I recently ran across the web page for the Forest Hills Mandarin immersion program in Grand Rapids, a town in Western Michigan and wanted to give them a shout out. They launched in 2008 and will have their first class enter high school in the fall of 2017. I especially like the “road map” they…

This is an interesting read. I have white friends in Cupertino who sent their kids to private schools because their local public schools were “too intense” for them. So I’ve certainly see this at work. On the other hand, I wonder if racism is exactly the right word. Perhaps culturalism? Perhaps something else? Certainly I’ve…

   Not to cast a pall over parents with young children in immersion programs, but it’s interesting to see what’s happening ten years down the academic line.    That said, the world our children will find themselves is likely to be very different. If you have a first grader in Mandarin immersion today, they will…

Mr. Peterson reached out to me about how to find families and get them involved in the new school they’re creating in Contra Costa County (just north of Berkeley for you non-San Francisco Bay area folks.) I was quite impressed with his enthusiasm and awareness of the issues. It sounds like it’s going to be…

There are several in Minnesota through CARLA, the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition. Make sure your administrators know about these. Link is here. Here’s CARLA’s general website for immersion programs.  Summer Institutes for Language Teachers The CARLA summer institutes listed below are primarily targeted at K–12 and post-secondary foreign language and ESL teachers. They are not designed…

By Elizabeth Weise Mandarin immersion programs in the United States continue to expand, with nine new programs scheduled to launch in the fall of 2017 for the 2017-2018 school year. For the coming school year, there will be at least 235 Mandarin immersion programs in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Here’s an update for…

This highlights how immersion students end up with college language credit in high school – not bad for 15-year-olds!