Author: Elizabeth Weise

Parents and teachers often lament the lack of appropriate books in Chinese for immersion students. But while we whine, the kids are getting down to work. If there aren’t books you want to read in Mandarin, write them yourself. That’s the lesson we can all learn from Annemarie Hilton, age 10. Hilton is  going into…

As many of you know, I’m just about finished writing a book on immersion called “A Parent’s Guide to Mandarin Immersion.” One of the pieces I’m missing is the experience of students who’ve gotten far enough in Chinese to be able to talk about whether or not they’re glad they’ve learned it. If you have…

 The First Mandarin immersion school in Massachusetts will now become the first K – 12 Mandarin immersion program in the nation. By Elizabeth Weise The Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School (PVCICS) is in the town of Hadley in western Massachusetts. The school opened in 2007, as a K-8th grade regional public charter school. It…

Run out and get the print edition this week, the full article isn’t available online. From Time Magazine: By Jeffrey KlugerJuly 18, 20135  MICHAEL FRIBERG FOR TIMEA group of Utah first-graders listen and read along in Mandarin. Never mind how well-spoken you might be now, you will never again be as adept with languages as the…

I just started a tab on this blog for parent groups around the country, as we now have so many. If your group isn’t hear, please drop me a line and I’ll add it. https://miparentscouncil.org/mandarin-immersion-resource-pages/

Which really captures the feeling young expats have there these days. This video makes me nostalgic for Beijing and I haven’t even lived there. It’s so much the place that people in their 20s are going today to make their fortune. It feels a little like Prague did for those of us who were in…

Many programs, as well as Mandarin immersion as a whole, have benefited from FLAP grants. However the  Foreign Language Assistance Program was not reinstated in the Fiscal year 14 budget, and the $75m request for the Well Rounded Curriculum grants to State Education Agencies falls more than $400m short of the six grant programs it would…