Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

From the Financial Times

JUNE 16, 2023, By Christina Lu

Inside a sunny classroom in northeast Washington, D.C., Baby Snoopy, Thing One, Spiderman, and other children in costume are busy tucking into lunch when three visitors—including me—disrupt the feast. As I wave, awkwardly, one of the students offers a shy greeting: Ni hao. 

That could be because I am Chinese—or because these children spend their days immersed in Mandarin. At the Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School, which I’m visiting on Character Day, 3- and 4-year-olds play, eat, and learn in Mandarin. (Older students are taught in both Mandarin and English.) Having reported on how deteriorating U.S.-China relations have throttled higher education and academic exchanges, I am here on a June morning with a related mission: to see if Washington’s hawkish China consensus has affected demand for Mandarin immersion programs in its own backyard.

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