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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Potomac Elementary Chinese Immersion parent here. When DC's where in 3rd grade their math grades started to fall.  We figured out that with DS the problem was that he understand the concepts in English but didn't understand enough of the Chinese to follow along. With DD we found out that she was very comfortable with Chinese but that she basically had no understanding of math concepts. Sadly, we pulled both of them out and now they are doing well in both math (taught in English) and Chinese (taught as a language, not immersion).  That said, some kids do well in all subjects in the immersion program. Just be vigilant.[/quote]

If that is true, that is a worrisome indictment of either our children or our approach to learning in English-speaking America. Although anectodal, every story I have ever heard of of Asian immigrants coming to the United States is that although the children flounder at first in school due to language difficulties, the one subject they still excel at is math -- because you are dealing in concepts that transcend language -- or that they just have such a greater depth in math education in Asia at the elementary school level that it puts us to shame?

I find it a worrisome attitude that we short-sell ourselves. Time and again I always hear how difficult Chinese is and that is the excuse why either ex-pats refuse to enroll children in Chinese classes/schools in places like Hong Kong or Singapore or China, or at least withdraw them at the first sign of trouble (grades fall). Yet Hong Kong/Chinese/Singaporean children learn English in droves. And when they enter English environments, either through immigration or what not, while they experience an initial, temporary setback (falling grades in subjects other than math), in the long run they overcome them and end up doing fine, if not better than the "natives".

I'm not saying that MDPS is the same situation, since the local society is obviously not Chinese, so there are much greater hurdles to overcome. Or maybe your child really is just a special situation. But I find just that speaking to English-speaking parents in general that there is still a subliminal strain of this attitude that exoticizes Chinese as just too difficult that leads to abandonment. Is the Chinese race inherently intellectually superior that their children can learn Chinese AND English AND Math successfully but we must be vigilant about protecting ours from having to go through the agony of learning Chinese if it starts "becoming" too "difficult"? I never get the sense from Chinese-speaking parents either here or in China that they expect anything less than that their children should and can master both Chinese and English, or at least be very functional in the latter.

English is so dominant still in the world, we probably have the luxury of at least another generation to try to solve this problem of short-shrifting foreign languages in this country.  But the change can come quickly and blindside us if we aren't careful. If there is anything we can learn from the Chinese it's that it's dangerous to think of ourselves as the center of the universe and that foreign ideas and concepts, though useful and important, are nonetheless still secondary to Chinese (or in our case, American) traditional learning. In 1790 China was still the apex civilization in the world and shoo-ed away the British envoys that tried to open China up to trade. By 1839, China was humiliated in the Opium War by the same British and began its painful, inexorable decline relative to the West, ending up in a basket case that they are now just finally crawling back out of.[/quote]

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