This great memo went out from the principal at public elementary school Mandarin immersion program just before school began this year Anyone who’s spent time in an MI program as a parent or staff will recognize the issues the school has faced. It’s hard to keep good teachers, especially highly sought-after Mandarin teachers. That’s even…

The West County Mandarin School in Richmond, Calif. is an interesting case. The West Contra Costa Unified School District (north of Berkeley) started the program in part to forestall a charter school being created. Parents in the district, and nearby, had asked for a Mandarin immersion program but the districts hadn’t wanted to do one. Then a…

I include this because so many of us in Mandarin immersion programs deal with an ongoing series of tweaks and changes from our school districts, administrators and teachers. Sometimes there are unintended consequences that no one expected. Cambridge, Mass. is dealing with some of those now. From Cambridge Day By Jean Cummings Monday, October 9,…

OCTOBER 7, 2017 From the Financial Times By Joshua Chaffin in London As a girl growing up in an English-speaking household in Singapore, Prema Gurunathan grudgingly studied Mandarin. Now a mother in west London, she is taking no chances with her own son. When he turned one Ms Gurunathan insisted their household in Hammersmith speak…

What is it with school districts and Mandarin immersion? They are thrilled to get these programs when they first launch because they pull in families from all over.  But then the programs get hugely popular- so what’s the first reaction? To shut them down, of course! (Sorry, I just get so frustrated with this. I…

Mandarin Chinese immersion school planned in Greenville Paul Hyde, phyde@greenvillenews.com Published 7:54 a.m. ET Sept. 24, 2017 (Photo: BART BOATWRIGHT/Staff) Looking to the future, Jennifer Kirchner worries about what the competitive global economy has in store for her 3-year-old daughter Eleanor. One thing is almost certain: It’s not going to be easy in the coming decades.…

Parents in the Mandarin immersion program in the Naselle-Grays River Valley School District just north of Portland Oregon, on the Washington coast, launched the Rising Star group in 2015 to support their program.  I firmly believe that as busy parents we should never be reinventing the wheel, so other programs might want to take a…