This weekend was the first weekend of Chinese school. It is hard to believe that this is going to be our FOURTH year there. Every year, chinese school is crazy chaotic. This year was no exception.
Our Chinese school has two tracks for their classes: one for kids who speak Chinese at home and one for kids who don’t. We have always had M in the Chinese speaker classes (2 years preschool, 1 year kindergarten). The first year was crazy. The second year, she had a good teacher and seemed to learn things. Last year, she hated it, couldn’t understand what was going on and was bored out of her mind. This year, we placed her in the 2nd grade level for English speakers. Mr. A observed the 1st class. It seems like the material is below M’s level, but being the teacher’s pet that she is, she liked being able to raise her hand and answer questions.
I made a minor mistake by trying to sign L up for the 4 year old + class for English speakers. L is not even 3.5 yet, but she knew a lot of the words they were going to cover due to her Chinese tutoring sessions. I didn’t know that Chinese School holds kids in the same class until the master it, so this class had kids ranging from 4-8 years old. L couldn’t sit still or be quiet enough. I ended up taking her out 1/2 way through the class. I hope we can get our money back.
In addition to Chinese school, both L and M had private tutoring by a Chinese teacher who has actual training in teaching foreign languages. She is unbelievably excellent at teaching age-appropriately. Over the summer, we saw her 2 times a week (30 minutes for L and 50 minutes for M). Now that school is in session (for the girls and for the teacher), we are seeing her once a week. L might also join her cousin S in S’s weekly session for another 45 minutes each weekend, since Chinese school isn’t going to work this year. M also continues to have a 1 hour session each week with her other chinese tutor.
In case you couldn’t follow all that, in an average week it means we have some kind of Chinese on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, with some Saturdays in the mix too. It is a lot, but I can really see that both girls are making great progress.
I have just resigned myself to putting off other extra curricular activities (besides M’s soccer and swimming lessons in the winter) for a few more years. I feel a bit guilty about not adding violin, but I need to get a better handle on the schedule we have now before I throw another activity in there.
I was originally going to write this post about the social issues at Chinese school, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.
As an adult (obviously) I attended Mandarin immersion school in Taiwan.
The teacher would not talk to us in English. It was very tiring at first because as a non-native speaker, you end trying to so consciously trying to “catch” every word and it just doesn’t work, so your brain ends up working overtime.
However, it was the BEST thing to get me accustomed to hearing the language in a toddler-fashion instruction. It got quite boring in mid-August, admittedly, but for the most part in July it was a really good experience.
I can’t say the same for children due to their attention spans, of course – not to mention that it’s VERY easy to get turned off by not understanding anything, so I’d agree that English instruction is best for any child learning Mandarin.
But maybe when they get older… ;P
I am sooo envious that your Chinese school has a two-tiered approach for kids speaking Chinese at home and kids “starting from scratch” as it were, at Chinese school. The Korean school that my son and I attend (and all the Korean schools I’ve heard of) assume that all the kids are speaking Korean at home. They emphasize writing the letters and reading–rather like the character drills that I know some Chinese school students have gone through. There is no attempt to teach the kids any conversational skills at all. I just had to switch my almost 6 year old son to the 3&4 year old class because at least that teacher can speak English and she said some of her students also didn’t speak Korean at home. I think I’m going to have to try to find a tutor if this class doesn’t help my son. He attended the spring session with the teacher that only spoke Korean and didn’t learn anything that I couldn’t have easily taught him myself. I think Korean schools would be more flexible about students language backgrounds if more Korea adoptive families and families of mixed Korean heritage attended. Out of a couple of hundred kids, I think my son is the only adoptee and I know of only one mixed ancestry student. I just don’t understand why China adoptive families seem to emphasize the language much more than Korea adoptive families. (My quest to encourage other adoptive families to send their kids to Korean school has been notable for its complete lack of success!)
Sorry for such a long post!
Couldn’t you find a Chinese violin teacher that would teach the violin lesson in Chinese?
HA! That was an interesting question, Anie
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I cannot imagine the effort that it takes to get the kids to learn another language like this. And then I feel SUPER relieved that we just spoke Portuguese at home exclusively to the boys and they learned English later (around 4). Kelvin can read in Portuguese too and I hope Linton does the same. Now, of course this is way easier with Portuguese using the same alphabet, right? The boys will still have to spend a few years in Brazil so they can learn to write and read better.
Congratulations on the girls’ progress!
We just started our daughter in “Chinese Learning” as she likes to call it. This school also has 2 tracks & this is the first year that she’s been allowed since she had to be 4 yrs old before the end of August to start. So far, things are going well. She’s excited about going each Sunday and likes the Chinese dance class that is after language lessons. I’m hoping her enthusiasm stays. I’d love to get a one-on-one Chinese tutor, I think it would help but I also think the friends she has just like her at the school is a great benefit.
This has been interesting to watch from afar. The Ethiopian Social Services center wishes to offer Amharic classes for the Ethiopian adoptees in the area, but is unsure about how to do it. Most of the EAs in Cowtown are fairly young (under 5). The ones who are older were typically adopted as older kids so they can enroll in the language classes offered at ETSS, (if they have a background in Amharic and not one of the other Ethiopian languages). There seems to be interest on both sides, and it’s something we’re all working toward, but nothing has been achieved yet, and the classes at this point are set up to meet the needs of kids who are already Amharic speakers. I’m definitely looking forward to greater Amharic competency amongst all of us in the family, but will not enjoy trying to find space for lessons amidst tennis, fencing, art, choir, & playgroups.
I am really struggling with this one-I very much want the children to learn Chinese, but, at 3 and 2, they are both almost bilingual in Spanish. S first language is Mandarin, but M language is Cantonese. We are probably starting Mandarin at CCAI this weekend, but I still waffle. And we just started ballet classes today, and I really want an instrument for each of them. But S desperately wants riding lessons, which I am resisting for a number of reasons, because it turns into going to the stable every day. It is so complicated.
There are so many good things for kids to do. My oldest took violin for lots of years, and in hindsight? We could have waited a few years to start, he progressed a lot faster when he was motivated. Now they joke about how as littler kids they tried to fit the local “Asian Kid” mold–violin, chess tournaments, superstar math and now they’re a lot happier in their hapa skin, just doing what they like to do. Their observation, not mine! (white mama, Korean adoptee dad–three teen sons) But I wish we’d thought to bring in the language like you are. Very cool.
I think it’s great that the kids are learning Chinese. We’ve been trying off & on for years, with various programs. We’ve learned a lot–I hope it sticks.