Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education

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  • Thoughts on Bilingualism from Maui

    On Bilingualism and Mandarin in Minnetonka, Minnesota

    April 6, 2012 – Ray Tsuchiyama

    I had no choice in being exposed to bilingualism, since my parents spoke both Japanese and English.

    Although I don’t remember, my first language was most likely Japanese, as my late mother spoke to me more during my baby-infant period (hence, the term “mother tongue”). Later in life, I chose to be bilingual, as I enjoyed speaking Japanese and English (I know of many individuals who cannot speak the language of their mother and/or father, due to many reasons, and it is a challenge to retain a foreign language while one’s childhood friends only speak English – yet so many people have confessed to me that their greatest regret was that they were unable to carry on a conversation in Japanese or Ilocano or Cantonese or German – with their family, their loved ones).

    During my childhood I would often tell a joke first in English, then re-tell the joke in Japanese or vice-versa. Often I would not have a word or phrase, and my father would come up with equivalent (in either language) – and so my sensitivity to language and communications grew. Bilingualism also gave me insights to speaking to people who spoke English as a second or third language.

    Please read more here.

    Here’s the first part of his essay here.

  • LA’s Broadway Elementary’s Mandarin immersion program links to Mark Twain middle school

    Mar Vista: Language immersion programs seen as nexus in local schools’ pipeline

    By Gary Walker

    Despite the challenges with charter schools, news of alleged sexual misconduct at Miramonte Elementary School and a looming budget deficit, there are bright spots within the Los Angeles Unified School District, as some schools are engaging in innovative academic planning.

    One initiative in District 4 on the Westside that is slowly taking shape is the creation of a pipeline between language immersion programs at elementary schools in Mar Vista and Venice, Mark Twain Middle School and Venice High School.

    LAUSD Board Member Steve Zimmer, who represents Mar Vista, Venice, Westchester and Del Rey in District 4, has been working with schools that have language immersion curriculums to create a nexus between area schools that he believes has the potential to be an “outstanding instructional model for public education.”

    Grand View Boulevard and Broadway elementary schools have dual language immersion curriculums at their schools, and it is these two that Zimmer envisions as the apex of the language pipeline for the Venice/Mar Vista area.

    Broadway’s Mandarin Chinese program is quickly outgrowing the elementary school due to its popularity, and the Spanish-English immersion initiative at Grand View is the district’s longest running language immersion program.

    Please read more here.

  • How Immersion Helps to Learn a Language

    By SINDYA N. BHANOO

    Published: April 2, 2012

    Learning a foreign language is never easy, but contrary to common wisdom, it is possible for adults to process a language the same way a native speaker does. And over time, the processing improves even when the skill goes unused, researchers are reporting.

    Chris Gash

    For their study, in the journal PloS One, the scientists used an artificial language of 13 words, completely different from English. “It’s totally impractical to follow someone to high proficiency because it takes years and years,” said the lead author, Michael Ullman, a neuroscientist at Georgetown University Medical Center.

    The language dealt with pieces and moves in a computer game, and the researchers tested proficiency by asking test subjects to play the game.

    The subjects were split into two groups. One group studied the language in a formal classroom setting, while the other was trained through immersion.

    Please read more here.

  • DNA test required for Mandarin immersion

    This is from NPR. And please note that it was published on APRIL FIRST…
    ===
    April 1, 2012

    For years, New York parents have been applying to preschools even before their youngsters are born. That’s not new, but the approach one prestigious pre-school on the Upper West Side is.

    At the Porsafillo Preschool Academy, all applicants must now submit a DNA analysis of their children.

    The preschool is housed in a modern glass and steel building designed by IM Pei. It’s situated in a leafy corner of the Upper West Side. On a recent afternoon, Headmaster Rebecca Unsinn showed off “Porsafillo Pre,” as it’s called.

    “Over here, we have computer labs, C++ learning, which of course, as I’m sure you know, is a language of computers,” she says. Wait, computer language? These preschoolers are learning C++?

    “Oh, absolutely they are,” Unsinn says. “And they’re very good at it.”

    Please read and listen here.

  • Mandarin immersion program popular in Louisiana

    Immersion program gets an A

    Advocate staff photo by BRYAN TUCK<br />Students in Boucher Elementary School's Chinese immersion program, Dwayne Issac, center, and Cameron Charles try out their language skills and purchase cookies from Xing Zhoug Wang Friday morning at the Asian Market in Lafayette.

    Kindergartners busy learning Chinese

    BY MARSHA SILLS

    Acadiana bureau

    April 03, 2012

    “All research shows that especially in a school environment it takes a minimum of eight years to learn a foreign language to the point that you won’t forget it.” Nicole boudreaux, lead immersion teacher

    LAFAYETTE — Jade Carter already speaks French at home with her family.

    Now, the kindergartner is helping her family learn Chinese — Jade is one of nine kindergarten students enrolled in the Mandarin Chinese immersion program at Alice Boucher Elementary’s World Languages Academy.

    “We were excited when we learned about the program,” said the five-year-old’s mother, Sybil Carter, who teaches French at Southern University.

    The family attends community Chinese language classes offered on Saturdays, and Carter’s son is in the Lafayette School District’s French immersion program.

    “We want them to be ‘polylingual,’” she said of her and her husband’s choice to enroll their children in foreign language immersion programs. “This is something we couldn’t find anywhere else.”

    Please read more here.

  • Chapel Hill’s Mandarin program faces axe due to budget issues

    Chapel Hill-Carrboro parents: Don’t end Chinese language program

    BY TOM HARTWELL, CORRESPONDENT
    CHAPEL HILL – A report that recommends suspending dual English-Chinese language classes met strong criticism and disappointment from parents and students involved in the program.The Mandarin Chinese dual language program got a ringing show of support from than 100 parents and students at Thursday’s meeting of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education.

    They wore red to show support for the program, which puts elementary, middle and high school students in a language immersion setting in which half of their classes, like math and science, are taught in Mandarin Chinese.

    No one would have guessed the program’s future was in jeopardy a year ago, when the school board resolved to double the size of program at the elementary school level. But in conjunction with redistricting for the new elementary school opening in 2013, a study determined the costs associated with bringing Chinese educators were higher than anticipated, and that the program was not viable.

    Please read more here.

  • Portland’s Mandarin immersion middle school subject of documentary

    It’s good to remember every once in awhile that most of our MI programs are in schools with many different strands. Here’s a nice story about one such strand at Portland’s Hosford Middle School.

    ====

    PORTLAND, Ore. — For one local school principal, basketball is much more than a game.

    Principal Kevin Bacon is using basketball to “iron out” social and cultural issues at Hosford Middle School in southeast Portland. It’s a sixth-through-eighth-grade school known for its global outlook and Spanish and Mandarin language immersion programs.

    And now Bacon’s story is the subject of a documentary called “Lessons of Basketball and War.”

    “It was kind of a blessing to know from an early age what I wanted to do,” Bacon told KOIN with a laugh. “And that, of course, was if I didn’t make it to the NBA.”

    It seems like Bacon has known forever that he’d be an educator. And he is.

    At Hosford Middle School, he noticed several years back that a handful of young East African refugees — from war and famine — were putting his skills to the test. These teens, in a new home in a new school and in a new country, were coming from places like war-torn Somalia. And they were finding assimilation into America difficult. As the new documentary points out, some girls still carried tribal differences with them into the the school halls.

    Please read more here.