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[quote=Anonymous]Another YY parent here:
(1) I agree that the school seems to place a lot of emphasis on how new kids are miserable at the beginning. I always thought that was just setting expectations low. Yes, the kids are exhausted and cranky. but you know what ,for the first three months when my DS was in our local PS-3 public school program he was the same way! I didn't notice any difference in switching to YY. The second language does wear them out a bit more but we just try to be extra relaxing at home after school and on weekends, esp. after start of school.

(2) as someone who learned Mandarin as an adult I definitely see the advantage to starting a language, particularly Chinese, early. I happen to not have had a problem with tones, but I had some exposure to Chinese as a child and also I have a really good sense of pitch, so tones are relatively easy for me. On the other hand, many smart adults--see, e.g., Mark Zuckerberg--just cannot get the tones if they start Chinese later in life. Just the exposure alone for a couple of years will make a huge difference for kids who want to try to become truly fluent later. Ditto for characters.

Also I think that even just becoming reasonably proficient (which is the best I ever was, after years of college and living in Asia for a year) in a language is still wonderful. I will never be mistaken for a native speaker, but I have friends I can converse with in another language, I know enough to be able to travel in China, I've been exposed to another culture. And it's actually been hugely beneficial for my English. THe experience of having to distill your thoughts down to a limited vocabulary helps you to write and speak more efficiently. I really don't understand the obsession with being fluent...[/quote]

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