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I am the president of the Board of Trustees of The International School in Portland Oregon. TIS teaches full immersion in three languages: Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. My daughter has been in its Chinese immersion program since she was 3. She is now 6 and has conversational Mandarin. She reads and writes Chinese characters and next year she will start pinyin. She is being taught in an environment where four different languages are spoken on a daily basis. Part of the mission of TIS is to understand the culture of the immersion language. For Chinese in particular, you cannot learn this language with sufficient fluency without understanding the culture. This experience has changed my daughter and my family in a profound way. Yes she has a skill that most others her age do not, but at 6 she understands that the world is bigger than Portland, Oregon. She knows that there are many different ways issues and ideas are considered.

My husband and I, who do not speak any foreign language have seen our child blossom and develop this hidden skill. It has given her immense confidence. Someone commented that the world is getting smaller, but not all schools teach our children this important international perspective. Aside from some of the benefits that are documented in scientific studies about learning a second language as a child, this immersion experience is giving these children a perspective that will assist them be future world citizens.

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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