Does anyone have language immersion regrets?

[Anonymous]

Seriously. If I have the wherewithal to enroll my child in a Spanish immersion program, either by lottery, or scraping together resources to find an apartment in bound for a DCPS, by all means I can also find a way to frugally immerse ourselves via travel as well.

No real sympathy for above poster who might prioritze say starbucks over travel. We skip the daily luxuries, but are willing to fly Spirit or Jetblue to go to Latin America during summer vacation. Cost of flights and accomodations can be found to be lower than camp in DC. If you have more than one child, even more feasible due to camp costs x 2. (Vs. a condo in Cartagena for $50 per day)

I want more people, both heritage and not, to learn languages, appreciate the arts, fight for social justice and just get along. Doesn't seem to be too much to ask for really.

[Anonymous]

hey, you could save even more if you don't buy that avocado toast! Why fly coach to Panama when you can get first class to Bogota with your nanny?

[Anonymous]

Wow, tough crowd! Immersion - you're doing it wrong...(no matter how or why you're doing it).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously. If I have the wherewithal to enroll my child in a Spanish immersion program, either by lottery, or scraping together resources to find an apartment in bound for a DCPS, by all means I can also find a way to frugally immerse ourselves via travel as well.

No real sympathy for above poster who might prioritze say starbucks over travel. We skip the daily luxuries, but are willing to fly Spirit or Jetblue to go to Latin America during summer vacation. Cost of flights and accomodations can be found to be lower than camp in DC. If you have more than one child, even more feasible due to camp costs x 2. (Vs. a condo in Cartagena for $50 per day)

I want more people, both heritage and not, to learn languages, appreciate the arts, fight for social justice and just get along. Doesn't seem to be too much to ask for really.

You had me until Cartegena. LOL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a tutor! This is the delusional DC immersion charter mentality in a nutshell.

We have a tutor, so the kid speaks the language well. Never mind the fact that we know little about this language and culture and don't have ethnic friends or neighbors who speak this language with our child. We deny that the kid needs a Chinese-speaking adult in the home or bilingual peers to speak this language.

Totally ridiculous.

i regret choosing YY, but I disagree with this statement. DC public charter schools are for all DC children. Just because a child doesn't have a tie to a language doesn't mean they should be denied the opportunity to learn it. And then their offspring and all successive generations should be denied that same opportunity? So poor kids and their descendants are permanently excluded because they don't have the same opportunities to form these ties?

Now if you want to discuss the school horrible leadership and execution of Mandarin immersion, then that's fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always find it interesting that all the families who aren’t native speakers are confident that their kids speak “tons” of the target language. How are you confident of this? How do you know your preschooler is “fluent”?

My preschooler’s teacher only speaks to our child in Spanish and our teacher says DC understands everything.

Trust me, they don't. But that's ok, they're only in PK. They get the gist because that's how it works. They may know one word, and respond to the gesture and expressions and tone. But that is how language is slowly acquired. It's not a problem although don't assume they really understand each and every word.

well, our child does have conversations with his teacher in spanish. she asks him questions in spanish, and he answers in spanish. so there's that. but take that with a grain of salt. because you obviously know our child better than we do or DC's teacher does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always find it interesting that all the families who aren’t native speakers are confident that their kids speak “tons” of the target language. How are you confident of this? How do you know your preschooler is “fluent”?

This attitude is so tiresome. Of course kids in immersion aren't perfectly fluent (especially before age 10!); just like many people with second languages aren't perfect in the second language. I bet compared to before, the child does know 'tons' of the language. The point is to start down the road to fluency - some will get there sooner than others - thus teaching kids an important life skill in this shrinking world and potentially opening up more opportunities down the road. My DS, while probably not a perfect Spanish speaker, appears to communicate effectively with other Spanish speakers, and he's only 8 - I have enough knowledge of Spanish to feel confident about this. I imagine it will get even better as time goes on. Another perk is that it provides extra challenge at school.

