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Have Children? YuMing - New Public Charter School Mandarin Chinese Immersion

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Yu Ming Charter School: Now accepting applications
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Yu Ming Charter School is a tuition-free public charter school which will open in Fall 2011 in the East Bay. Yu Ming Charter School (www.yumingschool.org) is accepting applications for kindergarten and first grade classes for the inaugural 2011-2012 academic year.

Yu Ming Charter School's mission is to:
* Provide an academically rigorous college preparatory program (K-8)
* Graduate bilingual students via two-way dual immersion in Mandarin Chinese and English
* Nurture intellectual curiosity and international perspective
* Develop young people with compassion, moral character, and a sense of responsibility for the community and environment.

The application deadline is February 10, 2011.

Mandatory Information Sessions (please attend one; required as part of the application process):
- Jan 18 (Tue) 6-8 pm, Albany Public Library, 1247 Marin Ave, Albany
- Jan 19 (Wed) 6-8 pm, North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave, Berkeley
- Jan 22 (Sat) 10am-noon, Leydecker Rec. Center, 3225 Mecartney Rd, Alameda
- Jan 22 (Sat) 1pm-2:30, Lincoln Square Rec. Center, 250 10th St, Oakland (Chinatown)
- Jan 25 (Tue) 6:30pm-8pm, Carmen Flores Rec. Center, 1637 Fruitvale Ave, Oakland
- Jan 26 (Wed) 5-7pm, Rainbow Community Center, 5800 International Blvd, Oakland
- Jan 28 (Fri) 6-8 pm, Marina Community Center, 15301 Wicks Blvd, San Leandro

For more information on the enrollment process, please visit
http://www.yumingschool.org/enrollment/application-process/
 
Hi Jonathon,

My wife just had a new student add to her 1st grade class in San Mateo that only speaks Mandarin. We were very surprised that the family did not choose to add to the immersion class available in our area but the family felt it would be more expeditious to enter their child in an English only class. The little tyke is working our well, however, and can already spell better than anyone else in the class. My guess is he'll be coaching his folks before you know it. Still, I'm surprised that they did not take advantage of the English/Mandarin immersion class available to them.
 
I suspect it will be more difficult to enroll non-Mandarin speakers, but the school is hoping for a 50-50 mix in each class.
 
I would love to send my daughter to a class school like that. I would help her greatly later in life to speak multiple launguages. She is only 2 so I have a few years untill she is ready.
Any idea on what sight they are looking at for the school. The web site didn't say.
 
There are three sites presently being considered: 2 in Oakland and 1 in Alameda. I think that at least one of the Oakland sites is near Chinatown. That's all I know for now...

Alameda county students will have first shot at the available seats, but then if spots remain, anyone from California is eligible to apply.
 
I wish they started teaching foreign languages at young ages in school, that is the time to learn them when the brain is at some of the highest neuron count in your life. Not this crap where you take a year or two of Spanish in high school.

Of course I still know the words Feliz Navidad because that is the only foreign language that was taught to us in elementary school :D
 
Not to take away anything from the goal of the school ( I happen to think this is a good thing).....why Mandarin? After working in Oakland for the last 4 years with a HUGE (70%+) Chinese clientele from both Oakland and San Francisco Mandarin wound not be my first choice for a bilingual education. Cantonese is the preferred local language. For every 1 Mandarin speaker we would have 20 to 30 Cantonese with smatterings of Taiwanese and other dialects. If you plan to travel to China then yes Mandarin would get you farther than Cantonese, but to function locally Mandarin won't help as much as Cantonese. Of course this is only for the spoken language as the written is the same for all dialects.

-Gregory
 
GDawson said:
Not to take away anything from the goal of the school ( I happen to think this is a good thing).....why Mandarin? After working in Oakland for the last 4 years with a HUGE (70%+) Chinese clientele from both Oakland and San Francisco Mandarin wound not be my first choice for a bilingual education. Cantonese is the preferred local language. For every 1 Mandarin speaker we would have 20 to 30 Cantonese with smatterings of Taiwanese and other dialects. If you plan to travel to China then yes Mandarin would get you farther than Cantonese, but to function locally Mandarin won't help as much as Cantonese. Of course this is only for the spoken language as the written is the same for all dialects.

-Gregory
Click to expand...

I believe the rationale is that Mandarin is the predominant language spoken in China and is the language that is used for international business, politics, etc...

You are correct in that Cantonese is definitely the dominant language in Chinatowns in the US. I believe that there already exist schools that offer Cantonese bilingual immersion in Oakland, although I can't recall the details at the moment.
 
Mandarin will be useful when all the good jobs end up in China :D

All kinds of business to be done there. Even engineering R&D in India and China is big due to industrialization.
 
Mr. Ugly said:
Mandarin will be useful when all the good jobs end up in China :D
Click to expand...

I am not sure about that, if you know how hard average workers have to work in China and how brutal capitalism treat workers there.

Back in 10 years ago, I have been working for my current employer based in Beijing and earning about 20 times than local average wage, I still end up going to US.

For business man it is definitely a heaven for sourcing supply and manufacturing, but not for most workers/professional IMO.

As for Mandarin v.s. Cantonese you can think this way, if your kids only know Mandarin he/she will not have much problem communicating with Cantonese, cause almost all Cantonese understand Mandarin, and if they sense you can not understand Cantonese they can speak in the way very close to Mandarin that you can understand. This is not another way around.

Plus Mandarin is official language, majority of TV, radio, educations etc are in Mandarin, at least in China.
 
Well, you have a lot of companies doing this type of stuff.

http://www.dow.com/news/corporate/2009/20090602a.htm

Seems like there will be opportunities for the right people there.
 
That's true.

Most of the new investment flow to China and India, while the bad time comes, the cuts happen in US.

Defiantly some people will be nice fit, but one need to have right skill set or experience which is not wide available locally, now these cases become more and more rare. Or much better option is for people in management track, then good connection to high level management in US headquarter is very important.
 
Bump - about 1 week left before application deadline. http://www.yumingschool.org

Let your friends with 4 and 5 year old kids know!
 
This is cool. My sister's boyfriend is actually going to college in Oregon to be a doctor but all the courses are in mandarin. He grew up in piedmont.
 
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