Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education

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  • Getting there! What do you think of the cover?

    Just got this from the designer. Comments welcome.

    Beth

    Draft Design

  • This is what happens to new programs–lots and lots of nuptials

    If you’re in a new Mandarin immersion program, just be aware that there are a lot of weddings and baby showers in your future. New programs mean new teachers. And new teachers do what lots of folks do when they finally settle into a good, solid job with a future–they start to look towards their own future. So you’ll see lots of weddings and then lots of babies. It’s a wonderful part of the cycle of life.

     

    Bevy of brides celebrate at Madison Elementary

    bkatzner@stcloudtimes.com3:55 p.m. CDT April 26, 2014
    SHARE 203 1COMMENTMORE

    The lunch room at Madison Elementary School was transformed into a makeshift reception hall Saturday as students, staff and parents celebrated the fact that five of the school’s eight Chinese immersion faculty members are set to tie the knot in the coming months.

    “It’s a wonderful thing to be able to celebrate,” Karen Kruse, a teacher at the school, said.

    Kindergarten teachers Congyu “Chris” Zhang and Xinyue “Sabrina” Lu along with second-grade teacher Feng Dong, fourth-grade teacher YuHan Chang and Chinese immersion instructional coordinator Hao Li, were the guests of honor Saturday. Zhang and Li will wed May 31 in a dual ceremony with Chang and her soon-to-be husband Ying-Ling Chiang. Chang, Lu and Dong are marrying men outside the circle of the Madison program.

    Please read more here.

     

     

  • Hawai’ian immersion in Hawai’i

    The Longest ‘Ia 
    Story by Ronald Williams, Jr.Photos by Elyse Butler and Matt Mallams

     

    It’s a tough day for practice. Even with the usual tradewinds that breeze across this campus high in Palolo Valley, it’s hot. The sparse patches of green on a field trampled by heavy feet seem to long for rain. Jerseys hang limply from shoulder pads, sticking to sweaty stomachs and backs. Players keep glancing at the oversize Gatorade thermos that’s a fixture at any football practice. Looking out across this field, it seems it could be an early fall afternoon on any high school athletic field in the country, from Tacoma to Topeka … until you listen.

     

    “Lima! Lima!” someone in the defensive backfield shouts, and players shift into nickel coverage. Without missing a beat, the quarterback audibles, “‘Aina! ‘Aina!” and follows with a rhythmic “Ha, he, hu!” At “hu!” the center snaps the ball. The quarterback hands it off, and the play sweeps to the outside. A linebacker yells, “Hema! Hema!” and the defense swings left in pursuit.

     

    They’re obviously not in Kansas. This group of young men and coaches is Na Koa (The Warriors), the hui popeku (football team) of Ke Kula Kaiapuni ‘O Anuenue (The Immersion School of Anuenue), and they’re conducting football practice in the native tongue of these Islands, a language that only a few decades ago had nearly gone extinct.

    Please read more here.

  • Menlo Park, Calif. school board says no Mandarin immersion for now

    Menlo Park school board says time isn’t right to add Mandarin immersion

    District wants to optimize current Spanish programs first

    By Barbara Wood

    Special to the Almanac

     A standing-room-only crowd of parents and proponents of starting a Mandarin immersion program in the Menlo Park City School District next fall failed to get the support of the district’s school board at its meeting April 24.

    Board members heard a presentation by Carol Cunningham, a district resident who has organized support for a program in which students would have at least half their classes in Mandarin, similar to the district’s existing two Spanish immersion programs. Ms. Cunningham said she represents 120 families and 160 students. They asked to have one Mandarin kindergarten class begin next fall.

     Only one parent, Todd Brahana, spoke against the program, asking that it be put off until problems with the existing Spanish immersion programs can be worked out.

    “My concern is that until you figure out hiring and teacher support, adding Mandarin before the Spanish is stable is going to put the entire program at risk,” he said.

    Board members did not vote on the concept of a Mandarin immersion program, but clearly do not support starting a program this fall.

    “I would like nothing better than to say go,” said board member Terry Thygesen. “But I know it’s simply not something that the district can do at this point in time.”

    Ms. Cunningham said research has found multiple benefits of a bilingual education, including preparing “our children to thrive in the complex global economy.” She presented the board with research showing that bilingual education has cognitive benefits. “Bilingualism is very good for the brain,” she said.

    Please read more here.

     

     

    Mercury News story here.

  • China Syndrome: Why more kids are learning Mandarin

    BY CHRIS TAYLOR

    NEW YORK Thu Apr 24, 2014 11:38am EDT

    (Reuters) – If famed investor Jim Rogers is known for one trait above all, it is for spotting themes early — and betting on them big.

    So when the co-founder of The Quantum Fund (with George Soros) and author of “Adventure Capitalist” became a father, he naturally thought of how best to give his daughters an advantage.

    His answer: Have them learn Mandarin.

    “I am spending a lot of time, money and energy to be sure my kids do it,” Rogers told Reuters.

    Indeed. Instead of just hiring a Mandarin-speaking nanny or having his daughters take a language class or two per week, the Rogers family packed up their belongings and moved across the world to Singapore.

    “My older daughter has now won the nationwide Mandarin-speaking contest two years in a row,” Rogers said. “Her little sister is even better.”

    Of course, not every parent is willing to undertake such a dramatic life change. But there is no denying that more and more Americans are keen to have their children learn the language of the world’s most populous country and second-largest economy.

    Please read more here.

  • Chapel Hill, North Carolina to keep Mandarin immersion program

    Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board backs Mandarin program, will reassign 76 students

    BY JONATHAN M. ALEXANDER

    jalexander@newsobserver.comJanuary 17, 2014

     CHAPEL HILL — After almost four hours of discussion, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board reaffirmed its commitment to a Mandarin program at a local elementary school and voted to remedy overcrowding there by reassigning 76 students to different schools this fall.

    Nearly 150 people attended Thursday night’s school board meeting. Some advocated for the Mandarin Dual Language program at Glenwood Elementary School, while others spoke against the program as too costly at a time of tight budgets.

    The meeting was much calmer than a November meeting, when Carborro Elementary parents came out concerned about the sudden news of possible redistricting. At that meeting, the board rejected a staff proposal to create a Spanish/Mandarin dual language magnet at a current school because it would mean moving either the Mandarin or Spanish program at the schools that house them in order to combine them. It would also have included a huge redistricting of schools in December or next school year.

    According to fall statistics, Glenwood has 513 students, 90 above capacity. Glenwood is the smallest elementary school in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, yet it has the fifth-largest student population among the 11 elementary schools.

    Assistant Superintendent Todd LoFrese attributed Glenwood’s growth to an additional dual-language track added to the school, transfers of older siblings of newly enrolled dual-language kindergarten students, students’ enrollment into dual language at upper grades and growth of the school’s attendance zone.

    Read more here.

    Here’s some information from the Mandarin parent group there.

  • Spaces open in the St. Cloud, Minn. Mandarin program

    Screen Shot 2014-04-21 at 8.43.29 AM

    It looks as if they’re adding a second kindergarten class in the St. Cloud, Minn. Mandarin program and have spaces open in both kindergarten and first grade. Just an FYI for folks in that neck of the woods.

    Check out the parents’ helpful website here.

    It’s a great example of parents taking the bull by the horns and helping their school district with the program.