Little Bee is a bilingual English-Mandarin Immersion preschool with Chinese and English classrooms in both our Presidio and Lombard locations. Children will learn to speak Mandarin and learn Simplified Chinese Characters.

In our Chinese program, children are surrounded by Chinese in a Mandarin rich environment where they learn through stories, poetry, music, and cultural activities. Our teachers are native-Chinese speakers and speak only Mandarin to the students and each other.

Why should my child learn Chinese?

Mandarin is one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world and one of the most important business languages in the global market. Learning Chinese can prepare your child for greater opportunities as a multilingual adult.

In early childhood, children are able to pick up the proper tones and speech patterns. Children that start learning Chinese at a later age often struggle with proper pronunciation.

What if we don’t speak Chinese at home?

Prior exposure to Chinese is not required for enrollment in our Mandarin Immersion program. Children who do not speak Chinese at home will learn to understand and speak Chinese because of our fully immersive classrooms.

Children quickly understand that there are various ways to communicate to each other through different languages. They will realize that there is a “school” language and a “home” language. Confusion, if any, is transient because, as you’ll be amazed to see, your children will seamlessly figure out their world in both English and Mandarin. Think of the millions of neural connections that they are building in their brains!

How much Chinese will my child learn?

At Little be we focus on language comprehension, adapting lessons to each child’s Chinese level. Some children can already speak Mandarin while others have no prior exposure to the language. Language retention will vary with each child. We begin to teach basic Simplified Chinese characters in the age 4-5 classroom.