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Elementary - grade 8 Mandarin Immersion | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| ZombieKing Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4527 days ago 247 posts - 324 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin* | Message 1 of 8 12 August 2012 at 5:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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Vancouver, where I live, is completely filled with Asians. Mostly Chinese and Koreans. And also recently China's economy overtook that of Japan's and is now the second largest economy in the world. So I guess I shouldn't be totally surprised... It still seems really crazy and out there though.
So basically, this Mandarin immersion starts from Kindergarten and goes up to grade 8. It's only for kids who are not ethnically Chinese (which I as a Chinese person think is fair, because we can just learn it at home and at tutors/weekend classes). Right now there is only one, and only so many kids can be accepted, so the kids are chosen by a lottery system. I don't know a whole lot about it, but from a friend of mine (who put her youngest son in the draw for it) told me, the learning environment is in only Mandarin starting from kindergarten. Later on, English classes are added in so that the children will eventually be fluent in both. I think the idea is very very neat but also really unbelievable. I knew that Mandarin was starting to be recognized as a good language to have, but I never thought that non Chinese people would put their kids in Chinese immersion. I say bravo :) The kids learn two valuable languages, English and Mandarin, learn about a different culture (so that they become more tolerant and accepting), and even more careers are open to them. Has anyone here heard of something like this where you live, or even at all? :) Would you put your kid(s) in such a school? Edited by ZombieKing on 12 August 2012 at 5:34am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 8 12 August 2012 at 9:45am | IP Logged | |||||
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I heard of a similar thing in Spain recently, with English and Spanish. They did not start in kindergarten
though, I think it was from the 3rd grade. What you describe sounds way better, and I would have put my kid there in an instant if I could. A friend of my has his kid in the French school, but since they demand that you are fluent in French before you even start, that road is closed for most of us. Those kids who start in the Mandarin class are very lucky, and their parents have made a very wise choice. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6909 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 8 12 August 2012 at 11:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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In Stockholm there is a French school, a German school, Spanish school, a couple of English schools, even a Finnish school and an Estonian school. I believe most of them has education from first to ninth grade.
I don't know anybody in person who went there (or sent their kids there). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4638 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 4 of 8 12 August 2012 at 5:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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That is very captivating - it will be interesting to see how well this Mandarin immersion will work out in the future.
In 2011, there was reportedly a school in Texas that would make mandatory Arabic classes, starting at the elementary levels. However, they turned out not to be "mandatory" (it was poorly reported by some news groups), but rather optional. Many people reacted negatively, some positively, but mostly because it was incorrectly declared as "mandatory." The program was put on hold, last time I checked. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ZombieKing Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4527 days ago 247 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin* | Message 5 of 8 12 August 2012 at 10:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hey everyone, thanks for the replies? It seems as if this Mandarin immersion is only really happening here... Those other immersion programs sound nice though too!
Do any of you think Europe will ever introduce such immersion programs in the future? Arabic starting from elementary? That sounds interesting. Over here we don't even have Arabic in highschool! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fstop Newbie Canada Joined 5040 days ago 17 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English Studies: Mandarin, French | Message 6 of 8 12 August 2012 at 11:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
Actually, not only in Vancouver, BC but also in Vancouver, Washington and other countries ; ) Check this out: http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/jun/13/mandarin-momentum/ Overall, French immersion in Western Canada seems to be successful so I think Mandarin immersion should do well as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ZombieKing Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4527 days ago 247 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin* | Message 7 of 8 13 August 2012 at 8:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
Wow! That's really cool! I know French immersion is really popular over here. But actually, the people I knew who were in French immersion didn't seem to have very good French... Maybe it's cause they stopped at grade 5 instead of going on until grade 8. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| aokoye Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5541 days ago 235 posts - 453 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, Norwegian, Japanese | Message 8 of 8 18 August 2012 at 10:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In Portland, Oregon (just over the river from Vancouver, Washington) the public school
system has twelve schools with language immersion programs. The links is here. There are also at least three private schools in Portland with immersion programs as well. One in German, one in French, and then the other one has programs in Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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