Anonymous wrote:I strongly recommend visiting both College Gardens and Potomac, and talking to both ethnic and non-ethnic parents involved in the immersion programs, particularly PTA parents. We did that, after feeling alienated by the set-up at Yu Ying as a bilingual immigrant family (no ethnic or native speaking admins, hardly any bilingual kids etc.). Both of the MoCo programs seem to have more native speakers in the upper grades than lower, because MD allows native speakers (including Cantonese speakers) to test in to replace drop-outs while DC Charter does not. Even if you don't speak Mandarin, you'll quickly get a feel for how much more serious the MoCo programs are than YY about almost everything but the social aspect of the immersion education - math, English, Mandarin. We ultimately decided to stay in DC to work on Chinese at home with relatives, au pairs and wonderful weekend MoCo heritage language classes in our corner. Tough decision but not one we regret.
I would like an update if possible... Did your children end up fluent and literate? Succeed on HS exams?
My DS enrolled in daily mandarin immersion since age 1 (we are native so-called romance language.peakers, i knew i had to start early for any real hope to achieve the above goals) and the more i research, the more i realize i will need to become best friends with a Chinese family in DC, or move to the west coast or overseas.
Unlike others, my main interest in Mandarin is for the ordered math and logical thinking tools. My chinese friends growing up were pushed by Tiger Moms yes... but they literally could think faster and more deeply about number problems. I am extremely impressed with China's public school structure (i believe in competition) and wish an area school would actually go for it.