Why Chinese Immersion?

One of the most common regrets of American adults is that they never learned to master a second language.  Countless studies have shown that children are far better at acquiring languages than adults are, and yet most schools continue to teach children only English until middle school or high school.

Immersion language learning helps children to learn a new language in the same way that we all learned our first language – by surrounding them in a warm and supportive environment in which they are encouraged to use the language for everyday communication.

Chinese Immersion School (CIS) employs dual language immersion in which native English speakers and native speakers of the target language learn all of their subjects together – Chinese, English, math, science history, etc and play side by side. In an ideal case, a third of the class would consist of native English speakers, a third would be native Chinese speakers, and a third would be bilingual Chinese and English speakers.  This model allows students to learn from each other and become bilingual and bi-literate (able to read both languages) more effectively than they might in ESL or foreign language classes.