Newsletter September 2008

Hello again! It was wonderful to see parents participating in the free public seminar, Raising Children in More than One Language, held by the Research Unit for Multilingualism & Cross-Cultural Communication (RUMACCC) at the University of Melbourne last weekend. It was an informative seminar for parents who have babies and/or preschool children. I was very glad to see that we are doing the right thing by providing bilingual learning to children from birth; many language programs for children don’t start before the age of four! A new association promoting language learning was announced at the end of Sunday’s seminar, the Languages Action Alliance, and more information about this network is following in this September newsletter.

Holiday Mandarin Program

There is a high demand for Kimmba to offer holiday programs in school breaks. Please register your child for each session you intend to participate in. The class will only begin if we have enough interest from parents. If enrolment numbers are not sufficient we won’t proceed with this program. Once you’ve been notified of the availability of your child’s class payment must be received before we can confirm their placement.

This two-week intensive program is in addition to our existing term 3 and 4 program so additional fees will apply.

Fees are $20 per session; you may choose 1, or all 3 sessions for one week or two. We will play 15-20 minutes of the Chinese Dora or Full Moon Story DVD for our children during our sessions. Children are encouraged to learn to answer questions after viewing the DVD.  Face painting will be provided to all participating children at the end of each week. Friday sessions are optional and will depend on enrolments.

The holiday program is as follows:

My first Chinese words set of books with 1 CD

We have only very limited sets of My First Chinese Words 36 books with 1 CD. Due to the weaker AU$ against the US$ it is $90 per set for our existing stock and $10 for the exercise book. I will place the next order when the AU$ gets stronger again. In the meantime please enjoy the last few sets available.

Primary Mandarin Classes

Parents have loved our unique Mandarin program and student numbers have doubled since February. Now we have two new classes this term; a Saturday morning and a Monday after-school conversation classes. This is a total of four primary classes this year. Any child wishing to attend our primary Mandarin classes next year (for Prep to Year 2 students, 2009) please fill out our enrolment form. Placement of children will only be confirmed after payments are received. If a class has already reached its limit (maximum 9 children per class) prospective students may be placed on a waiting list.

An administration fee of $50.00 is required upon receipt of enrolment. We can only take a maximum of 9 children per class so please enrol early.

Two sessions per week are recommended for primary level children as it is much more beneficial for their language development. Our program is different to that of the tradition school because we focus on writing skills in one session and speaking in another. I have found that children coming from non-Chinese speaking families need more learning time to master writing and speaking. Two separate classes really helps their language acquisition.

Private Mandarin Class

Private mandarin classes are available upon arrangement with Marisha. However, it is not encouraged for children that are younger than 6 years of age. Sessions for Prep to Year 2 children (maximum 4 children) with similar levels of Mandarin who would like to study at home with our trained Mandarin teachers can be arranged at the cost of $75 per hour. Private sessions run for a minimum of two hours. Private Mandarin sessions for children in Years 3 – 6 are priced at $95 per hour with a maximum of 3 children per class. Again two hour sessions are minimum. Students are responsible for purchasing their own learning materials or any online learning subscription costs.

Some of our teachers don’t have their own transport so pick up and drop off from bus/train stations also are the responsibility of the private tuition parents. We are currently organizing private Mandarin tuition for a small group of children and I am aware of the urgency for some families to make this private tuition work for their children in addition to our weekly Primary Mandarin class. Please note that although I am happy to help in sending our teacher to your home as soon as possible, there are some circumstances that won’t allow us to have a teacher on the same day that your children are available. Lots of prior negotiating and changing of timetable is needed to make this private class a possibility. Sometimes it may take a few weeks to organize, sometimes a whole term, so please be patient while we finalise arrangements.

Parents survey

We are conducting a Survey to improve our service to parents and quality of teaching to our precious little ones. Please fill out our survey and bring it back or email it to me. There will also be opportunities to complete the survey after session time. Please note that you do not have to give any names. Your feedback is the key to our improvement so thank you, in advance, for filling out the survey.

Languages Action Alliance Survey

An important new association for the promotion of languages other than English (LOTEs) in Australia was introduced at the RUMACCC Raising Children in More than One Language seminar last Sunday. The Languages Action Alliance (LAA) believes that Australia's present and future is multilingual, that every child in Australia should grow up at least bilingual, and that languages education starts before school life and should continue throughout. These values are very much in line with Kimmba’s philosophy of language learning in Australian society. LAA’s web site can be viewed at http://www.lingo.org.au.

The Alliance is conducting an online survey starting from the 6th of September for all care givers, grandparents and parents to identify their experiences and needs relevant to the support of language learning. We would encourage all Kimmba families to share experiences and ideas with the Alliance via the survey. It’s a great opportunity to have our say! The website is a resource for all Australians both from multilingual and monolingual backgrounds so please tell everyone you know about it and get them involved in this worthwhile project.

That’s all for this month. Enjoy your language learning and look forward to hearing more from us before the end of this term.

Best wishes from Marisha and the team!