I was poking around my (very poorly organized) archives and realized I haven’t mentioned much about Chinese school this  year.   Since I have written various posts about it in year one and year two (see below for links to related posts ) , I should probably keep up the trend for year three.

(I messed up my similar posts plugin, but if you are interested here they are:  Chinese school year one posts: one, two, three, four, five and six. Chinese school year two posts: one, two)

It was really interesting to go back and read my posts from previous years.  The first year at Chinese School was by far the most difficult for us.  Some of the reasons were because the school was overcrowded and very disorganized.  That year there were also not many families like ours around (any of the following: ABC parent, white parent, adopted kid, no chinese speakers at home etc.)    The second year, there were some significant administrative changes that improved things by leaps and bounds: registration by mail/no crazy lines to sign up, a much larger facility and much smaller class sizes, better teachers etc.  They are really reaching out to the families who don’t speak Chinese at home and to adoptive families.  The school has also doubled in size in the last two years.

As we head into our third year of Chinese school, I realize that so many of the things I had hoped we would accomplish by enrolling our kids have actually happened.  M knows a lot of Chinese kids her age.  We have actual, real-life friends there.  No one even bats an eye when we walk in the door because we have been around long enough that we are just part of school now (even me –the white mom!).  M is just M who acts crazy and runs around like a maniac, like all the other five year olds.  She fits right in.  And last but not least, M is really learning Chinese.

This year, M is enrolled in a Kindergarten language class after spending the past two years in a preschool class.  The class seems to be working on learning pinyin and writing some beginner characters.  Similar to English, M can read pinyin extremely well.  Her tones are OK, though sometimes she forgets to use them.  Between Chinese school and her weekly Chinese tutoring, her receptive language is really good (considering we only put about 3 hours a week of effort in).  She continues to really struggle with expressive Chinese, but she has only limited opportunities to practice.  Hopefully, that will improve with time.  Mr. A’s dad attends class with M to make sure she understands the teacher (and to give him something to do to feel useful).  We have been pleased.

This year, M bumped up to the second level dance class.  Last year, watching dance class was excruciatingly boring.  The poor teacher was trying to herd cats with 15 three, four and five year olds running all around.  She only taught them the same routine over and over.

The new dance class is so amazing.  The teacher teaches at a local dance studio and knows how to keep order.  Seriously, this guy is awesome.   He smiles through the whole class and obviously enjoys it a lot.

The new teacher also has the girls dancing to a wide variety of songs from some more traditional songs to modern Chinese ethnic minority songs to Chinese and Taiwanese pop songs.  So much of Chinese school is just old-school Chinese stuff, this class is like a breath of fresh air.  You should see the girls’ faces when the pop/rap songs come on.  There is one song they beg to dance to over and over.  I will admit, L and I even got up and danced to it this week too.

To sum it up, besides the massive Sunday afternoon time suck, Chinese school is pretty good this year.

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Here is a clip of girl’s favorite song.  Until I saw it on youtube, I had no idea there was actually English in it.

The singer was born in West Virginia and moved back to Taiwan to become a pop star, living out Mr. A’s secret dream.  If only Mr. A had been less ambitious in his late teens.  He could have been a star!

潘玮柏 - Pan Weibo

快乐崇拜 - Kuai Le Chong Bai - Worship Happiness

October 14th, 2008 | Tags: Chinese school, heritage language school, Taiwanese pop music | Category: Marvelous Miss M, Race and Culture, School & Education | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL