Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a tutor! This is the delusional DC immersion charter mentality in a nutshell.

We have a tutor, so the kid speaks the language well. Never mind the fact that we know little about this language and culture and don't have ethnic friends or neighbors who speak this language with our child. We deny that the kid needs a Chinese-speaking adult in the home or bilingual peers to speak this language.

Totally ridiculous.

Oh, for the love of all things. Don’t let your own agenda get in the way of facts. I assume you are responding to me, though I never said anything about my child’s proficiency. We do have Chinese-speaking friends, in fact, one of my dearest friends and oldest colleagues is Chinese and I have been to China many times for work. I have taken my kid with me twice with this friend, since our children are friends. She is the one who hooked us up with our tutor, as she is very involved with a heritage school in Rockville (her kids are MCPS). I know my kid speaks okay, not great, Chinese. We are not sure if we will continue with DCI as my kid has other strengths and we have always planned on private school for HS.

However, I have zero regrets about YY—as I mentioned before it’s a great little school and has given us a wonderful education. Sometimes elementary school is just elementary school, you know? It’s not necessary to freak out too much.

PS my friend has some very funny insights into the Chinese community and the entrenched hatred toward YY that I do not have permission to share. Suffice it to say that I am not in any way delusional. Cheers!

I don't think I'm the PP you're responding to either. Don't have permission to share, please. The Metro area bilingual Chinese community doesn't hate YY - waste of time. The way the program runs make it irrelevant to immigrants and ABCs whose families speak Chinese at home. These families focus on taking advantage of strong MoCo ES academics, especially "compacted math," and MS and HS Mandarin with dialect transition support. The heritage school people who've heard of YY (like us) tend to know that the program doesn't attract bilingual admins or students, but does draw a really small number of Chinese-speaking parents. They also know that YY has no interest in developing ties w/the ethnic community and their heritage programs. Enough said.

PP- you’re right. Parents who put their kids in Yu Ying should give back to the ethnic Chinese community here. Couldn’t agree more.

I am one of the prior posters, and I assure you we are not blade about the language part. Not sure why you think that from my post. The whole reason we are in the program is that we think learning a second language is very important. And maybe my child will someday use those skills to 'give back to the community,' as you suggest. It's more likely than if he were not learning a language. I really can't understand why people get upset at other's desire to learn to communicate with people outside of their native language. Isn't it a good thing??

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a tutor! This is the delusional DC immersion charter mentality in a nutshell.

We have a tutor, so the kid speaks the language well. Never mind the fact that we know little about this language and culture and don't have ethnic friends or neighbors who speak this language with our child. We deny that the kid needs a Chinese-speaking adult in the home or bilingual peers to speak this language.

Totally ridiculous.

Oh, for the love of all things. Don’t let your own agenda get in the way of facts. I assume you are responding to me, though I never said anything about my child’s proficiency. We do have Chinese-speaking friends, in fact, one of my dearest friends and oldest colleagues is Chinese and I have been to China many times for work. I have taken my kid with me twice with this friend, since our children are friends. She is the one who hooked us up with our tutor, as she is very involved with a heritage school in Rockville (her kids are MCPS). I know my kid speaks okay, not great, Chinese. We are not sure if we will continue with DCI as my kid has other strengths and we have always planned on private school for HS.

However, I have zero regrets about YY—as I mentioned before it’s a great little school and has given us a wonderful education. Sometimes elementary school is just elementary school, you know? It’s not necessary to freak out too much.

PS my friend has some very funny insights into the Chinese community and the entrenched hatred toward YY that I do not have permission to share. Suffice it to say that I am not in any way delusional. Cheers!

I don't think I'm the PP you're responding to either. Don't have permission to share, please. The Metro area bilingual Chinese community doesn't hate YY - waste of time. The way the program runs make it irrelevant to immigrants and ABCs whose families speak Chinese at home. These families focus on taking advantage of strong MoCo ES academics, especially "compacted math," and MS and HS Mandarin with dialect transition support. The heritage school people who've heard of YY (like us) tend to know that the program doesn't attract bilingual admins or students, but does draw a really small number of Chinese-speaking parents. They also know that YY has no interest in developing ties w/the ethnic community and their heritage programs. Enough said.

