Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education
A brief from CELIN, the Chinese Early Language & Immersion Network
This is an interesting paper on how schools can integrate their Chinese and English sides, Worth reading for anyone in a school that deals with these issues.
It is written by Jeffrey Bissell, Head of School at Chinese American International School in San
Francisco, and Sue Berg, Executive Director, Yinghua Academy, Minneapolis, MN.
Please read the paper here.
From the News & Observer
Nov. 26, 2019
In the face of increasing charter school competition, the Wake County school system wants to add a specialized high school in Morrisville and additional language immersion elementary schools across the district.
Wake County school administrators said this week they’re hoping to open an early college high school focused on computer sciences on Wake Technical Community College’s RTP Campus in Morrisville in 2021. Also that year, Wake is looking at boosting the number of elementary schools where students can take all their academic classes in Mandarin Chinese or Spanish.
“We want to offer choice for students,” Edward McFarland, Wake’s chief academic advancement officer, said in an interview after Monday’s student achievement committee meeting. “We want to offer lots of opportunities in various settings, various ways and not just in the same mold.”
From the
Kari Anne Calarco didn’t grow up learning a second language. Now, as she works to learn French as an adult, she hopes to make it easier for her two young sons.
Calarco’s oldest son, 7, began learning French and some Mandarin while he attended school in Washington, D.C. When Calarco and her husband, Chris, moved to Fort Collins, they wanted him to keep learning French, so they tried another local language immersion school, but it didn’t quite fit their needs, Calarco said.
So Calarco decided to start her own. She teamed up with Jenny Whitaker to found AXIS Colorado and AXIS International Academy.
Please read more here.
And here’s another storyabout the new school.
Note that the space that had been occupied by Global Village Academy was acquired by another immersion charter school, AXIS International Academy, which opened its doors in September.
From the
By Kelly Ragan
After years of turnover and turmoil, Global Village Academy in Fort Collins will have to fight to stay open after June 30 — otherwise about 177 students will have to find new schools.
On Tuesday, the Colorado Charter School Institute that oversees the school’s state charter said it would begin coordinating a closure after deeming that Global Village fell short of the mutually agreed upon conditions in its 2017 contract.
Julie Rossi, Global Village Academy principal, wrote in an email statement the school planned to appeal the decision.
Global Village Academy is one of three state-sponsored charter schools in Fort Collins. The dual language immersion school that opened in 2013 is also part of the Global Village Charter Collaborative, which includes five schools in Colorado.
Please read more here.
Editors Note: At the National Chinese Language Conference in San Diego, CA, five Chinese language instructors boldly presented their findings and recommendations on race, sex, and gender in the American Chinese language classroom. Following is a summary of the author’s takeaways.
By Eleise Jones
Every language has potential for funny or uncomforable moments when taken out of context. Natually, these are perfect moments for learning! Much of language is shaped and enforced by cultural values, and many teachers admirably want to be aware of potential pitfalls and equipped to address sensitive issues when their students have questions.
Addressing Discriminations and Stereotypes in the Chinese Language
Like most Chinese language teachers, Ruan Ye of York Prep in New York, NY teaches Chinese characters through radicals. For instance, there is the radical 女, meaning female. We find this radical in the compound characters 她 (she/her), 妈妈 (mother), 姐姐 (younger sister), and 妹妹 (older sister). These all make immediate sense as they refer to the female sex.
But when we teach 嫉妒 (jealousy) and 姦 (evil), students may ask: Why do these two characters both contain female radicals? Why do three females together connote evil? Furthermore, why does the 男 (male) always appear before 女 in compound characters?
Please read more here.
On a recent morning in Overland Park, Kan., at a school next to a horse pasture in the middle of the country, a kindergartener raised his hand and asked to go to the bathroom — in Mandarin Chinese.
Students sang a Chinese song about family as teacher Claire Pan, a native of Taiwan, pointed to corresponding characters. Later, when Pan gave instructions for a craft project, a young girl spoke quietly to her classmates at a table.
“That means whisper,” she says.
In a Wolf Springs Elementary School classroom with “Chinese Only Zone” signs taped to the walls, kindergarteners are learning their core subjects in the primary language of a global economic superpower located across the world.
This language-immersion class of kindergarteners is part of a new Blue Valley School District initiative to graduate high school seniors fluent in a second language, an asset school officials believe will give students a leg up as they pursue academics and careers and prepare students to participate in a global workforce.
Blue Valley educators said that they’ve been talking since 2007 about revamping their language offerings, particularly to those outside of the European family. And by 2009, a special committee had recognized in no uncertain terms the need to give students more time and real-world practice if they were to develop students with even a basic proficiency in a second language.
Please read more here.
From The Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 23, 2019
It was difficult for Kristin Young to understand what her patients needed.
They spoke Chinese. Young didn’t. iPads and translation apps were only so helpful.
Even when Young, a nurse case manager at Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George, successfully tended to her patients’ health needs, she had to worry about serving them the meals to which they were accustomed and comforting them over the loss of life they had witnessed.
“We were reminded,” Young said Friday night, “that we may be different, but we are very much alike.”
After her remarks recounting her role in assisting the victims of a bus crash near Bryce Canyon National Park on Sept. 20, Young received a hug from Minister Xu Xueyuan, from the Chinese embassy to the United States.
Please read more here.
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 