Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education

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  • Come work in Sunny San Francisco!

    This morning I walked my daughters into school so I could pick up an order of homemade tamales that were part of one of our school’s fundraising programs. As I walked back out across the playground, I was contemplating the great dinner that I knew was coming tonight.

    And then I stopped for a moment and looked at our playground. It was full of happy kids playing soccer, four-square, jumping rope and playing a little football. There were plenty of school staff overseeing the games, and knots of parents stopping to chat here and there. The sun was warm, there was Aretha Franklin streaming off the sound system and I just had a total California moment – what a wonderful school community we have!

    Our San Francisco Mandarin immersion program exists in three schools, Starr King Elementary, Jose Ortega Elementary and Aptos Middle School. We’ll be hiring at all three schools next year. So if you, too, want a part of our California Dream, consider attending the San Francisco Unified School District’s networking night next month.

    Beth Weise

     

    Upcoming Career Events

    SFUSD Bilingual Assessment & Networking Night

    Thursday, March 15, 2012 from 3pm-6pm

    If you currently hold or are in pursuit of BCLAD certification in Cantonese, Mandarin, or Spanish, we invite you to attend the Bilingual Assessment and Networking Night.  This event is a wonderful opportunity to set you up for success in obtaining a position in bilingual education for the 2012-13 school year.  You will be able to:

    • Hear from our English Learner Support Services Department about our District’s Language Pathways and opportunities for teaching;
    • Demonstrate your language proficiency through a written and oral assessment;
    • Meet SFUSD school site administrators and discuss potential vacancies at their schools; and
    • Speak with Human Resources staff who will be on hand to answer questions about our application and hiring process.

    Important please note: we expect every attendee to have begun an application for employment with the District at www.sfusd.edu/jobs.

    To attend, RSVP here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BilingualEvent .

    For more information about our various language pathways, please see our program guide at http://www.sfusd.edu/en/programs/english-language-learners/overview.html.

  • Calgary: Immersion involves more than just becoming fluent – there are numerous other aspects, say experts

    Speaking the language

    BY BARBARA BALFOUR, CALGARY HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2012
    Sometimes, wine is cheaper than water, bread is served with every meal no matter what the cuisine – even Chinese – and the number of kisses offered in a greeting depends on what city and region you’re in.

    Those are just a few of the observations Aidan Fridman has made during a year-long university exchange to Avignon, France, where half of her classes are in Spanish and the rest in French.

    It’s an experience the 20-year-old University of Victoria student likely wouldn’t have had if not for the extensive language immersion she had in her childhood.

    After attending French immersion in elementary school at the Lycée Louis Pasteur, Fridman enrolled in Webber Academy in Grade 4, where she learned Mandarin, continued her French and became fluent in Spanish.

    Read more:http://www.calgaryherald.com/Speaking+language/6196042/story.html#ixzz1nDujUD00

  • Making Mandarin reading relevant

    Reading Makes Language Relevant

    By Kurt Hamm

    What teacher would not like to hear a student say “Even though Chinese was hard, my teacher made it interesting – so interesting that I studied with passion. If it wasn’t for my Chinese teacher I would never have made it this far.”?

    If your students took a tour of Beijing and returned to tell the class about it, what do you think they would talk about the most? Would it be the Great Wall and the countless museums, temples and shops that the average tour guide takes everyone to, or would it be that great evening when they got lost in a 胡同 and ended up having a great conversation with a guy everyone called 老板 in a little restaurant that had a seating capacity of about 25 people?

    It is time to get your students off the tour bus and into that restaurant (without ever leaving the classroom). Reading will accomplish this. People who can’t read are limited in several ways. When people meet socially the conversations are usually about hobbies, interests and current events. That sort of communication is fun but it isn’t a great way to expand a student’s vocabulary. Words that don’t occur in common conversation far outnumber the word list of “daily activities” lessons.

    I propose two kinds of reading to get students excited about taking their Chinese to a new level. First, reading story books enhances fluency, increases vocabulary and helps students develop a sense of the culture. Second, create a real cultural element in your class by using internet articles and blogs. Reading will make the language relevant to students’ lives and create enthusiasm for advancing their language level.

    Please read more at The Mandarin Center here.

  • Milwaukee’s excellent immersion programs face severe budget cuts

    Let’s invest in immersion schoolsBy Alex Runner

    Feb. 20, 2012 |(4) COMMENTS

    People talk a lot about China. It seems as though its economy has been steadily gaining steam longer than Justin Bieber has been alive. But here’s something else that is increasing significantly in China: widespread interest in the French language and culture.

    “Chinese students’ interest in France is growing dramatically,” Anthony Chaumuzeau, cultural counselor of the French embassy in China, told Beijing Today last year. “They go there to study not only history and language but also for an understanding of what’s happening economically and politically.” Chaumuzeau estimated that the number of Chinese students in France would likely exceed 50,000 by 2015.

    Chinese students aren’t just learning French. The number who are coming to the United States and gaining fluency in English is also skyrocketing. (Nearly 160,000 Chinese students enrolled in U.S. colleges in 2010, an all-time high, up 23% from the year before.)

