Schools offering Chinese Mandarin

[iloveiphone5]

Would love to hear from anyone who knows of any schools (private or state, although that cld be rare) that offer Chinese Manadrin lessons as a core MFL subject or failing that, as extra curriculaum item? Preferably in the Herts, Cambs or Bucks regions or north London. With the economy in China / Asia booming ( and expected to continue to boom) and our own struggling economy in the EU, I am surprised that not more schools are offering Chinese. I really fail to see French or Latin or Greek being more important than Chinese for global business in the future. Why they are still on the curriculum i do not know. Controversial maybe - what do others think?

[user1487797255]

Thanks for the input, useful to know about Newstead. My DC will do Mandarin GCSE in June, v keen to continue at A Level & possibly further so wants to know which places offer good courses.

[bogoffeternal]

I wouldn't get too hung up on learning Mandarin for economic reasons (unless the idea is they might live in China).

Technology is getting REALLY close to being able to do realtime voice translations. They can already replicate someone's voice realistically.

[PettsWoodParadise]

DD's school (she has just left after 7 years there), a grammar in SE London (Newtead) does Mandarin and also Japanese, both as 'twilight' courses, off regular timetable but still popular with students. I know a student who ended up at Oxford doing oriental languages and now doing a PhD in the US. Great opportunity. The school offers an amazing range of languagers fot a state school, latin, French, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese. They don;t apeart on the regular list of schools that offer it, not sure why.

[BIWI]

This is a zombie thread @user1487797255 - it's probably better that you start your own, new thread.

[user1487797255]

Hi, my DC is interested in taking Mandarin at A Level. I know that relatively few schools (state and private) offer this option - but has anyone had a positive experience with a school offering this at A Level to non-native speakers? We are open to moving so location isn't a huge issue. Thanks.

[roamer2]

You probably need to think about whether it would suit your child:

Is their hearing good (e.g. musical) so they will be able to pick up the different tones, how do they find their primary school language?

Are they good at / interested in art/design/symbols for the characters

Can you see them as being interested in a career in languages/business where they might have a need to work in or travel to China

The grammar of Mandarin is surprisingly simple I think

[taxguru]

Funnily enough our DS's school has just started a trial for a Mandarin after school club for year 9's with the intention of them carrying on into years 10 and 11, and ultimately taking GCSE in Summer 18. They're planning on it being two sessions per week in years 10 and 11, one lunchtime and one after school. Parents have to pay for the teacher, but the figures quoted are quite reasonable and akin to music (but of course depending upon numbers).

If popular and successful, the school say they'll introduce it as part of the normal curriculum in lower school and as a GCSE option instead of French, German or Spanish as the modern foreign language!

[guardian123]

It is common mistake that most people perceive Mandarin as a language that cannot be learnt. In the past, I used to fetch my son to a Sunday Chinese school in Reading, I saw a white GCSE age girl speaking fluent Mandarin to a teacher. My friends are Mandarin subject teacher in grammar school in UK too. They said their students have no problem at all writing short essay in Chinese and many obtained great result in GCSE Mandarin too.

I believe it is down to the school to make the change. Those who claim Mandarin is too tough, no teacher available, not a useful language, less popular, not the right time, no resources, no demand from parents...etc are those who have no knowledge in this language at all. Mandarin is widely spoken in China, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. You can also find decent size Chinese speaking community in Japan, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Germany.

[guardian123]

i am a native Mandarin speaker. like others here i find it bizzare as only a minority state school offering mandarin subject, among those i have to highlight bohunt, it is probably unique in UK as the headteacher wants other lessons to be taught in mandarin too, to me this is a true bilingual school that one can ever dream of.

[GRW]

Aylesbury High school for girls is a grammar school which offers Mandarin as an extra subject, and you can do it to GCSE level.

[quoteunquote]

I know that there is a state school in Bath that offers chinese languages as an option.

I shall ask teacher friends where they recommend nearer to London, there are quite a few saturday schools around.

[racingheart]

Not read all replies so sorry if this has already been mentioned, but Hampton School in Middlesex offers it as a GCSE for boys who already excel in languages.

RGS Guildford offers it as an extra curricular subject - you pay for the lessons, I think, but boys can, privately, take it to GCSE via the school if they wish.

[Hamishbear]

Interesting Copthall. Encouraging re: schools & final destination.

