Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

It will be interesting to track what happens in Colorado Springs. I’ve been curious to know whether the immersion preschools come first, and create demand for immersion schools, or whether they can exist independently. Does anyone know of places where it’s gone one way or the other?

Here are two immersion preschools, one in Seattle, on in Colorado Springs. Seattle has an immersion K-12 program in place but I don’t believe there’s anything in Colorado Springs.

Seattle:Polly-Glot’s lively language immersion classes integrates play, music, movement,and art to engage children and connect the foreign sounds and words to everyday items and activities. Quarterly themes are brought to life through music, stories,and games that are often familiar to parents and easy to repeat in the home.Vocabulary is provided so parents can reinforce the language outside of the class, whether or not the parent has previous language experience or fluency.
Please bring $8 material fee payable to the instructor at the first day of class;
exact change is appreciated. We are currently offering Spanish,French, and Mandarin. Please call 206-684-4753 for exact dates and times. Classes will begin the week of 9/13 – 11/15
Ages: 1 – 5
Fee:$130.00

Colorado Springs:

Read more: Local, Education, Community, Yak Academy, Foreign Language, French, Spanish, Mandarin

COLO. SPRINGS, CO — A new foreign language program is opening in Colorado Springs.

It’s aimed at young students – ages one to ten – and immerses them in French, Spanish and Mandarin.

It’s a hundred percent immersion, so when the kids walk in the door its just the target language for that entire time,” owner/director Emily Hammond said.  “Everything we do is play-based so it’s through games and songs, we even do a little snack time which is the best time to get language out of kids because they’re so eager to get that cheerio or goldfish!”

Most of the instructors are native speakers, and they say kids have a much easier time picking up new languages than adults.

“To us adults, we feel we’re already born with a language,” Mandarin instructor Jing Jing Wang said.  “It’s difficult for us to adampt to another language.  But for kids there’s no difference, they can learn two or more languages and they won’t confuse them.  At the beginning, they may be a little confused, they may say one sentence in two different languages, but eventually they’ll be able to distinguish between the two.”

The class sizes are small – eight students or less.  It’s something that  Hammond has been working on for years, and she says she’s received a lot of support from area parents.

“When we first got the word out, I got tons of calls from parents, saying they’ve been waiting for a Spanish preschool to open up, they’ve been waiting for Mandarin classes.” Hammond said.  “For children of this age, there’s really nothing you can get in the area for Mandarin, Spanish or French, so I definitely feel there’s a need being met now in Colorado.”

“I feel very relaxed working with kids, I have lots of fun and I just love it,” Wang said.

It’s a plus for kids from different countries, with foreign-born parents, or who are just looking for an advantage in a competitive workplace.

“Today the economy is going increasingly global, so it’s a great thing that children can learn two languages or more,” Wang said.   Her daughter Haleigh is just four years old but already speaks multiple languages.  “We’ve just completed more than twenty hours of training and all the instructors work really well together.  We’re really looking forward to teaching our first lesson!

“It can be a little overwhelming at first, because you see they’re being introduced to this whole new language,” Hammond said.  But these kids learn so quickly, they love to learn and they love their instructors.  Plus, things like this increase brain development, improves test scores and is great for self-esteem.  When the kids work at answering a question and answer it correctly, they kind of perk up, they’re so proud of themselves for knowing this additional knowledge.”

There are preschool classes for younger students and after-school sessions for older ones.  You can get more information at www.yakacademy.com