Reply to Disadvantages of a bilingual school

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]i just don't get it. if you aren't chinese, and don't speak chinese in the home, what's the point of sending your kid to YY? how will you help them with their homework? and do kids REALLY learn in another language when that language isn't spoken in the home? plus, chinese is a really tough language to learn. i'll be happy if my kid just takes up a foreign language by middle school, then studies abroad or something. [/quote]

Yes, Chinese would be hard to support, but your child will have significantly more difficulty in becoming truly bi-literate in English and Chinese (or any language) if they don't start early in elementary school (there has been many studies that support the 3-7 yr old window).  I have a friend who can speak, read and write in English, French and Italian.  Her mother is British and speaks minimal French.  Her father is bilingual in French and English.  She was primarily raised by her mother.  By attending a trilingual school from preschool until high school she was able to learn to write and read in 3 languages in addition to learning how to speak her parents native language.  I took Spanish in middle and high school, but not immersion (I also studied abroad which helps with basic reading and speaking).  I can read at a "8th grade level" and converse for the most part, but my accent is off and I can't write or read at the level of my friend from Switzerland or a friend from Montreal that is fully bilingual in French and English (with appropriate accents in both languages) even though her parents only speak French (she also went to an immersion school from 4 yrs old).  I do know a few people that are naturally good at picking up languages and learned to speak one or two languages during high school or college, but for most people, that is not the case.  [/quote]

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