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]As others have said, many on this thread are not actually YY families.  I am a PP with a kid studying another language at another immersion school with a sizable proportion of native speakers; I've chimed in a few times, as I've been following this thread.  My only connection to YY is that a few of my neighbors' kids attend.

I still think some of the YY detractors have been mean-spirited in their mocking of current families, saying the kids "speak like toddlers," etc.  That is in large part what is creating the backlash--the downright pettiness from several (or one?) of the detractors.  Also, some suggestions/opinions re: YY kids' language acquisition skills may indeed be reasonable, but they aren't being taken well because of some PPs' sneering, mocking delivery of this information.

Also, if some of you have indeed moved on after leaving YY many, many years ago, and your kids' current schools are working out well, why are you so invested in criticizing YY, to the point of posting at all hours during the workday, etc.?  Seems a lot of valuable time spent on a school that should be in your rearview.

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I've chimed in a few times to point out the lack of ambition YY supporters project, which invites its own backlash from critics of various stripes. What the school seems to do, unlike the charter Spanish immersion programs with a sizable proportion of native speakers, is actively buck best practices in language learning. YY is hardly alone in this regard. Disregard for best practices is a constant theme in our public schools, although we already have the demographics to aim higher. Supporters come here championing their lack of seriousness of purpose in supporting high standards for Chinese instruction. They defend YY for not reaching out to the local ethnic community, and DCI for not planning to teach truly advanced language courses. They call advanced Chinese dumb and inappropriate in this particular city and advise anybody who disagrees to hit the road for MoCo. It's depressing. Immigrant East Asians don't relate.

I think back to the day I met my college roommate's family in NYC Chinatown. I could hardly believe how poorly this brilliant guy's parents spoke English. I was shocked by how tiny their apartment was, and the sweat shop jobs I discovered the adults worked. I couldn't understand how a first-rate humanities student could have come from that background. I don't think posters are criticizing YY as much as they're criticizing our public schools for not bothering to seize the day. What's worse, it's done in the name of helping poor minority kids. 
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