It's fine if you don't prioritize second languages - maybe your kid does math club, or a sport, or plays an instrument. I doubt they will have achieved perfection in those skills by age 10, but that doesn't mean there isn't value.

+1. If we moved for a few years to Mexico or Spain or wherever, and we put our kids in the local schools, no one would say how terrible that is for our kids because we have no intention of living in Mexico, Spain, et al for the rest of our lives. People would say, "Oh what a great experience for them."

What you’re conveniently forgetting is that you’re not contributing anything back to the community. All you gringos with a few years of Spanish or French or whatever under your belt don’t remember is that there are parents whose kids really do speak that target language. And due to regulations imposed by Congress, our kids don’t get any preference at all. I really don’t care so much when I see parents trying hard and getting tutors or traveling to improve language skills (and starting at PK3). However, parents like the two PPs have low expectations and prevent the class from really achieving biliteracy, because they’re struggling with the remedial skills of your English speaking kids, really really bother me. I feel that schools should make parents sign a contract saying they will learn the target language also, and that they will do everything they can to support the language.

Also, if you’re at an immersion school, you should be volunteering or donating money or doing what you can to help the immigrant community that is helping to educate your kids.

Is that all? Do you have any other instructions on how I should live my life? It sounds like you have so much to teach. Please unburden yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always find it interesting that all the families who aren’t native speakers are confident that their kids speak “tons” of the target language. How are you confident of this? How do you know your preschooler is “fluent”?

This attitude is so tiresome. Of course kids in immersion aren't perfectly fluent (especially before age 10!); just like many people with second languages aren't perfect in the second language. I bet compared to before, the child does know 'tons' of the language. The point is to start down the road to fluency - some will get there sooner than others - thus teaching kids an important life skill in this shrinking world and potentially opening up more opportunities down the road. My DS, while probably not a perfect Spanish speaker, appears to communicate effectively with other Spanish speakers, and he's only 8 - I have enough knowledge of Spanish to feel confident about this. I imagine it will get even better as time goes on. Another perk is that it provides extra challenge at school.

It's fine if you don't prioritize second languages - maybe your kid does math club, or a sport, or plays an instrument. I doubt they will have achieved perfection in those skills by age 10, but that doesn't mean there isn't value.

+1. If we moved for a few years to Mexico or Spain or wherever, and we put our kids in the local schools, no one would say how terrible that is for our kids because we have no intention of living in Mexico, Spain, et al for the rest of our lives. People would say, "Oh what a great experience for them."

What you’re conveniently forgetting is that you’re not contributing anything back to the community. All you gringos with a few years of Spanish or French or whatever under your belt don’t remember is that there are parents whose kids really do speak that target language. And due to regulations imposed by Congress, our kids don’t get any preference at all. I really don’t care so much when I see parents trying hard and getting tutors or traveling to improve language skills (and starting at PK3). However, parents like the two PPs have low expectations and prevent the class from really achieving biliteracy, because they’re struggling with the remedial skills of your English speaking kids, really really bother me. I feel that schools should make parents sign a contract saying they will learn the target language also, and that they will do everything they can to support the language.

Also, if you’re at an immersion school, you should be volunteering or donating money or doing what you can to help the immigrant community that is helping to educate your kids.

Is that all? Do you have any other instructions on how I should live my life? It sounds like you have so much to teach. Please unburden yourself.

I mean go make America great again, and keep on take take taking from immigrants if that’s what you want to do. I can’t force you to be a good person. Hopefully your kid will learn kindness and generosity and hard work from his immigrant teachers since he/she/they aren’t going to learn it from you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a tutor! This is the delusional DC immersion charter mentality in a nutshell.

We have a tutor, so the kid speaks the language well. Never mind the fact that we know little about this language and culture and don't have ethnic friends or neighbors who speak this language with our child. We deny that the kid needs a Chinese-speaking adult in the home or bilingual peers to speak this language.

Totally ridiculous.

