Author: Elizabeth Weise

NanHai books, in California, has started a Scholastic-like program where they send a two-page catalog of Chinese books to teachers at immersion and heritage programs, and then the students order through their classroom. The latest one is all simplified character books. These are appropriate for kids up to 5th grade or so. For more information,…

Yu Ming Mandarin Immersion Charter School is targeted to open in the fall of 2011 with initial kindergarten and first grade classes. We are focused on growing the whole child physically, culturally, morally and academically. Our program is anchored on a two-way dual immersion program in which students serve as language models for each other.…

West meets East at Oakbrook Published: Thursday, September 23, 2010 Oakbrook Elementary first-graders Mikayla Petroske and Miranda Smith practice math in Chinese with the help of teacher Yanbo Chen. View and purchase photos By DEBRA KASZUBSKI Recess, songs, snack, stories and … Chinese? That’s the case at Oakbrook Elementary School in Sterling Heights where kindergarten…

These are the folks at the Chinese American International School, the nation’s oldest Mandarin immersion school (I’m pretty sure they’re older than Portland’s program, but if not, please tell me.) A few years back they opened the Institute to help foster Mandarin immersion education nationwide, as as they’ve got years of experience, they were a…

Chinese Language Education Forum November 13-14, 2010 Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport The Forum is to build up an exchange platform for policymakers, 
educational administrators, K-16 teachers, heritage language 
instructors, and product and service providers in the field of Chinese 
language education. The Forum will also highlight a comprehensive 
Chinese Language Materials Expo and the…

The parents who are working to start a Mandarin immersion charter school in the East Bay are well on their way.  They have submitted their  charter proposal to the Alameda County Office of Education. Their  public hearing, the chance to convince the board to approve the proposal, will occur on  Tuesday, October 12th at 10am.…

A book of short stories presented entirely in pinyin, with no characters, has been published online. This is a fascinating development, as there are many academics who say (softly and not for attribution) that eventually it’s clear that characters will go away, just as they did with Korean and Vietnamese. The rise of computers is…