Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

(This essay first appeared in the newsletter of the Advocates for Mandarin Education three years ago.)

Immersion Program Insight
普通话沉浸式教育家长之体验
– by Renee Tan

You’re in!  That crucial letter from the District has arrived and …..your child will
be entering a Mandarin Immersion program in the fall.  You’ve toured the schools, done
the research, looked at the data supporting the immersion model, and you’re confident in
the choice you made.  So now you look down at your little one and think about what life
will be like come late August and what can you do to prepare your child for that big first
day of school?  Here’s some insight from someone who has been there.
You decide to visit your local library and are delighted to find a section of books
in different languages. You even find books written in Chinese.  Since you might not be
able to distinguish between simplified versus traditional characters, you ask the librarian,
who is just as knowledgeable as you on this subject. After careful research, you learn that
the San Francisco Public Library system only has a handful of books in simplified
characters.
You realize all of this is pointless as you cannot read this to your child anyway.
So you move onto videos….you think ‘This is a much better choice!’  And they are much
better choice for about 15 minutes.  But the intrigue ends in about 15 minutes with the
video as background noise while your child builds something with the sofa pillows.
The first month of school arrives. What you find is that nothing could have
prepared you or your child for the experience of the first month of school.  The size of the
building is most likely daunting compared to the nice little preschool they attended.
Many of the kids are twice the size of your child.
All of this is a bit intimidating — though not as intimidating as the Tupperware
you packed in your child’s lunchbox.  You realize that your child is not eating because
he/she is unable to open the containers you so brilliantly packed.   You ask your child
how their day is and the response is “I don’t know.”  What most parents have discovered
is that the adjustment to kindergarten for your child is the same as for any child entering
kindergarten and the language issue is irrelevant.
By November, you can have the confidence that every child in the class can
respond back in Mandarin. Of course, some students can speak more than others, but
every child has a basic level of comprehension and everyone is answering the teacher in
Mandarin.  (This may happen sooner, the beginning of November was the first time I
spent a good hour in the classroom to witness the magic). Your child can write their name
in both English and Chinese!
By December, your child is tired, with that “deer in the headlights” look.  It is
physically draining to be instructed solely in a different language for more than four
hours a day, and this is when it becomes noticeable.  The winter break is a much needed
rest for your child!  Despite this, there is much progress now as most children can now
read a bit in Chinese as well as English!
January is a new year, and you child comes back to school relaxed and ready to
learn.  By now it seems like your child’s attention span is longer and so is the absorption
rate of information.  Chinese New Year is approaching and the children look forward to
the festivities planned around this huge holiday!
Once March rolls around, you will witness something truly amazing- your child
conversing with another child in Mandarin when they are not in school.  A true dialogue
outside of class.  Success!
Our child is now wrapping up his first year of Mandarin Immersion; it has been a
great experience.  Now that we have been through it, recalling the anxiety surrounding
how to prepare our child for 100% Mandarin for many hours of the day, my advice to all
future parents is this: Forget about Chinese. Have your child practice opening all the
containers in his/her lunchbox!

—
Renee Tan is a parent at Starr King Elementary with two children in in the Mandarin Immersion program, one in 3rd grade and one in 1st.