Why do Parents Believe in DCI?

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP who was talking about kids at YY with IEPs and not knowing any parents who have had bad experiences. Just wanted to add that that is not to say that any YY parents I know claim the school is perfect or that no one has any criticisms or concerns. No school is perfect, and yes, I've heard YY parents express concerns, even about racial dynamics. But never have I heard anyone claim the school is racist as an institution or that kids with special needs were being railroaded out. And YY parents are quite willing and able to express concerns when they have them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP Here: I was a fluent mandarin speaker that lived in China for four years. No skin in the YY discussions with Taiwanese dad - we are at a spanish immersion feeder to DCI.

I did, however, want to comment on that discussion because I thnk Taiwanese dad has made some valid points and they are getting lost because of cultural differences. In 2004, I completed a year of graduate school entirely in Mandarin after living in China for four years. My Written and spoken mandarin rocked. When I came home for the summer and chatted at the Chinese restaurant, the waitresses oohed and aahed over my mandarin and said how fantastic it was. Fair point, it really was good and I had worked hard to earn that. Since then, I have barely used my mandarin and it has declined dramatically. Last night, we went to AJs restaurant in Rockville where I attempted poorly and briefly to say a few things to the waitresses in Mandarin. It was BAD, I kept mixing in Spanish, which is my current best foreign language because we speak it at home. The waitresses oohed and aaahed over my mandarin and said how fantastic it ws just like they did in 2004. Exact same reaction, separated by 15 years, and a LOT of language decline.

Chinese people compliment foreigners profusely on their mandarin skills - it is a cultural habit. This is particularly true for non-Asian foreigners, which impress Chinese people the most when they eek out a few words in Mandarin. My four year old says "Ni Hao!" and "Xie Xie" and you would think he has just given a discourse in Chinese by how they react.

I have no doubt that the YY kids are learning to speak mandarin and in particular, theatthey will have good accents by learning it at a a young age. But whenever a Chinese person tells you how impressed they are by your kids mandarin, I would recognize that there may be some exaggerating and that giving these types of compliments to mandarin speaking foreigners is customary. Testing would be a better reflection of the true learning going on and how good the mandarin is getting.....

Lol! I am a native speaker of another Asian language and have to admit that whenever I hear a non-Asian speak the language fluently with a near perfect accent, I AM AMAZED. This is why they sometimes have white, blond, blue eyed kids on TV in Asia. We can't believe white people can speak our language at all and generally have low expectations of language skills especially from non-Asians.

FYI, my kid is in the upper grades at YY and his Mandarin is very good with perfect tones.

Taiwanese dad obviously has an axe to grind since his main gripe is that Yu Ying isn't "Chinese" enough to suit him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP who was talking about kids at YY with IEPs and not knowing any parents who have had bad experiences. Just wanted to add that that is not to say that any YY parents I know claim the school is perfect or that no one has any criticisms or concerns. No school is perfect, and yes, I've heard YY parents express concerns, even about racial dynamics. But never have I heard anyone claim the school is racist as an institution or that kids with special needs were being railroaded out. And YY parents are quite willing and able to express concerns when they have them!

+1000 I am a parent with a child with an IEP at Yu Ying and know several others. We are not exactly shrinking violets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP who was talking about kids at YY with IEPs and not knowing any parents who have had bad experiences. Just wanted to add that that is not to say that any YY parents I know claim the school is perfect or that no one has any criticisms or concerns. No school is perfect, and yes, I've heard YY parents express concerns, even about racial dynamics. But never have I heard anyone claim the school is racist as an institution or that kids with special needs were being railroaded out. And YY parents are quite willing and able to express concerns when they have them!

+1000 I am a parent with a child with an IEP at Yu Ying and know several others. We are not exactly shrinking violets

Another YY parent of a kiddo w/ an IEP here. It was the school who initially noticed and responded to his difficulties. They have been engaged and responsive throughout. I recently had a concern/complaint about a specific intervention I felt my child should be getting and wasn't, and the school acknowledged the deficiency and told me about their plan to remedy it. No school is perfect, but YY staff have always been responsive and willing to work w/ us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: They don't seem to know that most Chinese immigrants speak Cantonese, not Mandarin, or what Cantonese is.

There is no way this is true, so I don't really trust anything you say.

What I meant by this is not that most Chinese immigrants speak Cantonese. But that YY parents "don't know what Cantonese is" as Taiwan Dad asserted. That has to be bullshit.

A good many YY parents don't really know what Cantonese is - where it's spoken, that it has seven tones, that most Chinese immigrant families in the country speak it, or did in a previous generation. Some YY parents do, lots don't, partly because there isn't an immigrant community behind the school.

When we go to the odd YY event, I find that that the kids' ability to communicate in Mandarin is all over the map for age. There are a few whose Chinese is seriously good. These are kids from families where an adult in the home speaks Mandarin, generally an au pair (some YY families have hosted a series of them). But many of the kids, including 3rd, 4th and 5th graders who've been at YY since PreK4 or K, don't knock it out of the park with immersion Mandarin, and that's putting it mildly.

What I see happening with the IB Diploma Chinese tests in the long-run is this. Families with the resources and motivation to supplement in a big way, particularly via immersion camps in China, and hosting Mandarin-speaking au pairs who speak only Chinese to the kids, and only accept it from them in reply, through MS, will produce children who score high on the standard level Chinese test. Nobody will pass the higher level test (with a score of 4+), unless they've spent a high school year as an exchange student in Taiwan, Hong Kong or China.

The YY/DCI Mandarin program simply isn't set up to generate top scores on the higher level test. But I can't imagine this bothering the great majority of longtime YY and DCI parents. For a high-octane public IB Diploma program, you must look to privates like WIS and the burbs.

I looked into WIS and do not agree that their IB program is all that. I also have an IB diploma. I am uninterested in sending my children to the suburbs for any reason, especially since I believe my feeder school is true immersion unlike those of moco. Also I do not want my Hispanic children to be discriminated against in moco. They do not take care of their Hispanic population. Why would I move to the segregated suburbs? No thanks. http://greatergreatereducation.org/post/22444/segregation-is-causing-montgomery-county-schools-achievement-gap-but-josh-starr-wont-admit-it/