Fremont Unified considers Mandarin-English immersion program
Posted: 05/04/2010 12:00:00 AM PDT
FREMONT — Wei-Lin Tong remembers speaking only Cantonese at home during her early years, but as soon as her older brother went to kindergarten, the kids switched to speaking English full time.
With two children of her own now, Tong is seeing history repeat itself. Her daughter spoke Cantonese and English until she started preschool. But these days, Tong said, “it’s English all the way.”Having learned from her own experiences, Tong — who travels overseas regularly for work — regrets not being more fluent in a second language. But she’s hopeful it’s not too late for her children, ages 5 and 3.
Tong and other Fremont parents are pushing for the school district to start a Mandarin-English immersion program, similar to its Spanish-English program.
Students would start out speaking Mandarin 90 percent of the time and English the remainder of the day in kindergarten. By fifth grade, the school day would be equally split between Mandarin and English.
read more here.
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 
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