Shoong Family Chinese Cultural Center — Attraction in Oakland

My daughter has been going to the after-school Chinese Language program there since she was in Kindergarten. The classes run Monday to Friday, 3:20 - 5:10. Alternatively, there is a Saturday morning program that runs at half-pace, as compared to the weekday program. Her only chance to use Chinese is when she speaks to her grandparents, since we don't regularly speak Chinese at home. Enrolling her in this program was our chance of advancing her Chinese skills.

The curriculum is pretty hard-core by American academic standards, but average for Chinese standards. There is homework given to the little ones, even the Kindergarteners, but writing out rows and rows of the characters is the tried-and-true way of learning Chinese characters. There's no way to get around that. A child who can concentrate can probably knock out the homework in 15 - 20 minutes, but of course if they are not focused, and takes a break after each character, homework can drag on for hours!

My child's teachers have been firm, but kind. The school gives grades in the old school way, giving scores out of 100 points on homework assignments. Points are docked for messiness or inaccuracy. There are quizzes every Monday to check on this week's characters. There are report cards with numerical grades and class ranks. There are midterms and final exams. Like I said, totally old school. This is a far departure from her regular school, which barely gives any homework or grades.

There is a Cantonese track and a Mandarin track. The Cantonese track uses Cantonese as the main speaking language in class, but the teacher teaches both Cantonese and Mandarin pronunciations for the lessons.

The school's academic pacing is to enable the students to pass the AP test in Chinese in 9th grade. I haven't asked about their statistics on their students, but if by 2nd grade, they've already learned this much, I can't imagine that they won't reach AP level by 9th grade.

The majority of kids seem to come from first generation Chinese households. Many of them are students at Lincoln School around the corner. They have an arrangement where the Chinese School students are picked up and walked over every day.

There are handful of Chinese and half-Chinese kids like mine who speak English at home to their parents, and some students that are not Chinese at all. I haven't found out if their kids went to a Chinese preschool or had some other Chinese base when they started Kindergarten, but I can imagine it might be a little more challenging for those students because the teachers teach in Chinese. They start off with the complete basics, for example, numbers, big, small, sky, ground, etc., so a new learner can conceivably keep up, but the teaching is not geared toward teaching fresh learners. Classes are run more like what the students would be taught in China, Taiwan, or Hong Kong. My daughter reports that there are a couple of kids in her class who didn't start out speaking Chinese at all, and are learning only from the curriculum, so it is possible. I've had to use phone apps like Pleco to translate some worksheets to help with homework because I don't read Chinese very well.

They do include some fun. There is recess every day, and some of the teachers bring pencils and little prizes for the kids as rewards. They also have an annual festival where they set up little stalls for the kids to buy ice cream and candy and other treats as a fundraiser. There are semester-end parties. They also get to watch cartoons on the Fridays after a week of exams instead of having class.

It is a big commitment to go there every day after school at the exclusion of other possible activities, but having my child be completely bilingual is a priority to me, and I don't...

I've been attending here for about 7 years (currently 7th year as I am in 6th grade as of right now and I began at Kindergarten) and in all honesty the school gave me wonderful memories of my friends and teachers and it gave me the chance to experience Chinese culture. I know most negative reviews are from students that were or are attending the school but please consider that the teachers put their hardest into teaching you all and they really want you to have fun while attending. I'd like to talk about one of my best teachers who was my 5th grade teacher. I wasn't really interested nor motivated to participate in the activities but she motivated and supported me throughout the year and it honestly encouraged me a lot to continue learning. There are some strict teachers, but all of them are really nice and I would love to thank all of them for teaching me. Thanks to attending this Chinese school, I also made lots of friends that I've been with since kindergarten and we support each other throughout the hard times. To the kids who are going to write a negative review without a valid reason, please try to remember all the good memories and things you've learned over the years there. (and also, please try to act mature and don't act like a 7 year old while writing it, you guys shouldn't be writing reviews here. :) ) All in all, I'd like to thank all my teachers and the staff working here at Shoong Family Chinese Cultural Center for their hard work and dedication. I'll be graduating this year and it'll be my last most likely since I only plan on doing 6th grade, but I won't forget how many nice memories and knowledge about Chinese culture this...

We enrolled my daughter for the summer school. She was barely 5 yo and very attached to us so I was hesitant but the caring staff embraced her immediately. She was the youngest and smallest of her class, quiet, and painfully shy. I hung back long after the bell rung for school to start making sure she was OK and worried she would be run over during recess because of her size. When I brought up my concern, staff took steps to look out for her and even paired her up with older Jie Jie as mentors. They made her feel so comfortable and happy. I was delighted when she came home learning so much Chinese. Soon, she was shooing me away.

Fast forward, I enrolled her in the regular after-school program. Yes, through the COVID-19 pandemic. I was worried about their ability to pivot to distance learning but it transitioned quickly via GoogleClassroom. The teacher to student ratio is excellent. If anything, the quality has increased as the class sizes are smaller.

My only room for improvement for this school would be expanding their extracurricular studies. I remember going to Chinese school (not this one though) and really enjoying the elective classes most: martial arts, calligraphy painting,...