Oh, for the love of all things. Don’t let your own agenda get in the way of facts. I assume you are responding to me, though I never said anything about my child’s proficiency. We do have Chinese-speaking friends, in fact, one of my dearest friends and oldest colleagues is Chinese and I have been to China many times for work. I have taken my kid with me twice with this friend, since our children are friends. She is the one who hooked us up with our tutor, as she is very involved with a heritage school in Rockville (her kids are MCPS). I know my kid speaks okay, not great, Chinese. We are not sure if we will continue with DCI as my kid has other strengths and we have always planned on private school for HS.

However, I have zero regrets about YY—as I mentioned before it’s a great little school and has given us a wonderful education. Sometimes elementary school is just elementary school, you know? It’s not necessary to freak out too much.

PS my friend has some very funny insights into the Chinese community and the entrenched hatred toward YY that I do not have permission to share. Suffice it to say that I am not in any way delusional. Cheers!

I don't think I'm the PP you're responding to either. Don't have permission to share, please. The Metro area bilingual Chinese community doesn't hate YY - waste of time. The way the program runs make it irrelevant to immigrants and ABCs whose families speak Chinese at home. These families focus on taking advantage of strong MoCo ES academics, especially "compacted math," and MS and HS Mandarin with dialect transition support. The heritage school people who've heard of YY (like us) tend to know that the program doesn't attract bilingual admins or students, but does draw a really small number of Chinese-speaking parents. They also know that YY has no interest in developing ties w/the ethnic community and their heritage programs. Enough said.

PP- you’re right. Parents who put their kids in Yu Ying should give back to the ethnic Chinese community here. Couldn’t agree more.

I am one of the prior posters, and I assure you we are not blade about the language part. Not sure why you think that from my post. The whole reason we are in the program is that we think learning a second language is very important. And maybe my child will someday use those skills to 'give back to the community,' as you suggest. It's more likely than if he were not learning a language. I really can't understand why people get upset at other's desire to learn to communicate with people outside of their native language. Isn't it a good thing??

So important that you don’t bother to learn it yourself?

So important that you don’t bother giving back to the community you’re exploiting?

So important that you don’t prioritize learning the language in your life?

Nah that is total BS and you know it. Don’t be so lazy and make those changes which would actually HELP YOUR CHILD.

People like you are so blind to exploitation you think it’s your right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh FFS. Do you want to insist that every parent who enrolls their kid in Reggio Emilia promise to give back to the arts community or only enroll kids who are going to study art through college and beyond? Nobody knows what our PK3 kids are going to be good at or what path our families are going to take. Get over yourselves.

That is a nonsense comparison because you’re not relying on a beleaguered and discriminated on arts community to educate your children and integrarte them into your culture. Are you so blind to your privilege and so engrained in your xenophobia and racism that you cant understand that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously. If I have the wherewithal to enroll my child in a Spanish immersion program, either by lottery, or scraping together resources to find an apartment in bound for a DCPS, by all means I can also find a way to frugally immerse ourselves via travel as well.

No real sympathy for above poster who might prioritze say starbucks over travel. We skip the daily luxuries, but are willing to fly Spirit or Jetblue to go to Latin America during summer vacation. Cost of flights and accomodations can be found to be lower than camp in DC. If you have more than one child, even more feasible due to camp costs x 2. (Vs. a condo in Cartagena for $50 per day)

I want more people, both heritage and not, to learn languages, appreciate the arts, fight for social justice and just get along. Doesn't seem to be too much to ask for really.

I like you. And I’ve also taken that flight. Avianca flies directly to Bogotá from BWI. Spirit, Jet Blue, and avianca fly cheaply to Costa Rica and Panama. For goodness sake you can also fly spirit to Miami or Los Angeles if having a passport is a problem. And there are many desperate people who could use help in their asylum cases right about now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always find it interesting that all the families who aren’t native speakers are confident that their kids speak “tons” of the target language. How are you confident of this? How do you know your preschooler is “fluent”?

