The LA Times on the new Mandarin immersion program in the Newport-Mesa school district

The Newport-Mesa school district has launched its first Mandarin Immersion Program at College Park Elementary School, in which kindergarten students will be instructed in English and Mandarin.

For the inaugural year, the program is starting with 20 students and one teacher, Vivian Lam, to guide them.

From 8 a.m. to 1:05 p.m., lessons for social studies, reading, language arts and science are taught in English while reading and language arts are taught in Mandarin. Math is taught in both English and Mandarin.

Before coming to the Costa Mesa school, Lam taught in a Mandarin immersion program at Broadway Elementary in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“When you know more than one language, there are more opportunities available to you,” Lam said. “You could work at big companies, become a translator or even just help the people around you. And a lot of studies show that learning different languages at a young age will expand students’ cognitive abilities.”

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