Interview with Ms. Kuan

I was interested in interviewing Ms. Kuan because she is a teacher at Meyerholz Elementary School in the Cupertino Language Immersion Program. This program is a Mandarin immersion program, and I was interested to know a little more about her, and about her involvement in the program. I asked her where she was born, when her family came to the U.S., if she was involved in any activities that are centered around her specific ethnic group. I also asked her to describe the CLIP program, what it is like teaching in a bilingual program and some of the benefits and drawbacks of the program. The following is her response:

"I was born in New Jersey, since my parents had come to the U.S. (from Taiwan) for graduate school. I moved to Taiwan when I was in 4th grade, and did 4th-12th grade in Taiwan. I came back to the U.S. for college and have been here since. So I'm not sure how to answer how long I've been in the U.S. I think I'm considered a 1st generation American born Chinese =)

I used to attend a Chinese church while in college, but since then haven't been going to an ethnic-specific church. I go to the Asian supermarket regularly, and will frequent Chinese restaurants.

CLIP strives to help kids be prepared for our global community, enabling them to become bilingual and biliterate. Working in a bilingual program is meaningful for me personally because I attended a bilingual school from 4th-12th grade while I was in Taiwan, so I know how it is for the kids. It's a lot of fun to see hands-on teaching practices applied to teaching the Chinese language (since traditionally, in Asia, language teaching is all based on rote memory and pencil-paper teaching practices). Drawbacks from being in this program is seeing parents push their child through our program when they might not be the best fit for it. It's always heartbreaking to see a child lose interest in learning altogether due to work overload."

We talked a little bit about the model minority stereotype and how that is affecting her students today. I am still learning more about the program, but I think it is important to realize that not all bilingual programs in California are Spanish-speaking. There is a whole other set of students with a different set of needs that we need to be prepared to interact with.

I have begun to learn a little more about CLIP at Meyerholz. It is interesting to see what is going on at my neighborhood elementary school where I myself attended.