Reply to Yu Ying - Do/Can Non-Native Kids Actually SPEAK Chinese?

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Reply to " Yu Ying - Do/Can Non-Native Kids Actually SPEAK Chinese?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It seems this discussion has become circular:

YY supporters: YY kids are getting a great opportunity to learn a language they wouldn't otherwise be exposed to, and getting a great education with lots of enrichment, etc.

YY critics: Their language skills are quite weak, laughable even.  They need to do more to attract more Chinese kids and staff.

YY supporters: The Chinese families won't come.  There are not enough native Chinese speakers in the area to really achieve critical mass.

I'm not in either camp; my kids at another immersion school with a large group of native speakers.  Still, I ask--should the whole YY enterprise be thrown out the window if there are few native speakers in the program?  Or is it still worthwhile?

And, is there perhaps a bit more that YY can do to attract native speaking families (although, it seems a pretty big hurdle if these families think YY is a school for black kids, since the % of black families at the school won't change anytime soon given the demographics of DC).[/quote]

Right, you're making sense and asking good questions. But of course DCPS won't toss out one of the jewels in its crown.

On YY's current trajectory, what's going to happen is that parents who believe that their kids are getting a great opportunity to learn a language/culture they wouldn't have otherwise been exposed to will be in for a wake-up call when the kids hit the IB Diploma stage, and apply for college. The exams are graded in Geneva, and the emphasis is on speaking and writing, so no more fudging the Chinese, or the English either. Earning 4s and 5s on AP Chinese is a walk in the park. College Board tests of English (mostly multiple choice) aren't a killer either.  But IB Diploma exams are different at both the Standard and Higher Levels.  They were designed to test diplomats' children internationally. After DCI, it's hard to imagine the YY families without an ethnic family connection sticking with their Chinese language and cultural studies.  They will have been fed a really sanitized version of the culture for up to 15 years, emerging without bilingual peers.

As for ethnic community buy-in. Things could change only if DCPC were to install a native speaker as HOS at YY, preferably one who's fluent in both Mandarin and Cantonese.  It wouldn't be difficult to find a strong admin meeting this description if the position were advertised widely, particularly in NYC, Canada and Cal.  As things stand, if your kids speak Chinese well and you're ethnic, you want nothing to do with YY or DCI.  YY is commonly referred to as "the joke Chinese immersion school" in local dialect-speaking circles. It's not clear to Metro area immigrant Chinese why YY families want Chinese for their children when few seem to want anything to do with the "racist" dialect speakers in their own Metro area. [/quote]

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