Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education

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  • Some thoughts of using radicals to teach Chinese-from the Asia Soceity

    Radicals Reveal the Order of Chinese Characters

     (Asia Society)

    (Asia Society)

    By Heather Clydesdale

    Mastering Chinese is daunting, in large part because learners must memorize thousands of distinct characters. So it is both a revelation and a relief to learners when they discover radicals.

    Radicals organize the chaotic swarm of characters into a logical system. Traditional Chinese groups all characters according to 214 radicals (simplified uses 189), which are organized based on number of strokes into a chart called the bushou. Each radical is itself a freestanding character-word, such as one, woman, child, cliff, field, tree, millet, halberd, leather, and bird.

    Once inducted into radicals, students can look up characters in a dictionary without knowing the pronunciation. In addition, they can more deeply appreciate the characters they know, guess the meaning of new ones they encounter, and more efficiently memorize them.

    For these reasons, Mingquan Wang, senior lecturer and language coordinator of the Chinese program at Tufts University, insists that radicals should be a part of the curriculum for teaching Chinese as a foreign language. “The question is,” he says, “how that should be done.” In spring of 2013, Wang sent an online questionnaire to 60 institutions, including colleges and K–12 schools. Of the 42 that responded, 100% agreed that teachers of Chinese language should cover radicals, yet few use a separate book or dedicate a course to radicals, and most simply discuss radicals as they encounter them in textbooks.

    Please read more here.

  • Are you a persnickity reader?

    Do misplaced commas make you mad? Does seeing it’s when its is meant make you want to scream? Do misspellings leap off the page as you read?

    Then I need you.

    My book, “A Parent’s Guide to Mandarin Immersion,” is almost done. It’s in final edits with the content editor, but it will need copy editing as well. I’m doing this as a labor of love and will be publishing the book through Amazon’s ebook and print-on-demand service, so I don’t have the expertise of a traditional publishing house at my disposal.

    I’m wondering if it’s possible to crowd-source copy editing. My idea is to have each chapter read by at least two people who will look for typos, misspelling and other mistakes. You could read as many or as few chapters as you’d like. There are 30 all together.

    You wouldn’t get anything but the undying gratitude of the Mandarin immersion community–and a sneak preview of the book, of course. And the warm knowledge that you’ve made the world a slightly safer place for those who know their way around a serial comma.

    No special training needed, just a sharp eye. I anticipate having chapters ready for copy editing by the first of the year.

    If you’re interested, please drop me a line at: beth@elizabethweise.com

    Many thanks, happy holidays and 圣诞快乐!

    Beth Weise (rhymes with Geese)

  • North Carolina Mandarin immersion program going strong

    CIT WSJ_1212_Chinese Second grade teacher Chunling Zhang talks about emotions as she leads her class at Konnoak Elementary School Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2013.

    Posted: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 9:15 pm

    Arika Herron/Winston-Salem Journal

    Standing inside the doorway of Chunling Zhang’s second-grade class at Konnoak Elementary School, it can be hard to understand exactly what’s going on.

    It looks like a traditional classroom — the walls are covered in posters, cutouts of farm animals and student work; students sit in rows of desks and raise their hands to answer questions.

    Peeking in the door, though, visitors are greeted with a cheerful “ni hao.”

    Zhang’s students are in their third year of Konnoak’s Chinese language immersion program. The majority of the day, she instructs the students in Mandarin Chinese.

    Please read more here.

     

  • Minnetonka, Minn. Mandarin immersion moves into middle school

    MINNETONKA, Minn. – Fifth-grade students murmer to each other as they read through their text at Scenic Heights Elementary.

    Bend in a little closer and you will hear they are speaking Mandarin Chinese. Scenic Heights and Excelsior each host Chinese immersion programs in the Minnetonka School District and now these students are ready to move on to middle schoool.

    “We were told when we came into the program that there was a commitment to take it all the way through the high school,” said parent Nancy Getzkin whose son, David, is about to make the leap.

    So is the Minnetonka District, which starting next year will offer Chinese and Spanishimmersion for its students who have completed the programs at the elementary level.

    Please read more here.

  • How one district helps new teachers get settled

    A very nice post from the Utah Mandarin Immersion Parents Council. New teachers need hand holding so they feel welcomed, especially teachers coming from far away.

    At our school, Starr King in San Francisco, there’s one mom who takes it upon herself to give each new teacher a day-long tour of the neighborhood where our school is and the neighborhood they live in (if they just moved to SF.) Simple things like knowing which supermarkets are expensive and which are more reasonable, where to get Chinese groceries, even where to park and not to park to keep your car from getting broken into (we are in the city after all) are really helpful to folks who are new to town.

    Now that I write this I realize that mom’s youngest has moved on to middle school so I need to check with our PTA president about who will do the tour next year.

    Beth

    A warm Southern Utah welcome for Chinese guest teachers

    guidebook

    If Utah leads the nation in Chinese language education with more public immersion programs than any other state, Washington County is the apotheosis.

    Washington County School District – situated hundreds of miles south of the state’s bustling population center of Salt Lake – has five Chinese immersion programs, more than any other district.

    It’s a feat that the district has managed, despite its relative isolation. There isn’t a ready pool of Chinese immigrants or university-trained Mandarin speakers from which to draw upon to staff the program. Instead, the district relies on guest teachers furnished through the Hanban, a division of the Ministry of Education in China. That, and good-old-fashioned hospitality.

    Please read more here.

  • Some see Mandarin immersion programs as “elitist”

    A letter to the Editor published in the Gazebo News in Lake Forest, Ill.

    Editor’s note: This Reader Forum article was submitted by Al Boese of Lake Bluff. Reader Forum articles represent the writers’ opinions and not necessarily those of GazeboNews. We encourage you to comment on this article, but please include your full name per the GazeboNews comments policy.

    By Al Boese of Lake Bluff

    Our dear Harry Griffith, the gift that keeps on giving. And you thought, when he is gone, expensive as the experiment was, he would be gone. Think again. The cherished and embraced D 67 Mandarin Immersion Program is not only going to cost more thanks to the absence of state Funding, what you didn’t hear the State of Illinois is broke, it is becoming a divisive force among parents. The haves (Mandarin Students) are taking from the have not’s (non-Mandarin students). We are having a sort of class warfare, again, the haves and have not’s, owing to funding issues and the non-Mandarin students becoming second class students. From the outset, this was not about Mandarin, it was about elitism and bragging rights, as though there was not enough of that going on in both D67 & 115, exacerbated by Sir Harry and his circle of favorites.

    Please read more here.

  • Arizona to get new Mandarin immersion program next year

    Coronado Elementary to launch Chinese immersion program next year

    Chinese immersionEric Mungenast/Tribune

    Chinese immersion

     

    Coronado Elementary School first-grade teacher Alice Fan teaches students how to make a jian zi during a culture club meeting on Nov. 19, 2013. [Eric Mungenast/Tribune]

     

    Posted: Wednesday, December 4, 2013 1:30 pm| Updated: 6:10 pm, Wed Dec 4, 2013.

    By Eric Mungenast, Tribune

    Beginning next year, several students at Coronado Elementary School will take their first steps toward learning the most widely spoken language in the world while learning more about the origin country’s culture.

    The school’s Mandarin immersion program will provide students in kindergarten and first grade the first steps toward learning Mandarin. Called the Mandarin Choice Program, students will receive lessons in math and science from a native Mandarin speaker, although language arts and social studies will be taught primarily in English.

    Please read more here.