Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education

recent posts

about

  • Minnesota 5th grade gets Chinese exchange students

    Students Immerse Themselves in Chinese, With the Help of Visitors

    With the start of the school year only weeks away, students at Minnetonka Schools’ Excelsior Elementary will continue learning Mandarin Chinese.

    Although temperatures hovered around 100 degrees the last week of the 2010-2011 school year, the students at Excelsior Elementary were still hard at work honing their language skills.

    And they had help from their friends from the Far East.

    Eighteen students from Beijing came to visit Minnetonka and got a slice of Minnesota’s version of fifth grade life while staying with host families.

    “It’s totally different from our school,” said Lucy Lui, an 11-year-old fifth grade student from Beijing.

    While the Chinese students were in Minnetonka, they went to class immersed in English instruction in writing and math.

    When not in school, they experienced a piece of American recreational life by going to the Mall of America, McDonald’s and Lake Minnetonka.

    “This is part of a strategic plan to develop a broader world view for children,” said Lee Drolet, principal at Excelsior Elementary. “This helps them become connected in a real way to learn.”

    Excelsior Elementary is one of two elementary schools in the Minnetonka School District that offers a Chinese immersion program starting in kindergarten.

    Read more here.

  • Being bilingual gives brain a “cognitive boost”

    Why It’s Smart to Be Bilingual

    The brain’s real super-food may be learning new languages.

    Aug 7, 2011 10:00 AM EDT

    On a sweltering August morning, in a classroom overlooking New York’s Hudson River, a group of 3-year-olds are rolling sticky rice balls in chocolate sprinkles, as a teacher guides them completely in Mandarin.

    This is just one toddler learning game at the total–immersion language summer camp run by the primary school Bilingual Buds, which offers a year-round curriculum in Mandarin as well as Spanish (at a New Jersey campus) for kids as young as 2.

    Bilingualism, of course, can be a leg up for college admission and a résumé burnisher. But a growing body of research now offers a further rationale: the regular, high-level use of more than one language may actually improve early brain development.

    According to several different studies, command of two or more languages bolsters the ability to focus in the face of distraction, decide between competing alternatives, and disregard irrelevant information. These essential skills are grouped together, known in brain terms as “executive function.” The research suggests they develop ahead of time in bilingual children, and are already evident in kids as young as 3 or 4.

    While no one has yet identified the exact mechanism by which bilingualism boosts brain development, the advantage likely stems from the bilingual’s need to continually select the right language for a given situation. According to Ellen Bialystok, a professor at York University in Toronto and a leading researcher in the field, this constant selecting process is strenuous exercise for the brain and involves processes beyond those required for monolingual speech, resulting in an extra stash of mental acuity, or, in Bialy-stok’s terms, a “cognitive reserve.”

    Read more here.

  • Walnut, Calif. adding Mandarin program this year

    New Kindergarten Dual Language Program to begin on August 22, 2011

    The Walnut Valley Unified School District is proud to offer a new Mandarin Dual Immersion program beginning on Monday, August 22, 2011.

    The Walnut Valley Unified School District is proud to offer a new Mandarin Dual Immersion program beginning on Monday, August 22, 2011. If you are interested in learning more about the program, please contact Jenny Hata on or after August 8, 2011 at 909-595-1261 extension 31352 or e-mail her at Jenny Kwan-Hata (jkwan-hata@walnutvalley.k12.ca.us).
    Applications here.
    Article about the upcoming program here.

  • More Mandarin reading apps for the iPad

    If you’ve got children in Mandarin immersion, you know finding things for them to read can be difficult. So far parents have located two good resources, Taiwan’s 5Q Channel and the U.S.-based ChildRoad.com.

    If you know more, please send them along. We’re constantly getting pitches for sites meant for English-speaking kids which teach them colors or how to say “Hi!” But what our kids need are fun stories that make them want to keep reading and listening.

    To that end, 5QChannel just released five more Apps for the iPad, listed below.

    Happy summer, everyone!

     

    ======

    http://www.5qchannel.com

    We have made more apps on APP Store now.

    The simplified Chinese audio are all recorded by professionals from China.

    Hope this will be helpful to you.

    Wish you have a wonderful summer vacation.

    1. Chinese Fables 2 : Parrot Tries to Put Out a Fire & The Orangutan Loves to Drink

    2. Animation of 5 Fables of Aesop II

    3. Chinese Reading – The Tortoise and the Hare 龜兔賽跑

    4. Read Aloud−Numbers

    5. Animations – The Legend of Lady White Snake

    __,_._,___

  • India asks Taiwan for 10,000 Mandarin teachers

    From CNA News

    Taipei, May 9 (CNA) India has asked Taiwan for 10,000 Mandarin teachers who could travel to the South Asian country to teach the language, Education Minister Wu Ching-ji said Monday.

    India has recently decided to allow its high schools to offer classes in second languages, including Chinese, and has expressed the hope that Taiwan could help it find teachers of the language. Wu said the Ministry of Education has established an ad hoc group to study the issue and work on plans to recruit and train Mandarin teachers and compile teaching materials.

    At the same time, India will send 2,000 teachers to Taiwan over the next five years to study for master’s or Ph.D. degrees. Wu, who visited India with 13 presidents and vice presidents of Taiwanese universities from April 28 to May 4, said a delegation from India’s Ministry of Human Resource Development will visit Taiwan, probably in October, to further education links between the two countries.

    Read more here

  • Dad: Why NJ needed a Mandarin immersion charter

    From Patch.com

    “Schools such as the proposed Mandarin immersion charters will give our children a foundation for an understanding and appreciation of cultures outside our own. My generation grew up in a relatively insular society. Little emphasis was placed on knowing another culture. Learning a language was offered as an elective for those who cared to know. Today an expansive world view is a matter of necessity for our children. Their opportunities in life will be limited if we allow otherwise. Our public schools will have to take this to heart and soon if our nation hopes to continue to send leaders into the world. Additionally, it is well documented that learning a second language is of great benefit to the cognitive development of young minds, as I’m sure you know. I want a public school system that recognizes this and gives our children every opportunity for success in life.”

     

    Read the full letter here.

  • All Swedish schools to teach Chinese

    Politics – Published Wednesday, 06 July 2011 14:33 | Author: AFP / The Swedish Wire

    Chinese to be taught in all Swedish schools
    • Swedes place 4th in English skills rankingWithin a decade, all Swedish primary schools should offer Chinese lessons, Sweden’s education minister was quoted as saying Wednesday, insisting the move was needed to improve competitiveness.

    “I want to see Sweden become the first country in Europe to introduce instruction in Chinese as a foreign language at all primary and secondary schools,” said Jan Björklund, who heads the Liberal Party, a junior member of the centre-right ruling coalition.

    Getting Swedish pupils to learn Chinese was vital to strengthening Swedish competitiveness, the education minister told financial daily Dagens Industri.

    “Not everyone in the business world speaks English. Very highly qualified activities are leaving Europe to move to China. Chinese will be much more important from an economic point of view than French or Spanish,” he said.

    More here.