What do you think about a Japanese Immersion Public Charter in Ward 7?
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Anonymous
French + Japanese or Mandarin gets my vote |
Anonymous
| And DCI is not going to accept all language charters into its feeder pattern. They are going to have a hard enough time having spaces for all their current feeder kids. |
Anonymous
NP. Either you have no experience with Japan(ese people) or you are just trying to score cheap shots. People of all races and linguistic backgrounds are successful in the US, in business, academia, television, movies... even organized crime. The reverse is not true in Japan. |
Anonymous
Honest answer, wards 7 and 8 current total of immersion public schools: zero. Start with a spanish one (dcps or charter), then add possibly a second spanish or else french or mandarin. Families EOTR have a tough enough education landscape as it is. Don't further handicap them with a "nice to have" but not very useful language. |
Anonymous
| Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, French. In order of importance. |
Anonymous
Perfectly said. So very true. |
Anonymous
|
Japanese is not considered to be a "nice-to-have" language.
According to these articles, it is among the "must speak" languages: http://www.therichest.com/business/salary/the-eight-best-languages-to-learn-for-business/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorrison/2014/04/17/learning-a-language-is-for-life-not-just-for-business/ https://voxy.com/blog/index.php/2012/06/most-important-languages-business/ |
Anonymous
I just looked at all of those lists. Japanese is last on each list (one with 7 languages, one with 8), so when figuring out a priority language for a dual immersion school in Ward 7 it still seems pretty clear that there are - even by your own cited websites - 6 or 7 languages that should be considered before Japanese when thinking of utility/advantages. That makes Japanese NOT a "must speak" language if you're trying to draw in the biggest number of families and even your own articles put it last on the list. And the 3rd list, basically a) further cemented why I want my child to learn Mandarin if I'm picking a priority language, and b) basically ends up with Portugese as being more useful that Japanese, which... on the world business stage, I say good luck starting that Japanese or Portugese dual-language school. My kids won't be there, but we will be jumping on Mandarin or Arabic immediately if those options come our way. |
Anonymous
Corrected one thing, Japanese was not last on all 3 lists, but 2 of the 3. |
Anonymous
Regardless, a Japanese language school is not a priority in ward 7 or any ward for that matter in DC. I don't understand why people just want to open any old charter school when they themselves don't speak the language or have not determined what the community wants first. It just seems like a"jumping on the bandwagon (any old bandwagon) approach", we are talking about tax-payer dollars here. If you want to set up a private school that offer Japanese more power to you, why not set up a Japanese language club or program and see how successful that is first. |
Anonymous
| OP here - The whole point of providing articles about the ranking of Japanese as an important language of the future is to show that Japanese is included among those deemed popular in the DC area. Your feedback is welcomed. Language choice for your children is a personal choice. Not everyone wants the same language choices, and it is OK. I personally would love to see Korean and Amharic as language choices too. The more choices, the better. We are living in a world capital. As far as choosing ward 7 as a location, people underestimate those living here in ward 7 or 8. Not all of us struggle with the education landscape other than trying to get to ward 3 to obtain a "good" education for our children only to find out that perhaps a better educational environment may lie east of the river after all. Keep the constructive comments coming. If Japanese does not tickle your fancy, that is OK too. No one is telling you that you must choose it for your children. It is OK... As DEVO says it, it is the freedom of choice! |
Anonymous
OP, I am the PP above who recommended 1-2 Spanish immersion schools in Wards 7/8 before even considering other languages. Your suggestion of Amharic reveals you to be either a troll or a brave/idealistic/eccentric thinker. I am going to assume the latter, because that's what it seems like, and let's keep things positive! I understand why you and other well-educated families EOTR bristle at the stereotypes, but if you want to pursue education policy responsibly then you cannot ignore the EOTR stats for income, education, children in female-headed households, unemployment (25%+ at one point during the Great Recession?) and life outcomes. And EOTR accounts for 40%+ of students in DC. There are what, a dozen Spanish immersion schools WOTR, with 60% of the students? And zero EOTR, with 40%. So if we added two Spanish immersion ES options in each of Ward 7 and 8, making four total, whether charter or DCPS, that would only begin to address the inequality of opportunity. Personally I'd implement those four programs before thinking about French or Mandarin, let alone these more obscure/niche languages that are being discussed. We need to be thinking about what will improve career opportunities and outcomes for kids in those wards. With Spanish, they can compete for jobs in the greater DC area and all over the country. Spanish is a very practical second language in this country. Most of these other languages would only be useful in highly specific international pursuits which are rare even among the children of the very affluent. Let's face it, and here is where I will probably get flamed, but my intentions are good in saying this: if the child of an affluent family spends 20 years learning Japanese, only to use it when ordering in sushi restaurants and in a 2-year teach-English-abroad jaunt after college, then there is no harm in that. Same thing if an affluent kid goes to medical school on the parents' dime but ends up running a surf shop in San Diego instead. Look, learning any language is a fulfilling, enjoyable and rewarding thing even where it does not help a career, like learning to play a musical instrument or a sport. But for the sake of the average student in Ward 7/8 we should also make sure that any language immersion education, which asks a lot of both students and non-native speaking families, is practical and likely to improve career options down the road. I'll end by pointing out that it's a lot easier to learn a 3rd language when you learned a 2nd from a young age, so if it turns out that Japanese or Swahili is desired, a student who attended Spanish immersion will be well-positioned to pursue that later in life after the specific needs and desires are known. |
Anonymous
| ^^^ Incredibly well-stated PP. I will just add that if I boil down what you say and say it even more plainly, even the well-intentioned charter school starters need to remember that at the end of the day, you need to have the best interests of DC's student population (and the best interests of Ward 7 and 8 students if that's where you'll be located) in mind when you start a school. Yes, those willing to put the blood, sweat, time and money into starting a new school get to propose the school they're willing to do all that work for, and more power to you no matter what language you want to do. But as the PCSB and other parties responsible for the best use of public dollars and school funding resources, I'd reject a Japanese school in a heartbeat, especially if someone else proposed a Spanish school or Mandarin school in the same batch. If we're talking about languages that mean jobs, in the US Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic are going to be the top 3. There are no dual language schools in Wards 7 and 8, so the first batch will hopefully be one (or two!) of those languages, because that's what the residents of Wards 7 and 8 deserve: a language that will truly be useful, and not a vanity language that suits the interests of the founders but in the end will not likely benefit the students beyond the benefits of learning any 2nd language at a young age (and that IS a benefit). |
Anonymous
| I'm a fluent Arabic speaker, and I can tell you that my relatively worse Spanish, German and even, god forbid, my 100 or so words of French have been of FAR more use to me than the Arabic I spent years drilling into my head. I'm a bit mystified by folks who are so enthusiastic about an Arabic charter. The only people who wanted to talk to me about a job when I graduated were the CIA, and that's not a career path I'd be thrilled with for my kid. |
Anonymous
But we are in DC and many many industries doing work around the world would hire an Arabic speaker with another skill in a heartbeat over someone just with the skill and no language or nothing really useful. |