By Elizabeth Weise Excerpted from the forthcoming A Parent’s Guide to Mandarin Immersion As foreign language teachers from around the nation gather in Orlando for the annual American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages convention, I wanted to post an analysis of the statistics I have gathered for Mandarin immersion programs in the United…

Summer Institutes for Immersion Teachers CARLA also offers these popular institutes that are designed specifically for immersion educators: Immersion 101: An Introduction to Immersion Teaching for Chinese and Japanese July 21–25, 2014 Presenters: Tara Fortune and a team of veteran immersion teachers This institute provides novice immersion teachers of character-based languages with the tools and…

I got some fun new additions from Los Angeles. Keep ’em coming…   When the birthday cake comes out at a party, you start singing “Ju ni sheng ri kuai le” and then quickly realize everyone else is singing “Happy Birthday To You.”   When you reach into your purse for Kleenex, you come out…

  Computer scientist and Mandarin speaker Nathan Yeung at Brigham Young University has updated his spectacular map of all the Mandarin immersion schools in the United States, based on the database I’ve compiled. It’s a great way to find what schools are nearest to you. Enjoy! And pass along the link to others, Nathan’s site…

  From the parents at Field Elementary’s Mandarin immersion program: In the spring of 2013 the administrators and parents involved with the The Mandarin Dual Language Immersion Program (MDLIP) at Eugene Field Elementary School received some bad news. The U.S. government Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant that had funded the start-up costs of the…

Chinese and English: Dual language program grows in Casper, Wyo.     Dan Cepeda/Casper Star-Tribune Kindergarten teacher Anastasia Lite Li works with student Sterling Mann in a dual-language immersion classroom last month at Paradise Valley School in Casper, Wyo. November 09, 2013 6:00 pm  •  By LEAH TODD Casper Star Tribune CASPER, Wyo. – Anastasia Lite Li…

HOWARD STEPHENSON: Dual language immersion is best of both worlds Utah’s dual language immersion program gives elementary students the chance to become fluent in traditional languages as well as critical languages such as Mandarin Chinese. The first schools to begin dual immersion now have fifth-graders in the program.By: Howard Stephenson, Grand Forks Herald Howard Stephenson More……