Mandarin language immersion debuts at Mission Viejo middle school By SHANE NEWELL | snewell@scng.com | The Press-Enterprise PUBLISHED: September 26, 2017  At first glance, this sixth-grade classroom at Newhart Middle School looks normal with its clustered desks, hand-drawn posters and teacher standing at the front of the classroom. A closer look and listen, however, reveals…

Inside the UK’s first bilingual English and Chinese primary school Kensington Wade tempts tiger parents with full immersion in Mandarin OCTOBER 7, 2017 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…

I know (really I do) that we’re very lucky in San Francisco to have four Mandarin immersion grade school programs, three middle school programs (well, two are continuations in K-8 schools) and two high school programs. I also know there are a lot of San Francisco area folks who read this blog. So I wanted…

CELIN (the Chinese Early Language and Immersion Network) has a nice article up about Mandarin immersion programs in Minnesota, which gives a good overview of what’s happening in that state. It also gives a good perspective on the different types of schools that exist and how they fit their area’s own unique needs and requirements.…

Not only am I a huge proponent of reading as a key component of becoming fluent, but I’m also a huge Jane Austen fan, and Emma is one of my favorites. And now the lovely folks at Mandarin Companion have rewritten it in modern day China, using only 200 characters. Level 1. Just tell your…

This type of what we would term a preschool in the U.S. always amazes me. London, as far as I know, only has one Mandarin immersion K – 8 school. If you don’t speak Chinese at home, having your child learn Mandarin when they’re 3 and 4 is an interesting choice if there’s nowhere they…

Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School in Hadley, Mass. has faced criticism for several years due to one of the fundamental issues many Mandarin immersion schools face – Mandarin immersion isn’t for everyone. At the same time, public schools must be for everyone. And yet not everyone wants Mandarin immersion, not every parent and, at…