Mandarin in Austin (San Antonio, Center, West: 2013, apartments, houses)

[gogogo35]

I'd like our daughter to learn Chinese but we won't be living in the Doss school district, which is the only Chinese immersion public program, as far as I can see. Any reviews of Chinese with Meggie or Marvelous Mandarin? Or other options?

[Idlewile]

Have you checked out the Welcome to the Asian American Cultural Center as a resource?

[gogogo35]

Thanks so much! No, I haven't. I see they offer language classes -- thank you. (We're not Asian, but we would like our kids to learn Mandarin.)

[Austin97]

We looked at the asian american cultural center and didnt like the feel of the place. It was purely a gut feel. We ended up going with chinese with meggie. Our daughter has been going there for 2 years, since she was 3, and my parents (chinese) say her chinese is already better than mine (admittedly not good)

Magellan starts chinese classes, but not immersion, in the 3rd grade. But maybe bits and pieces sooner. We have a lot of friends whose kids go to magellan and they all love it.

[gogogo35]

Thanks! How many times per week does she have lessons? Do you speak it at all with her at home (I noticed you said you speak it a little)? I wonder how fluent my kids (I also have an almost-3-year-old) can be if neither my husband nor I speak it and they only hear it through classes, rather than in a true immersion environment. Maybe I could find a Chinese-language playgroup, perhaps through Meggie's. I will be living in UT graduate student housing; maybe I can find a Chinese/English playgroup there.

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by gogogo35

I will be living in UT graduate student housing; maybe I can find a Chinese/English playgroup there.

You almost certainly will! Lots of grad student parents at Matthews, too.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by gogogo35

Thanks! How many times per week does she have lessons? Do you speak it at all with her at home (I noticed you said you speak it a little)? I wonder how fluent my kids (I also have an almost-3-year-old) can be if neither my husband nor I speak it and they only hear it through classes, rather than in a true immersion environment. Maybe I could find a Chinese-language playgroup, perhaps through Meggie's. I will be living in UT graduate student housing; maybe I can find a Chinese/English playgroup there.

I do speak a little at home, but the white kids that have been there for longer are actually very good. However, we do 4 2 hour classes a week.

I dont think Asian american cultural center was that bad, but it smelled funny so my wife crossed it off immediately.

[zhugeliang1]

When I was living in Austin back in 2005 to 2007, the Asian American Center had a really good Chinese immersion preschool called Magic Dragon. The newspaper did a feature story about the preschool. I used to take martial art classes there and could hear those kids singing in Chinese while they were in the hallway waiting for their turns at the water fountain after recess.

There are a couple of Chinese Schools in Austin you can also try (I am not sure where in Austin are you exactly, but I used to live right on Far West Blvd across from Doss) - there is one meeting in Murchison on weekends and there is another one Great Wall Chinese School at another location. Ten or twelve years ago those Chinese schools would just teach heritage kids now they have expanded to non heritage learners.

There is also Lily Pad Chinese School in Hyde Park area it seems.

I can answer more questions if you have any as I am very heavily involved in Mandarin teaching in Texas in fact am going for my masters in Chinese right now.

[gogogo35]

Thanks, everyone!

To the PP, I will check out those other options you mentioned.

Do you know anything about the Doss program? I wonder if it would be worth trying to live there. I know it's new (last year was the first year, maybe).

I'm excited about maybe finding someone at UT housing, too. Maybe we could swap language help, and I could speak English with their kids.

[zhugeliang1]

I know a lot about the Doss program because when I was a graduate student in 2005 I rented a place across the street from Doss and my kids went there for two years. It is a great school and my only regret is we moved back to San Antonio and there really is no school anywhere like Doss. After we moved back to San Antonio, I made sure to stay in constant contact with Doss.

Right now they are offering twice a week Chinese lessons to the general student population (which was featured on KXAN last month) and are looking for teachers to teach the immersion students starting this fall. Here is the link:

Doss Chinese Immersion Program at Doss Elementary PTA

They were going to start immersion fall 2012 but that has been pushed over to fall 2013.

Houses in the Doss area are very desirable and $$$$ but there are also UT student and family apartments all along Far West. So you will still meet some Chinese grad students there. You can often find them shopping in HEB in the Far West :-) after classes.