There's no way somebody who started taking a Chinese language class in high school is mistaken for a native speaker. Complete baloney!

Anonymous wrote:^^ What a load of bull. Anecdotal- indeed!

I speak another Asian language, Korean, which isn't nearly as "tonal" as Mandarin. One of my younger brothers had to relearn Korean after being educated in the U.S. He's lived and worked in Korea as an adult. Korean is his first language, however, and he is exceptionally talented in languages speaks five including ancient Greek and Latin and he gets teased all the time that he's speaks Korean like a foreigner. But that's by his wife and me, immediate family. My guess is most people are too polite to say the accent, tones, etc. are not those of a native speaker especially if the person is an adult and proficient/bilingual in everything except for the "off" accent.

Anonymous wrote:^^ What a load of bull. Anecdotal- indeed!

Drop the whole Chinese distraction. This thread is really interesting.
GDS Alum married to a prep school grad, we met at an Ivy, and our kids are in JKLM and charter by choice.

^^ What a load of bull. Anecdotal- indeed!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Independent" is what people say to mean "private" when they are trying to sound less pretentious, only it sounds more snooty.

Also, to add to the Chinese language discussion. My kids are all DCPS, one at Wilson taking Chinese after 3 years of Chinese at Deal culminating in a fantastic 10 day trip to China during spring break-my kid did very well communicating in Chinese while there. Wilson teacher explained that if you get through AP Chinese at Wilson, kids can continue Chinese at AU.

I'm afraid that won't work for us, it's too late to master the tones. Middle school is too late to master the tones.

Anecdotal evidence but my cousin, who is half Chinese and who looks 100% Chinese, did not start taking Mandarin until he went to Exeter in 9th grade and had never learned it at home. He works over there and is taken for a native speaker all the time. We have been assured by my Chinese aunt that, especially since our nuclear family speaks French at home, my dc who is starting Mandarin now in 7th grade will probably be able to pick all of it up, even the tones.

Anonymous wrote:It is relevant, agreed, I am the OP and we have considered moving to MoCo, staying, moving to a JKLM district that is IB for Deal, catholic school (we cannot afford the big league private tuition for all our kids regardless) charter etc, and wanted opinions from other private school educated adults in the general area making that call.

NCS grad. We almost bought a house in MoCo for Pyle/Whitman when the first child was about to graduate from JKLM. Now have two at BASIS and would not consider any other school, even though parents have offered to pay for private MS/HS. Most of my peers are not sending their kids to private schools, at least not yet. A lot are in MoCo etc. We feel happy to have our kids at a school where education and hard work is prized above all else and to have avoided the whole jock/mean girl issues that I hear are only getting worse at the DC privates (and Landon).

It is relevant, agreed, I am the OP and we have considered moving to MoCo, staying, moving to a JKLM district that is IB for Deal, catholic school (we cannot afford the big league private tuition for all our kids regardless) charter etc, and wanted opinions from other private school educated adults in the general area making that call.

I'm a Boston private school grad and DH is a Sidwell Alum. Our kids are in a JKLM -- we will revisit the issue towards middle school, but so far no need to spend more than 6X the tuition our parents paid for elementary school...

Off the top of my head, I know parents at our JKLM who attended St. Albans, NCS, Maret, GDS, Sidwell and Landon. My DH attended a top NYC private and has been quite happy with our DC's JKLM experience.

Anonymous wrote:"Independent" is what people say to mean "private" when they are trying to sound less pretentious, only it sounds more snooty.

Also, to add to the Chinese language discussion. My kids are all DCPS, one at Wilson taking Chinese after 3 years of Chinese at Deal culminating in a fantastic 10 day trip to China during spring break-my kid did very well communicating in Chinese while there. Wilson teacher explained that if you get through AP Chinese at Wilson, kids can continue Chinese at AU.

I'm afraid that won't work for us, it's too late to master the tones. Middle school is too late to master the tones.

Of course it's relevant! OP asked what grads of DC privates are doing with their kids. I find it interesting to read what kind of choices make for their own kids after having certain educational experiences.

Anonymous wrote:For those that have kids in MD or VA, would you mind if I asked why you visit a DC school thread? Not meant to be snarky, really interested.

I am guilty of that. I went to Sidwell and send my kid to MCPS (as do many of my Sidwell classmates). I read the title and the OP but didn't see that it was restricted to people living within the DC border. Frankly didn't notice what forum it happened to be posted in. So sorry, although the responses do seem somewhat relevant since many alums of DC private schools DO live just over the line and send their kids to public schools.

They might have seen the subject line on the "recent topics" page of the forum, which does not delineate by discussion title, rather just lists the subject lines of all topics in all forums being discussed. Since the person went to private schools and sent their kid to their local PS, they chimed in.

For those that have kids in MD or VA, would you mind if I asked why you visit a DC school thread? Not meant to be snarky, really interested.

Both my husband and I went to top independent schools PK-12. I grew up in DE and he grew up just outside of Boston. Our kids are in a Title 1 school in Arlington by choice. It's an amazing school with wonderful teachers and families and we could not be happier.