PP- you’re right. Parents who put their kids in Yu Ying should give back to the ethnic Chinese community here. Couldn’t agree more.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always find it interesting that all the families who aren’t native speakers are confident that their kids speak “tons” of the target language. How are you confident of this? How do you know your preschooler is “fluent”?

This attitude is so tiresome. Of course kids in immersion aren't perfectly fluent (especially before age 10!); just like many people with second languages aren't perfect in the second language. I bet compared to before, the child does know 'tons' of the language. The point is to start down the road to fluency - some will get there sooner than others - thus teaching kids an important life skill in this shrinking world and potentially opening up more opportunities down the road. My DS, while probably not a perfect Spanish speaker, appears to communicate effectively with other Spanish speakers, and he's only 8 - I have enough knowledge of Spanish to feel confident about this. I imagine it will get even better as time goes on. Another perk is that it provides extra challenge at school.

It's fine if you don't prioritize second languages - maybe your kid does math club, or a sport, or plays an instrument. I doubt they will have achieved perfection in those skills by age 10, but that doesn't mean there isn't value.

+1. If we moved for a few years to Mexico or Spain or wherever, and we put our kids in the local schools, no one would say how terrible that is for our kids because we have no intention of living in Mexico, Spain, et al for the rest of our lives. People would say, "Oh what a great experience for them."

What you’re conveniently forgetting is that you’re not contributing anything back to the community. All you gringos with a few years of Spanish or French or whatever under your belt don’t remember is that there are parents whose kids really do speak that target language. And due to regulations imposed by Congress, our kids don’t get any preference at all. I really don’t care so much when I see parents trying hard and getting tutors or traveling to improve language skills (and starting at PK3). However, parents like the two PPs have low expectations and prevent the class from really achieving biliteracy, because they’re struggling with the remedial skills of your English speaking kids, really really bother me. I feel that schools should make parents sign a contract saying they will learn the target language also, and that they will do everything they can to support the language.

Also, if you’re at an immersion school, you should be volunteering or donating money or doing what you can to help the immigrant community that is helping to educate your kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a tutor! This is the delusional DC immersion charter mentality in a nutshell.

We have a tutor, so the kid speaks the language well. Never mind the fact that we know little about this language and culture and don't have ethnic friends or neighbors who speak this language with our child. We deny that the kid needs a Chinese-speaking adult in the home or bilingual peers to speak this language.

Totally ridiculous.

Oh, for the love of all things. Don’t let your own agenda get in the way of facts. I assume you are responding to me, though I never said anything about my child’s proficiency. We do have Chinese-speaking friends, in fact, one of my dearest friends and oldest colleagues is Chinese and I have been to China many times for work. I have taken my kid with me twice with this friend, since our children are friends. She is the one who hooked us up with our tutor, as she is very involved with a heritage school in Rockville (her kids are MCPS). I know my kid speaks okay, not great, Chinese. We are not sure if we will continue with DCI as my kid has other strengths and we have always planned on private school for HS.

However, I have zero regrets about YY—as I mentioned before it’s a great little school and has given us a wonderful education. Sometimes elementary school is just elementary school, you know? It’s not necessary to freak out too much.

PS my friend has some very funny insights into the Chinese community and the entrenched hatred toward YY that I do not have permission to share. Suffice it to say that I am not in any way delusional. Cheers!

I don't think I'm the PP you're responding to either. Don't have permission to share, please. The Metro area bilingual Chinese community doesn't hate YY - waste of time. The way the program runs make it irrelevant to immigrants and ABCs whose families speak Chinese at home. These families focus on taking advantage of strong MoCo ES academics, especially "compacted math," and MS and HS Mandarin with dialect transition support. The heritage school people who've heard of YY (like us) tend to know that the program doesn't attract bilingual admins or students, but does draw a really small number of Chinese-speaking parents. They also know that YY has no interest in developing ties w/the ethnic community and their heritage programs. Enough said.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always find it interesting that all the families who aren’t native speakers are confident that their kids speak “tons” of the target language. How are you confident of this? How do you know your preschooler is “fluent”?

This attitude is so tiresome. Of course kids in immersion aren't perfectly fluent (especially before age 10!); just like many people with second languages aren't perfect in the second language. I bet compared to before, the child does know 'tons' of the language. The point is to start down the road to fluency - some will get there sooner than others - thus teaching kids an important life skill in this shrinking world and potentially opening up more opportunities down the road. My DS, while probably not a perfect Spanish speaker, appears to communicate effectively with other Spanish speakers, and he's only 8 - I have enough knowledge of Spanish to feel confident about this. I imagine it will get even better as time goes on. Another perk is that it provides extra challenge at school.

