If you’ve got kids headed for Mandarin immersion in the fall, you probably wake up in the middle of the night wondering “Am I doing the right thing for my child? Will they really learn Chinese?”
Take heart, it does. Here are three examples from current Mandarin immersion parents.
Abigail
Son in Kindergarten at Starr King
Yesterday my parents, who are visiting this week, walked our kindergartener home from school and stopped in at Uni’s Deli on 23rd across from San Francisco General Hospital. Apparently the woman who works there speaks fluent Mandarin and carried on a substantial conversation with my son, then reported to my parents that “he has no accent.” I was similarly amazed a couple weeks ago when, at a routine medical check-up, he was able to do the entire intake–from blood pressure to hearing test–in Mandarin. He got a little confused on the vision test since he was speaking Chinese yet was suddenly confronted with the Roman alphabet. The nurse and I reassured him in English that it was OK to answer in English, and that was the only English spoken between the two!
Beth
Two daughters at Starr King
I was putting away clothes this afternoon and our Kindergartener was sitting on the bed looking at a Charlie and Lola book that we have in Chinese. She’s in Kindergarten, so I didn’t expect her to be reading it in Chinese, just looking a the picture. But then I noticed that she was counting all the silver balls on one page, and when I leaned in I heard her saying under her breath as she touched each one “Shi yi, shi er, shi san, shi si…” (11, 12, 13, 14…) and realized that she was counting in Mandarin. Not because anyone told her to, but just because it was a Chinese book, so you count in Chinese.
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 
Leave a comment