have a conversation" of any dialect of Chinese is around five times harder than for any variant of Spanish.

np: You are overstating the difficulty.

I learned Chinese as an adult and am decently conversational. I'm better at speaking Chinese than French, which I studied in high school and part of college.

The learning curve for Chinese is steep at the start -- learning the sounds and learning to speak and hear tones is necessary before learning basic conversation. But then things pick up quickly. The grammar is easy, and there are not volumes of complicated verb conjugations to learn.

Reading and writing Chinese is hard, but learning a basic level is doable and worthwhile.

[Anonymous]

Looks like not only Walls but someone mentioned that Hardy and McArthur are also cutting Mandarin. If so, then it’s basically dead in DCPS.

It’s not like the other kids in the poorly performing middle and high school are taking it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like not only Walls but someone mentioned that Hardy and McArthur are also cutting Mandarin. If so, then it’s basically dead in DCPS.

It’s not like the other kids in the poorly performing middle and high school are taking it.

And I bet Deal and JR is also going to follow and cut it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do I get the impression that you've never studied Chinese and never will.

Trust me, learning earning the "basics to have a conversation" of any dialect of Chinese is around five times harder than for any variant of Spanish.

np: You are overstating the difficulty.

I learned Chinese as an adult and am decently conversational. I'm better at speaking Chinese than French, which I studied in high school and part of college.

The learning curve for Chinese is steep at the start -- learning the sounds and learning to speak and hear tones is necessary before learning basic conversation. But then things pick up quickly. The grammar is easy, and there are not volumes of complicated verb conjugations to learn.

Reading and writing Chinese is hard, but learning a basic level is doable and worthwhile.

Native speaker of Chinese who doesn’t agree. You probably think that your tones and written characters are better than they are. Chinese students spend a huge chunk of their childhoods getting the writing right. There’s nothing quick about any of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hardy Middle in Ward 2 cut Mandarin but kept Spanish and Italian.

Madness. 1.8 billion Chinese in the next superpower and they kept...Italian? Where's the vision on DCPS' part?

The dumbest decision ever. Supposedly Italian was more popular among the middle schoolers than Chinese. What self-respecting school allows its curriculum to be dictated by the whims of pre-teens? You’d think in DC of all places in America, there might be an appreciation of the importance of training people to speak the language (for which starting at middle school is required), but somehow the Hardy MS principal didn’t get the memo.

[Anonymous]

Hardy is retaining Spanish and Italian but cutting Chinese. This has nothing to do with difficulties in hiring - the incumbent Chinese teacher was blindsided by the news. I guess some kids and their parents have reasons for wanting to learn Italian and I won’t begrudge their preferences, but I would have expected the administration to realize that anyone who wants to learn Italian can get there fairly easily from a basic understanding of Spanish.

[Anonymous]

Chinese is now a bridge too far in this mediocre school system. Let’s face it, DCPS is slipping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hardy Middle in Ward 2 cut Mandarin but kept Spanish and Italian.

Madness. 1.8 billion Chinese in the next superpower and they kept...Italian? Where's the vision on DCPS' part?

The dumbest decision ever. Supposedly Italian was more popular among the middle schoolers than Chinese. What self-respecting school allows its curriculum to be dictated by the whims of pre-teens? You’d think in DC of all places in America, there might be an appreciation of the importance of training people to speak the language (for which starting at middle school is required), but somehow the Hardy MS principal didn’t get the memo.

Staff is also a consideration. The Italian teacher can’t suddenly start teaching Chinese. They’ve struggled to keep Chinese teachers in DCPS because they can’t handle the culture shock of students being so disrespectful. Hardy lucked into getting an excellent Italian teacher. The students like her and she is successful at teaching them. Better to have students loving and learning Italian than failing at Chinese with a new teacher every year.

[Anonymous]

Has Hardy been having trouble retaining Chinese teachers? Deal has not had that problem. One teacher is retiring after many years of teaching at Deal and is not getting replaced, but there is a second Chinese teacher at Deal (who came from Walls, I believe), so the program will continue for now. No cuts to JR foreign languages at all, at least for this year. But if these budget cuts continue I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re on the chopping block in the future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do I get the impression that you've never studied Chinese and never will.

Trust me, learning earning the "basics to have a conversation" of any dialect of Chinese is around five times harder than for any variant of Spanish.

np: You are overstating the difficulty.

I learned Chinese as an adult and am decently conversational. I'm better at speaking Chinese than French, which I studied in high school and part of college.

The learning curve for Chinese is steep at the start -- learning the sounds and learning to speak and hear tones is necessary before learning basic conversation. But then things pick up quickly. The grammar is easy, and there are not volumes of complicated verb conjugations to learn.

Reading and writing Chinese is hard, but learning a basic level is doable and worthwhile.

Native speaker of Chinese who doesn’t agree. You probably think that your tones and written characters are better than they are. Chinese students spend a huge chunk of their childhoods getting the writing right. There’s nothing quick about any of it.

🎤

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has Hardy been having trouble retaining Chinese teachers? Deal has not had that problem. One teacher is retiring after many years of teaching at Deal and is not getting replaced, but there is a second Chinese teacher at Deal (who came from Walls, I believe), so the program will continue for now. No cuts to JR foreign languages at all, at least for this year. But if these budget cuts continue I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re on the chopping block in the future.

No, Hardy has not had trouble retaining Chinese teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hardy Middle in Ward 2 cut Mandarin but kept Spanish and Italian.

SWW in Ward 2 is also losing a language position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has Hardy been having trouble retaining Chinese teachers? Deal has not had that problem. One teacher is retiring after many years of teaching at Deal and is not getting replaced, but there is a second Chinese teacher at Deal (who came from Walls, I believe), so the program will continue for now. No cuts to JR foreign languages at all, at least for this year. But if these budget cuts continue I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re on the chopping block in the future.

No, Hardy has not had trouble retaining Chinese teachers.

Hardy absolutely has not had any trouble. The Chinese teacher from last year moved on, but they quickly identified a replacement who has done an excellent job for her students this year and I believe very much expected to continue in the position. All of what I have heard from the administration and others who have spoken with them indicates that the decision was largely based on student interest in learning Mandarin, which was less than that for Italian and Spanish.

[Anonymous]

So make the investment in increasing student interest in all things Sino at Hardy and Walls. It shouldn't be difficult to sell Mandarin to the kids as an economic opportunity proposition: convince them that there will almost certainly be many good jobs for Americans who speak Chinese in the next half century. Not true of Italian. Total BS in 2024 to save Italian when Mandarin goes. How could this sort of abysmal planning pay off? What's to stop DCPS from axing Mandarin at Deal, then at J-R? They've got the ball rolling.