It's fine if you don't prioritize second languages - maybe your kid does math club, or a sport, or plays an instrument. I doubt they will have achieved perfection in those skills by age 10, but that doesn't mean there isn't value.

+1. If we moved for a few years to Mexico or Spain or wherever, and we put our kids in the local schools, no one would say how terrible that is for our kids because we have no intention of living in Mexico, Spain, et al for the rest of our lives. People would say, "Oh what a great experience for them."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a tutor! This is the delusional DC immersion charter mentality in a nutshell.

We have a tutor, so the kid speaks the language well. Never mind the fact that we know little about this language and culture and don't have ethnic friends or neighbors who speak this language with our child. We deny that the kid needs a Chinese-speaking adult in the home or bilingual peers to speak this language.

Totally ridiculous.

Oh, for the love of all things. Don’t let your own agenda get in the way of facts. I assume you are responding to me, though I never said anything about my child’s proficiency. We do have Chinese-speaking friends, in fact, one of my dearest friends and oldest colleagues is Chinese and I have been to China many times for work. I have taken my kid with me twice with this friend, since our children are friends. She is the one who hooked us up with our tutor, as she is very involved with a heritage school in Rockville (her kids are MCPS). I know my kid speaks okay, not great, Chinese. We are not sure if we will continue with DCI as my kid has other strengths and we have always planned on private school for HS.

However, I have zero regrets about YY—as I mentioned before it’s a great little school and has given us a wonderful education. Sometimes elementary school is just elementary school, you know? It’s not necessary to freak out too much.

PS my friend has some very funny insights into the Chinese community and the entrenched hatred toward YY that I do not have permission to share. Suffice it to say that I am not in any way delusional. Cheers!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always find it interesting that all the families who aren’t native speakers are confident that their kids speak “tons” of the target language. How are you confident of this? How do you know your preschooler is “fluent”?

My preschooler’s teacher only speaks to our child in Spanish and our teacher says DC understands everything.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always find it interesting that all the families who aren’t native speakers are confident that their kids speak “tons” of the target language. How are you confident of this? How do you know your preschooler is “fluent”?

This attitude is so tiresome. Of course kids in immersion aren't perfectly fluent (especially before age 10!); just like many people with second languages aren't perfect in the second language. I bet compared to before, the child does know 'tons' of the language. The point is to start down the road to fluency - some will get there sooner than others - thus teaching kids an important life skill in this shrinking world and potentially opening up more opportunities down the road. My DS, while probably not a perfect Spanish speaker, appears to communicate effectively with other Spanish speakers, and he's only 8 - I have enough knowledge of Spanish to feel confident about this. I imagine it will get even better as time goes on. Another perk is that it provides extra challenge at school.

It's fine if you don't prioritize second languages - maybe your kid does math club, or a sport, or plays an instrument. I doubt they will have achieved perfection in those skills by age 10, but that doesn't mean there isn't value.

Anonymous wrote:We have a tutor! This is the delusional DC immersion charter mentality in a nutshell.

We have a tutor, so the kid speaks the language well. Never mind the fact that we know little about this language and culture and don't have ethnic friends or neighbors who speak this language with our child. We deny that the kid needs a Chinese-speaking adult in the home or bilingual peers to speak this language.

Totally ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:Now that we are facing middle school and have only one option for the language my child has been learning for 6 years, I regret not having her learn Spanish. There are many more options to continue with Spanish than the language she is learning. I didn't realize she would love it so much and want to continue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that we are facing middle school and have only one option for the language my child has been learning for 6 years, I regret not having her learn Spanish. There are many more options to continue with Spanish than the language she is learning. I didn't realize she would love it so much and want to continue.

Yes, Mandarin and French immersion is kind of goofy in DC if you don't have a strong connection to one of those languages or cultures.

Anonymous wrote:Now that we are facing middle school and have only one option for the language my child has been learning for 6 years, I regret not having her learn Spanish. There are many more options to continue with Spanish than the language she is learning. I didn't realize she would love it so much and want to continue.