I know about the old stereotypes about those expats in Asia but increasingly it will become attractive I think. There's more competition for roles than ever previously & people are reluctant to leave. International schools have really raised their game & I think if things really get tough in UK & elsewhere in the West this popularity will increase.

[Copthallresident]

HamishBearThat's certainly true of my DDs. We had to move on from China because DH became too senior but my DDs would have gladly stayed in their International Schools which they loved, and their peers have done spectacularly in terms of universities. Both the top and middle tables of DD's Year 6 are now at Oxbridge/ Georgetown/ Yale /Medical School / UCL/ Warwick. All can't wait to get back to Asia.

I would also say that the acronym FILTH is an unkind way of referring to a perfectly effective HR strategy. We have plenty of friends who like us came reluctantly back to the UK because their careers advanced, but for some Asia is where they can best use their skills and abilities.

[NamingOfParts]

IMO the big thing we can give our children is to make them see that there are opportunities far beyond their own home town. Languages are part of this but for me the big thing is giving our DCs confidence. The confidence to try. The UK has been woeful in the rate at which it has participated in the Erasmus scheme. IMO some of the problem has been a lack of willingness to even give it a go. A fear of the unknown.

[Hamishbear]

Yes, Rabbitstew that's true re: pollution and children. I think in time knowledge of Mandarin will open up more global opportunities perhaps in other parts of Asia as well as the West. All in time rather than immediately now. Certainly I know those in Taiwan & Singapore that use Mandarin in their job & to communicate with China & moved on from Shanghai & Beijing after children. Sadly it could well be that staying in the UK is less attractive for our children for lots of reasons & they'll be so keener to put down roots in other countries & more adventurous than they might have been otherwise - especially those third culture kids :).

[rabbitstew]

Yes, I think it would be absolutely brilliant for a while, but most of my friends eventually wanted to come home again, at least for a while, particularly those in particularly polluted parts of mainland China! Their change of heart often coincided with having children.

[Copthallresident]

rabbitstew exactly what happened to DH and I, he being an expat brat third culture kid himself, it was the adventure of our lives, and life changing. A very good thing IMHO!!

[conorsrockers]

I suggested Mandarin for after school club at my DS's prep school and was met with this face .
I discussed the fact that it will be much more useful to our children in 10-15 years than French. But they still looked and said they could offer Spanish.

[rabbitstew]

The people I know who learnt Chinese at university have had a hard time finding work based in the UK - their employers keep wanting to send them out to live in China, whilst their colleagues get more choice in the matter, so to capitalise on their degrees and skill and be employed for that reason, they have to live overseas whether they want to or not. And there they were, thinking it would be a great asset to make them and make them more employable in the UK, too...

[BIWI]

The other advantage of learning Mandarin is that it helps to develop the right side of the brain - the more conceptual/creative side.

[NamingOfParts]

Copthall, that is the sort of thing I was thinking of but repeated for a number of countries.

For several year I was in a multinational department. We were all expats so used to being 'fish out of water'. What was interesting was discussing what we considered to be normal. The most interesting courses I went on were the ones which compared and contrasted different cultural norms. They were a real eye opener and helped me to have a greater appreciation of my colleagues.

[Copthallresident]

NamingOfParts The BBC do quite a good job. The online Mandarin course I linked to would do just that and it was developed with the Language Department at SOAS who most definitely do not suffer from the wider shortage of good Mandarin teachers.

[NamingOfParts]

I think you need to be careful of thinking of GCSE level language, any language, as having learnt the language or having any degree of fluency. It is an academic exercise. At the end you are no more a French/German/Mandarin speaker than a physics GCSE makes you a physicist.

I have traveled extensively for work and for me the most useful thing was having studied Russian 20 years previously - I could read the station signs on the Moscow metro.

IMO the most useful thing course would be one which taught a few phrases and some essential culture for a number of countries. This could cover essential politenesses for half a dozen or more cultures. A few thoughts which spring to mind of the things which could be covered:

• how and where to get a cup of coffee
  
• essential greetings
  
• gift giving (what, when and to whom)
  
  It's a course I would sign up for!

[losingtrust]

But any language really. My French is used daily in my job even though I only have an o'level and have never lived there but I did a language degree which makes it far easier to pick up any new language quicker.