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A Kindergartener's Year In A Mandarin-Immersion School

Inside a family's year of kindergarten from KPCC follows the story of kindergartner Gemma Gomez at Eugene Field Elementary, a Mandarin immersion school in Pasadena, Calif.
Maya Sugarman KPCC
Inside a family's year of kindergarten from KPCC follows the story of kindergartner Gemma Gomez at Eugene Field Elementary, a Mandarin immersion school in Pasadena, Calif.

Teacher Tingting Mei reads a book in Mandarin to kindergarteners. Mei says repetition is how she helps her students master the language.
Maya Sugarman KPCC
Teacher Tingting Mei reads a book in Mandarin to kindergarteners. Mei says repetition is how she helps her students master the language.

Kindergarten is a huge moment in a child's life. So imagine if your parents sent you to a school where they teach most of the day in a language you don't speak, like Spanish or German or Japanese. In California, a growing number of families are choosing schools like this. It's called dual-language immersion. Reporter Deepa Fernandes followed the Gomez family this past year as their daughter, Gemma, attended a public school that teaches in Mandarin.

Copyright 2015 Southern California Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.kpcc.org/.

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