Reply to Bilingual Kids in Language Immersion ES Programs, Which Programs Have Many & Strive to Attract Them?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Getting back to OP's question, I think it's fair to say that YY is making more of an effort to strive to attract bilingual kids than several years ago, at least according to parents we keep in touch with there. But noting like the Spanish immersion schools, where administrators tend to be native speakers themselves, and most non-ethnic parents have studied the language and know the culture somewhat.

We left YY for our IB school after AY 2011-2012, mainly because my spouse (we speak a dialect at home) was tired of walking on eggshells there [b]as a bilingual immigrant parent. [/b]He didn't relate well to the many liberal white and AA parents, or even the highly assimilated Chinese parents, who felt that the school was super inclusive. [b]It wasn't so much that he didn't feel welcome as that he didn't feel comfortable[/b], or able to discuss our situation in the school community without opening himself to accusations of whining and wanting preferential treatment. He wasn't crazy about how parents tended to assume that the Asian kids spoke Chinese at home, when this was seldom the case. Different times when he suggested that the PA push to hire an ethnic, dialect-speaking administrator, he met with such an unpleasant reaction that he came home feeling low. So we bailed with him saying "If we're going to be token Chinese immigrants, let's do it IB and relax." We miss a few things about YY, mainly having a public school teach our children to write Chinese (now we rush off to private MoCo classes), but mostly we are grateful to feel at ease in a school community where we don't have to watch ourselves most the time, taking great care not to seem demanding or entitled.

When PPs say, some parents just aren't going to like any school, you're missing the point. I[b]t's not a lot of fun to feel like a token, muzled bilingual in a school teaching your own language and culture.[/b]

[/quote]

This is quite telling.  These threads always seem to come out the same.  Nobody complains about YY's ability to teach Mandarin.  The basic complaint is that YY isn't Chinese enough for the Chinese because there are not:

1. More ethnic Chinese families
2. Chinese administrators
3. Extra support for dialect speakers

#1 is blamed on #2 & 3, along with complaints that YY doesn't do enough to cater to or reach out to native speakers:

4. By having more Chinese people at open houses or other events.
5. By having the open house in Chinese.
6. (and the worst example from a thread last year) Having an AA principal offends some racist Chinese people

Of course, you don't complain that your IB school doesn't have these things, and other posters have said the same about MoCo.  So what makes you any less comfortable at Yu Ying than at any other school run by non-Chinese administrators with few dialect speakers and no support for them (other than ESL if appropriate)?  You say it yourself -- because Yu Ying is teaching "your own language and culture."  What you view as Yu Ying's sins all stem from the fact that non-Chinese started a Chinese immersion school.  When you say your DH had to walk on eggshells and not seem demanding or entitled, what you mean is that he had to suppress the urge to be demanding and entitled, because he thinks he knows better than the white/AA administrators/PA leadership what makes a good Chinese school.

I'm not trying to attack you.  Think back to college when you had that class where there was an older student who thought that his or her experience in the army or as an engineer or simply by being 50 years old gave him some special insight into history or government or literature or whatever the subject was.  You know you had that person.  We all did.  If you went to law school you definitely know what I'm talking about.  That's who you are.  But the truth is that you've never run a Mandarin immersion school either, and likely have never run any school.  So go ahead and have your opinions about how YY should do this or that to cater to native speakers, but don't pretend that those opinions aren't a symptom of feeling like you should be treated special as compared to white or AA parents.

It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Mrs. Costanza is upset because she learns that "Donna Chang" isn't Chinese and decides to ignore her advice -- "I thought I was getting advice from a Chinese woman!"  You kids could be taught in Mandarin 5 days out of 10.  Does it really matter if the principal (a qualified and experienced administrator BTW) doesn't speak it?[/quote]

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