This attitude is so tiresome. Of course kids in immersion aren't perfectly fluent (especially before age 10!); just like many people with second languages aren't perfect in the second language. I bet compared to before, the child does know 'tons' of the language. The point is to start down the road to fluency - some will get there sooner than others - thus teaching kids an important life skill in this shrinking world and potentially opening up more opportunities down the road. My DS, while probably not a perfect Spanish speaker, appears to communicate effectively with other Spanish speakers, and he's only 8 - I have enough knowledge of Spanish to feel confident about this. I imagine it will get even better as time goes on. Another perk is that it provides extra challenge at school.

It's fine if you don't prioritize second languages - maybe your kid does math club, or a sport, or plays an instrument. I doubt they will have achieved perfection in those skills by age 10, but that doesn't mean there isn't value.

+1. If we moved for a few years to Mexico or Spain or wherever, and we put our kids in the local schools, no one would say how terrible that is for our kids because we have no intention of living in Mexico, Spain, et al for the rest of our lives. People would say, "Oh what a great experience for them."

What you’re conveniently forgetting is that you’re not contributing anything back to the community. All you gringos with a few years of Spanish or French or whatever under your belt don’t remember is that there are parents whose kids really do speak that target language. And due to regulations imposed by Congress, our kids don’t get any preference at all. I really don’t care so much when I see parents trying hard and getting tutors or traveling to improve language skills (and starting at PK3). However, parents like the two PPs have low expectations and prevent the class from really achieving biliteracy, because they’re struggling with the remedial skills of your English speaking kids, really really bother me. I feel that schools should make parents sign a contract saying they will learn the target language also, and that they will do everything they can to support the language.

Also, if you’re at an immersion school, you should be volunteering or donating money or doing what you can to help the immigrant community that is helping to educate your kids.

Is that all? Do you have any other instructions on how I should live my life? It sounds like you have so much to teach. Please unburden yourself.

I mean go make America great again, and keep on take take taking from immigrants if that’s what you want to do. I can’t force you to be a good person. Hopefully your kid will learn kindness and generosity and hard work from his immigrant teachers since he/she/they aren’t going to learn it from you.

What does this word salad even mean?

[Anonymous]

The main things I've gleaned from this thread are:

1. Some people whose kids go to Yu Ying don't like Yu Ying.

2. Some people whose kids don't go to Spanish-language immersion schools are quite bitter towards people whose kids do go to Spanish-language immersion schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh FFS. Do you want to insist that every parent who enrolls their kid in Reggio Emilia promise to give back to the arts community or only enroll kids who are going to study art through college and beyond? Nobody knows what our PK3 kids are going to be good at or what path our families are going to take. Get over yourselves.

That is a nonsense comparison because you’re not relying on a beleaguered and discriminated on arts community to educate your children and integrarte them into your culture. Are you so blind to your privilege and so engrained in your xenophobia and racism that you cant understand that?

My kid goes to Sela, so STFU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously. If I have the wherewithal to enroll my child in a Spanish immersion program, either by lottery, or scraping together resources to find an apartment in bound for a DCPS, by all means I can also find a way to frugally immerse ourselves via travel as well.

No real sympathy for above poster who might prioritze say starbucks over travel. We skip the daily luxuries, but are willing to fly Spirit or Jetblue to go to Latin America during summer vacation. Cost of flights and accomodations can be found to be lower than camp in DC. If you have more than one child, even more feasible due to camp costs x 2. (Vs. a condo in Cartagena for $50 per day)

I want more people, both heritage and not, to learn languages, appreciate the arts, fight for social justice and just get along. Doesn't seem to be too much to ask for really.

You had me until Cartegena. LOL!

NP. Why? Cartagena is a beautiful city and full of stuff to do for tourists, as is Medellín. If you want to see what civic leadership can do to transform a city, visit Medellín and ride the cable car up to the Spanish library.