By Chan Lü

Dr. Lü is a professor at the University of Washington, my alma mater and the place I first studied Chinese. I still haven’t convinced my daughter to apply there, even though she’d be a 5th generation Husky! but I haven’t given up yet….

From: American Federation of Teachers AFT.org

About one-third of children under age 8 in the United States have at least one parent who speaks a language other than English at home.¹ And as of 2016, 9.6 percent of all U.S. public school students were identified as English language learners.² It is obvious that the American student population is becoming increasingly multilingual.
This trend is often widely celebrated in other countries. But as scholars who have focused on an array of issues related to borders and democracy have noted, the United States has a complex history with bilingualism:

In many countries, the ability of children to speak more than one language is seen as important. Such is generally not the case in the United States. As sociolinguist Joshua Fishman and his coauthors have claimed, “Many Americans have long been of the opinion that bilingualism is ‘a good thing’ if it was acquired via travel (preferably to Paris) or via formal education (preferably at Harvard) but that it is a ‘bad thing’ if it was acquired from one’s immigrant parents or grandparents.”³

Fishman made that claim more than five decades ago, but it still rings true—if not quite as loudly—today. For instance, Richard Ruíz and other scholars contend that in the United States, speaking a language other than English continues to be perceived as a problem, which they term a “language-as-problem orientation.”⁴ Perhaps because of this perception, the burgeoning multilingualism of our nation’s children is challenging our current instructional practices and even more so our educational systems. Across the country, we lack the preparation, materials, supports, or infrastructure to handle our children’s linguistic diversity. Given the multiple benefits of speaking more than one language fluently,* we should actually celebrate this diversity—and we can.

Please read more here.

Like many other school districts, the Christina School District in Delaware is facing as much as $10 million in cuts due to the economic downturn. It’s holding a school referendum vote on Tuesday to raise taxes to keep the schools from having to make draconian cuts.

The list of possible cuts is long, and included — as in many districts — a Mandarin immersion program that could be seen as an extra that’s no longer affordable.

Another $10 million in budget reductions. No sports. No program for gifted and talented children. No extracurricular or cocurricular activities. The end of a popular dual-language Chinese immersion program. No more Montessori Academy. No district-wide strings program. No instrumental music in elementary schools. No instructional coaches and curriculum specialists in key subject areas. The elimination of 67 jobs, most of them teachers.

The article below goes into some of the issues Christina faces. They are issues other school districts will have to grapple with this coming year as the budget realities become clear.

Christina School District faces crucial referendum vote

By LARRY NAGENGAST• JUNE 5, 2020

• DELAWARE PUBLIC MEDIA

School referendums are difficult enough to pass under normal conditions.  But during a global pandemic that’s forced schools to remote learning and severely damaged the economy, getting voters to approve one now seems an almost impossible task.

But it’s one the Christina School District faces with voters heading to the polls Tuesday to decide if they will back a tax increase need to stave off drastic cuts.

This week, contributor Larry Nagengast digs into what the referendum is seeking, why it’s needed and what will happen if it come up short.ListenListening…13:59Delaware Public Media’s Tom Byrne and contributor Larry Nagengast discuss what’s at stake in the Christina School District’s latest referendum.

By any rational standard, this is not a good time for a school district to be asking its residents to approve a significant tax increase.

Please read (and listen) more here.

Mary Field is a Mandarin speaker and long-time Mandarin language supporter who just helped launch a French and Mandarin immersion school in San Antonio, Texas with a pre-school and Kindergarten, with plans to expand to first grade next year. All currently in limbo. Here she describes what the winter felt like for their school.

Looking to China for a Glimpse of Our Future

by Mary FieldMay 23, 2020

The Rivard Report

On January 15, there was an email in my inbox from the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in China. This was not unusual. I never unsubscribed from their emails for U.S. citizens in China, even though I moved back to the U.S. in 2014. Most of their notices were about changes to local visa regulations and worldwide travel alerts. This time, the email was about an outbreak of pneumonia in the city of Wuhan. I did not have time to think too much about this email. The following day was a big one. It was our initial state inspection for the first Chinese immersion preschool in San Antonio. 

