Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

Here’s some interesting background on Mandarin immersion programs in British Columbia.

Vancouver (arguably the most beautiful city in North America, but I digress…) is about 17% Chinese. But it’s only now getting a Mandarin immersion program in its public schools, along with suburbs Coquitlam (see previous article) and Burnaby.

Interestingly, Vancouver and Burnaby are contemplating not taking advantage of all those Mandarin-speaking kids and instead making  their programs open only to children who already speak English. That’s one-way immersion, as opposed to two-way immersion. It’s a little controversial, as you can read here in an opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun by Henry Yu, a University of British Columbia history professor.

Another piece, by Ryuko Kubota, an education professor at the same University, also speaks for the need for two-way immersion and some of the reasons Chinese families may not embrace it.

There’s one tidbit in Yu’s piece, which I’d love to know more about – he says that Edmonton, Alberta schools have had Mandarin-English bilingual programs for 26 years, “with 13 schools and thousands of children learning Mandarin and English on a 50/50 basis.”

An article in the Canadian magazine Today’s Parent notes:

In Edmonton “the local board of education – has adopted one of the most radically decentralized programs in the country. Students are offered French immersion, but they can also sign up for bilingual elementary education in Mandarin, German, Ukrainian, Hebrew or Arabic. Among other options are a native education program featuring part-time instruction in Cree.”

Any Canadian readers who can tell us more about what’s going on up North?