As a parent, I understand your love and aspiration to your children. This is why we create Mandarin Playground. It is for you! And it is for us as parents. We have a growing team of experienced professionals who are passionate about educating children!"
Yanfang Su, ScD
Co-founder and CEO of Mandarin Playground
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The Demand
A large and growing population of overseas Chinese families consist of parents who consider it important that their children maintain their cultural identity while being raised abroad. The co-founders of Mandarin Playground, Yanfang Su and Simona Su, are two of many. In addition, some non-Mandarin speaking parents are seeking to expand their children’s language capabilities in the era of globalization in which China has become a major economic power. Cultivating strong Mandarin language skills through early learning is a key way in which families can achieve these goals. Child development and early language learning literature has demonstrated the intellectual, educational, personal, social, and economic benefits of learning two or more languages. |
The Gap
Children in the United States typically miss a critical language learning window during early childhood,thus compromising their ability to successfully learn a second language. Many linguists believe that we lose the phonetic and memory plasticity necessary to sound like native speakers before we are teenagers, which is often the first time most U.S. students have a chance to seriously study a second language. According to College Board Data, among 2.7 million students enrolled in any AP courses, there were only 13,000 students (0.5%) who chose Chinese as their AP language in 2017. Although this represents a 5% increase in AP Chinese uptake from 2016, a major roadblock remains in the observed scarcity of effective Chinese language instruction in brick-and-mortar and virtual settings for our target audience. |
Mandarin Playground was founded by Harvard graduates in January 2017. Mandarin Playground offers Chinese language learning programs for 3-15 years old children who may or may not speak Chinese at home.
Our programs feature:
· Unique curriculum developed by researchers in bilingualism
· Interactive learning
· Total physical responses
· Opportunity for students to practice language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and drawing/writing/tracing pictographs*) and social skills (leadership, communication, and team work).
*Note: Pictographs are the earliest known form of writing, examples having been discovered in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China from before 3000 BC.
· Unique curriculum developed by researchers in bilingualism
· Interactive learning
· Total physical responses
· Opportunity for students to practice language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and drawing/writing/tracing pictographs*) and social skills (leadership, communication, and team work).
*Note: Pictographs are the earliest known form of writing, examples having been discovered in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China from before 3000 BC.
Our mission is to become a valuable resource for educators and parents seeking effective Chinese language arts instructions, and to enhance their children’s communication skills and empathy through two means: on-site enrichment programs at schools and online courses at our virtual academy.
Join our team
Are you compelled? Click here to join us as teachers, teaching assistants, ambassadors, or volunteers.
We are recruiting people with expertise in marketing, curriculum design, and IT. Please send your resume to the Founder of Mandarin Playground, Dr. Su, via [email protected].
Are you compelled? Click here to join us as teachers, teaching assistants, ambassadors, or volunteers.
We are recruiting people with expertise in marketing, curriculum design, and IT. Please send your resume to the Founder of Mandarin Playground, Dr. Su, via [email protected].
Team activity: Hand-made book marks for book worms
Community activity: Home-baked sweeties to celebrate traditional holiday
