Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh come on. My near native Chinese speaking kids joke about how the upper grades YY students they interact with speak "GPS Chinese." These kids sound like robots in Chinese. They don't know slang/kid Chinese, speak haltingly using fairly flat tones, and understand little. Just because a kid attends a DCPS or DCPCS immersion program for years doesn't mean they've become multilingual. It generally means they learned a little of the target language, enough to pull off a fair imitation of a GPS at any rate. But if the family has at least one native speaker in the home over a number of years who speaks mostly in the target language, and requires kids to reply in it most of the time, they become proficient, if not fluent.

Forgive me for this, but I worry that you might be raising your kids to be jerks.

+1. Sounds like they're learning by example.

Anonymous wrote:Oh come on. My near native Chinese speaking kids joke about how the upper grades YY students they interact with speak "GPS Chinese." These kids sound like robots in Chinese. They don't know slang/kid Chinese, speak haltingly using fairly flat tones, and understand little. Just because a kid attends a DCPS or DCPCS immersion program for years doesn't mean they've become multilingual. It generally means they learned a little of the target language, enough to pull off a fair imitation of a GPS at any rate. But if the family has at least one native speaker in the home over a number of years who speaks mostly in the target language, and requires kids to reply in it most of the time, they become proficient, if not fluent.

Forgive me for this, but I worry that you might be raising your kids to be jerks.

Anonymous wrote:Agree. Raising bilingual kids with broad horizons is do-able, but very hard work. It's much harder work that most of the DC immersion parents fleeing weak neighborhood schools seem to grasp. Parents sometimes approach us in playgrounds asking for the name of "your tutor." We don't have a tutor, we have relatives!

Look at the kids at CHEC, many of them are not fluent in either Spanish or English so it is effort, natural ability, plus having a supportive & literate community (related or otherwise). If bilingualism alone was so amazing all the ESL students would be doing excellent at DCPS, which they are not. Family literacy is key!

Anonymous wrote:Oh come on. My near native Chinese speaking kids joke about how the upper grades YY students they interact with speak "GPS Chinese." These kids sound like robots in Chinese. They don't know slang/kid Chinese, speak haltingly using fairly flat tones, and understand little. Just because a kid attends a DCPS or DCPCS immersion program for years doesn't mean they've become multilingual. It generally means they learned a little of the target language, enough to pull off a fair imitation of a GPS at any rate. But if the family has at least one native speaker in the home over a number of years who speaks mostly in the target language, and requires kids to reply in it most of the time, they become proficient, if not fluent.

Actually, it's always funny how the people that supposedly find all YY kids' horribly deficient in Mandarin never meet any kids who are doing really well. But we're at the school and have been out either just with our kids or with ours and other YY kids and meet Chinese adults who will converse with the kids and, beyond some shyness of some, not only do they get glowing raves (including about their tones), often those we meet are honest about which kids are really stand out and it's always the same kids. Yet they also are amazed at how well ALL of them speak.

I'm not saying every child at YY is exactly where the school, their teachers, and any native Mandarin speakers would want them to be at each grade level. But to generalize that they're ALL woefully deficient, flat tones, and that ONLY the families with at least one native speaker at home or a native speaking nanny can be adequate or excel is simply wrong.

The good news though for those with kids at these schools is, the reality is the reality. if your child is thriving or excelling at their dual-language school, nothing the naysayers on DCUM say will change how your child is doing. If your child needs some supports in the 2nd language, hopefully you're finding those supports and your child will still have a few great advantages for having gone to a bi-lingual school. We have kids in 4th and 1st grade at YY and the fact that the 4th grader can write in Chinese and Chinese people we don't know can read what he wrote is amazing, or that he can have whole thoughtful conversations in Mandarin with strangers and they just gush about how good his Mandarin is is a great thing, no matter what label you'd put on him. The 1st grader is doing really well too.

And poo pooing families like us here doesn't change the feedback we get from real people who actually meet our kids and actually converse with them in Mandarin.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I regret spending so much time worrying about the differences of Pre-K 3 programs...

+1000

well, on the other hand when you have 1st grader who can't read in February, you may regret worrying less than you should have. we did little research and got into what people said was a "good' school and a "good" program at and thought we were good to go.

Anonymous wrote:I regret spending so much time worrying about the differences of Pre-K 3 programs...

+1000

Anonymous wrote:No choice is permanent! As your child grows you will determine what us the best fit for your family.

We chose IT over our jklm and had a lovely time-consuming nurturing and warm community with stellar teachers. We switched for Spanish immersion which is a priority for our family. The research on the elasticity of the brain, and early language acquisition swayed us, and as a family can support it at home.

As we've transitioned more than once my advice is to fully commit to where you are now. Demonstrate to DC that you believe education is important and the rest will follow.

Good luck!

I didn't write the above- but we are another family that chose to spend two years at IT over JKLM school. The approach to learning, small size, and nurturing of the child's social/emotional side as well as critical thinking skills led us there. Immersion was important to us, however, so we continued to lottery until we eventually were granted a spot. The exact same reasons the previous poster cited are ours- and whereas DC might not be fluent yet, DC is reading, writing and conversing in both languages. We supplement with visits and stays to Spanish speaking envrionments, including budget travel to countries where it is spoken.

Thank you PP

I regret spending so much time worrying about the differences of Pre-K 3 programs...

Anonymous wrote:One thing I never understand in these threads about immersion programs is how often they get into arguments about what constitutes true bilingualism. I personally don't think the point of these programs is to produce bilingual children as much as it is to give kids valuable exposure to, and even some degree of functionality in, another language. I think that having such intense exposure so young is a great thing for my son, however good his Spanish ends up being (or not being).

Shh...the true bilinguals will hear you (in all their languages)!

One thing I never understand in these threads about immersion programs is how often they get into arguments about what constitutes true bilingualism. I personally don't think the point of these programs is to produce bilingual children as much as it is to give kids valuable exposure to, and even some degree of functionality in, another language. I think that having such intense exposure so young is a great thing for my son, however good his Spanish ends up being (or not being).