    One thing is clear. China recognizes that we are all competing in a global economy. But do we recognize it? Forget about the rest of the nation for a moment. What have we done in Milwaukee to ensure that children from Washington Heights to Walker’s Point are armed with a foreign language arsenal? Or, at the very least, an international perspective?

     Please read more here.

  • Idaho’s only public Mandarin immersion school doing well

    Chinese spoken at Meridian elementary school

    By CYNTHIA SEWELL — cmsewell@idahostatesman.com

    Posted: 12:00am on Feb 21, 2012; Modified: 9:22am on Feb 21, 2012

    0221 local chinese05

    First-grader Keirstan Knutson, 6, a student at Gateway Elementary, uses an interactive smart board to show a math equation she hears in Chinese. DARIN OSWALD / IDAHO STATESMAN

    • Story Photos
    • 0221 local chinese010221 local chinese04

    • THROUGH AN INTERNATIONAL LENS

      Immersion, or dual-language, programs are increasing nationwide to help students learn through an international lens and become culturally proficient in our emerging global economy.

      Thirty years ago, the U.S. had fewer than two dozen language immersion programs. Today there are almost 450, said a 2011 report from the Center for Applied Linguistics, a nonprofit organization that advocates for foreign language instruction.

      Spanish and French are the most popular, 45 percent and 22 percent respectively, of the nation’s immersion programs. Mandarin Chinese is the third-most popular at 13 percent, followed by Hawaiian (6 percent), Japanese (5 percent) and German (3 percent).

      Want to go to Gateway?

      The school holds a lottery each year for available spots in its Mandarin Chinese immersion program.

      Applications, available on the Meridian school district website, are due by Feb. 29. Applicants will be notified of the lottery results by the first week of April. For more information, call the school at 855-4475.

      There are no additional costs to attend Gateway, except for the all-day kindergarten program, which costs $250 per month.

    Adam Li holds up a tomato and asks his kindergarten class to identify it.

    “Fan qie!” a half-dozen students eagerly call out.

    Li next holds up a potato.

    The students quickly respond: “Tu dou!”

    In the classroom next door, Susan Parker stands before her first-grade class using an interactive smart board to show various monetary combinations. She points to a $1 bill and a penny, inquiring about the amount. A dozen kids raise their hands. Parker calls on 6-year-old Keirstan Knutson

    Read more here:

  • Mandarin and other immersion popular in Calgary

    CALGARY — Six-year-old Adam Liu patiently practises his Chinese characters every day — after all, there are thousands to learn. And he’s already speaking Mandarin better than his father.

    It’s a family reality that’s expected to become even more entrenched when Adam’s little sister, Laura, starts kindergarten next year in the same Mandarin-bilingual program at Highwood Elementary.

    “We’re so happy with this program, it’s just wonderful. And I think it’s really beneficial for the kids,” says mother Linda Liu.

    The Canadian-born mom and her Taiwanese-born husband chose Mandarin for their kids in hopes of giving them a more rounded education in culture and language.

    But the edge they’ll have in the global economy will also give them a wide range of options once they choose a career, Liu says.

    “It’s a very competitive time right now — and Mandarin is a major language for them to have in terms of their futures.”

    Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/Bilingual+kids+edge+studies+show/6178594/story.html#ixzz1mwVrlELh

  • Learning Mandarin via pop music

    From Judy Shei, author of the awesome 1st grade Mandarin YouTube channel at

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3YHwAQnbcQ&feature=youtu.be

     

    Someone asked me for some easy Mandarin pop songs to learn…  I asked my 24 year old cousin & her buddies for a few (thanks Facebook!) and below are some suggestions….  All are subtitled in traditional Chinese, my apologies.  I remembered memorizing my first pop song 6 months after moving to Taiwan and literally learning to read Chinese by the light of KTV (karaoke in a private room with just friends).  Enjoy!  I like the first two best.

     

    ‪張懸 兒歌 http://youtu.be/JJhmN_c9At8

     

    ‪張懸.-.[寶貝]. http://youtu.be/VH4zpLUQhLA

     

    ‪‪陳奕迅 – Baby Song http://youtu.be/3uiZJl1Yp_4

     

    ‪方大同-紅豆 http://youtu.be/UdV2VkNyR6Y

     

    ‪‪胡夏 《那些年》–那些年我们一起追的女孩 http://youtu.be/0YM2hl-Zmbs (lyrics in simplified in the description)

     

    ‪‪猜不透 叮噹 http://youtu.be/rG_mPhssUUk (has a short little skit in the beginning of a guy remembering a lost love, very cute)

     

    ‪‪‪梁靜茹_寧夏 http://youtu.be/i3GKD3ZUaiI

     

    ‪‪‪范瑋琪‪‪‪ – 一個像夏天一個像秋天 http://youtu.be/IhWjeCI7v_g

     

    ‪‪‪And of course this… The Moon Represents My Heart, subtitled in simplified Chinese.  The kids have already learned it and it’s a classic! http://youtu.be/IhWjeCI7v_g

     

     

    Most cities have a radio station that broadcasts in Mandarin. In the San Francisco Bay area it’s

    92.3 KSJO

    You can also listen online at

    http://www.china923fm.com/

     

    You can also putt the Shazam app on your phone so you can tag songs you like and download them.