Modern China is a noisy place. People lean on their car horns when changing lanes, firecrackers announce the opening of a new store, and workers constantly tear down and put up buildings. During the days around Chinese New Year, however, it gets very quiet. The streets empty out and people return to their family homes. The days leading up the Chinese New Year, I watched YouTube videos filmed on the streets of Beijing. Things were very quiet, but it was not clear whether it was because of the holiday or the fear of the coronavirus. People were wearing masks, but seeing folks wearing masks in China has never been unusual.

Please read more here.

I had the pleasure of taking one of Jen Lin-Liu’s cooking classes when I was in Beijing covering the 2008 Olympics. She also wrote a fun book about being an American studying traditional Chinese cooking, Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China.

I saw on Facebook this week that she’s offering Zoom cooking classes in English, but when I emailed her she said she could also organize them for kids entirely in Mandarin. If you’re looking for a fun Mandarin activity this summer, this one’s just $25. And you’ll get a great dinner out of it as well.

More here.

Brooklyn School Develops Multilingual Remote Learning Plans

Brooklyn School Featured in the International Press for Developing Multilingual Remote Learning Resources for Families During COVID-19

By Sarah, Neighbor

Mar 24, 2020 4:41 pm ET | Updated Mar 25, 2020 1:33 am ET

Brooklyn School Develops Multilingual Remote Learning Plans

Brooklyn School Featured in the International Press for Developing Multilingual Remote Learning Resources for Families During COVID-19

By Sarah, Neighbor

Mar 24, 2020 4:41 pm ET | Updated Mar 25, 2020 1:33 am ET

Brooklyn School Develops Multilingual Remote Learning Plans

Brooklyn School Featured in the International Press for Developing Multilingual Remote Learning Resources for Families During COVID-19

By Sarah, Neighbor

Mar 24, 2020 4:41 pm ET | Updated Mar 25, 2020 1:33 am ET

A Brooklyn French and Mandarin immersion school was featured in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Christian Science Monitor for its early efforts to transfer its hands-on, multilingual curriculum to an online remote learning platform.

Weeks before closing, Science, Language & Arts International School, located in Downtown Brooklyn, began to prepare for a possible closure by beginning to develop a bank of original, multilingual content and other resources for families, many of whom don’t speak the target language at home.

Please read more here.

From SkyKids:

Dear Parents,
Please check our website for the latest information regarding our programs in Taipei,San Francisco, and our recently launched Online Camps. Links to the website are underlined below.

1) Taipei — We will run a smaller subset of camps this summer from June 1 – August 21 @ CIO Maker School, Yongan Camp, Yoyo KindergartenThe main issue for visiting families is that the travel restrictions for Taiwan have yet to be lifted. So for now, the Taiwan option is only open to those who are already in Taiwan, can obtain a visa for traveling to Taiwan (business, relatives, etc.), and/or have Taiwanese passports. Hopefully restrictions for tourist visas will be lifted soon, but do expect some sort of 14-day arrival quarantine will still be in place regardless.

2) San Francisco (Mandarin, Non-Mandarin)  — Currently we are still waiting to see if we can still run the July 27-August 21 camps. For those who have booked or are considering summer options, it would be helpful for us to know if you are interested in having your child attend in-person camps. We know that families have been cooped up inside for some time now and are looking forward to a summer with some social interaction, so we are trying to make it possible if there is enough interest in this option.

3) Online Camps —  We will launch Mandarin Maker (Grade K, 1-2, and 3-6) weekly mini-camps from June 8-July 3 (PST time). With the exception of Grade K (who will use commonly available materials to do handicrafts), all other camps in June will include Maker Project Packs sent from our Taiwan camp partner to help make Mandarin Learning more interactive and fun! Attached are examples of the maker projects by age group. 
Please let us know if you have any questions. We hope to see you and your kids either online or in-person this summer! 
Best regards,Your Sky Kids Team

Several people asked for Jennifer’s suggestions for videos that her kids were watching in Mandarin, which she has kindly sent along. Enjoy.

Journey to the West

The 40-part CCTV series from 1986 of Journey to the West has captivated everyone in the family:

Please click here.

Trouble in the Temple of Heaven

We also love this remarkable Chinese cartoon — with terrific music — from 1961 of Sun Wukong/Trouble in the Temple of Heaven: 

Please click here.

Little Fox

Little kids will also like the Little Fox series of Journey to the West:

Please click here.

Shaolin Temple

The reality show about kids learning kung fu at Shaolin Temple: 

Please click here.