One of the great things about having kids in Mandarin immersion is you get to celebrate the Spring Festival with about 2 billion people around the globe. It’s also when news sites tend to write about their local Mandarin immersion programs because adorable kids + fun costumes + “Wow, they speak Mandarin” is always a…

Back in 2010, I began this blog when my daughters were in grade school. As we’re just about to Chinese New Year, here’s a reprint of the first post I ever wrote. Happy Year of the Tiger to all the Mandarin immersion parents out there. February 26, 2010 It’s a standing joke in the comics…

It astounds me sometimes when I heard of people denigrating immigrants who speak their home language with their kids, or who say immersion programs keep kids from learning English. Truth be told, retaining a home language is very, very hard and requires a ton of work and persistence. The amazing thing is that second-generation children…

A private French immersion school in Brooklyn, New York that added a Mandarin track in the 2019-2020 school year failed to open this fall and parents are suing, saying the school owed $6.1 million back rent and demanded tuition deposits while never telling them how dire the financial situation was. The Science, Language & Arts…

It’s becoming easier to find Mandarin immersion preschools in many cities where there are Mandarin immersion school-age programs. But many parents wonder how well they work and what they should be looking for when touring preschools. Thankfully, our friends over at the Chinese Early Language and Immersion Network (CELIN) at the Asia Society convened a…

This is from last year, but as St. Michael’s Catholic Academy is one of only four religious Mandarin immersion programs I know of, it’s interesting to see what they’re up to. As part of their celebration of Catholic Schools Week, students at St. Michael’s Catholic Academy in Flushing observed the Chinese New Year with a…

By: Leah Pezzetti May 28, 2021 LAKESIDE, Calif. (KGTV) – A couple dozen of the seniors getting ready to graduate from El Capitan High School in June are not only wrapping up their high school careers, but a lifetime of unique cultural and language studies. The Grossmont Union High School District partners with Lakeside Union School…