Cambridge’s MLK School to introduce Mandarin immersion program

By Todd R Nicholls

Wicked Local Cambridge

Posted Dec 22, 2010 @ 05:24 AM

Cambridge —

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School on Putnam Avenue will become the first public school in New England to operate a Mandarin Chinese immersion program when the initiative is introduced in September 2011.

The program, which was unanimously approved by the Cambridge Public School Committee, will give incoming junior and senior kindergarten students the opportunity to be educated in Chinese as well as the English language until high school.

The option to choose the program, which will be open from the first cycle of kindergarten registration in January 2011, follows a number of other immersion schemes in Cambridge public schools, including the Amigos Elementary School (Spanish).

According to project coordinator Vivian Tam, the scheme’s introduction at King is a reflection of changes taking place throughout schools in the United States.

“The school has developed the program because raising a bilingual child has become increasing important,” she said. “We now live in a global world and students who are bilingual will be better-equipped to handle these new challenges that exist.”

King has run a Chinese program as an extension of its other programs for the past 15 years. Tam believes, however, that the introduction of a well-structured immersion program at the school will be particularly beneficial for participating students.

Read more here.

Sasha Obama Speaks Chinese with President Hu Jinato

January 21, 2011

(CBS) President Barack Obama’s daughter Sasha, 9, is learning Chinese in
school. And like any encouraging dad, the president helped her find
opportunities to hone her skills.

This week, the 9-year-old had the chance to practice her phrases with
Hu Jintao, the Chinese president.

According to Reuters, a White House official disclosed the language
“practice” on Thursday after a formal state dinner in Hu’s honor.

Ben Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser, noted
President Obama has said his daughter was studying Chinese in her class.

“She’s under 10 years old and they’re studying Chinese, and she wanted
to have the chance to practice her Chinese with President Hu,” Rhodes
said.

Sasha attended Hu’s welcoming ceremony Wednesday on the White House lawn
and was able to speak with the state visitor.

Rhodes said, “Not every (child) has the opportunity to try out their
first phrases of Chinese with the president of China, but she had that
chance.”

EUGENE, Ore. — In China, party hosts still have about two weeks to prepare for New Year celebrations, but students 9,000 miles across the globe in Eugene are already celebrating by singing a traditional New Year song in Mandarin.

Oak Hill School in Eugene offers Mandarin immersion courses beginning in Kindergarten and ending in 8th grade.

By the fifth grade, students like 10-year-old Maya Ordway can understand the building blocks of writing and speaking that will eventually allow them to become fluent.

“I think [the program] is going really well,” said Ordway. “Mandarin is so much different from English and so it’s just really fun.”

Ordway said she was adopted from China and that her  mother suggested she study Mandarin, but that’s not why Ordway likes it.

“It gives me a connection to China,” said Ordway. “But it’s really challenging. It’s really hard to memorize all the characters, but once you memorize it it’s really easy.”

Read more here.

So I’m pretty sure this article from the New York Times about over-the-top high school seniors is a joke. One hopes so. But clearly, Mandarin is now part of the national consciousness, if only as yet another “can you top this?” item to add to a kid’s resume. For those of us in immersion, of course, it’s not a joke, just part of daily life. But here’s what they’re saying about us….

The Most Emailed ‘New York Times’ Article Ever

Anna Williams first came to Yael Farms (yael is Hebrew for “Nubian ibex”) after her mother read an article by Dr. Walter Andersen, a clinical physician who specializes in adolescent health. Andersen thinks teenagers today are too focused on their minds, often at the expense of their physical well-being. “Their brains are getting plenty of exercise,” Dr. Andersen says. “It’s the rest of their bodies I’m worried about.”

At Yael Farms, Anna gets plenty of exercise. She spends the day herding ibex, drawing water from a well, and moving heavy stones. After a Deuteronomy-friendly dinner of figs, unleavened bread and honey-drizzled ibex, she practices her Mandarin. Like many of the ibex farms sprouting up across the northeastern United States, Yael offers an intensive Chinese-language immersion course.

“We speak Chinese here,” says Jones, the farm’s co-owner. “It’s just smart business.” Foreign policy analysts like Wilbur Jenkins, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, think entrepreneurs like Jones have the right idea. “In China, children are being taught English in utero,” Jenkins says. “American teenagers better start catching up.”

Read the full article here.

Seven-year-old Anna Ferrebee carefully printed the letters b-i-r-d as she practiced the spelling and vocabulary words that are typical in a first-grade class. Then she moved her pencil to a second column and began copying a symbol few other first-graders in South Carolina would understand — the Chinese character for “bird.”

Anna is a student in the Beaufort County School District’s new Mandarin immersion program offered at two International Baccalaureate elementary schools — Hilton Head Island IB and Broad River. It’s the first program of its kind at a public elementary school in the state, said Jill McAden, Hilton Head IB principal.

The district began the program with two first-grade classes this school year and hopes to expand each year so students can continue studying Mandarin through high school and graduate with the ability to speak and understand the language at an advanced level.

An institution affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education is paying the salaries for two teachers from China this year. The school district received a separate $1.3 million federal grant to use over five years to support teaching Mandarin in local schools.

read more here.

This is the annual Chinese literary arts contest in San Francisco. Many students in the Mandarin immersion programs participate, especially in the recitation of poems, translation and Chinese drawing.

Mandarin immersion: 90 percent of curriculum in Chinese