Citrus graduates on Friday after four weeks of Mandarin Summer Camp, two and a half hours of classwork in the mornings and a couple hours of sports and games in the afternoons. She wishes that the day was longer to allow for more instruction as well as cultural activities.

Coming to Taiwan to study Mandarin was a switch in the usual routine. Not only because we camped out in a hotel room for a full month — one Queen-size bed for me and the children — but also because it was her first time learning traditional Chinese characters, which are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Until now, she has studied simplified characters, which are used in Singapore and China.

Her final exam was today and she thinks she did reasonably well. Last night we made flash cards for 160 characters and she spent five hours studying and practicing her writing.

Five hours and I had to cut her short to go to bed. She is remarkably dedicated to studying and always enjoys a challenge. All she asks is that I sit near her to keep her company. I flip the flash cards for her, listen to her read out the characters, and occasionally sharpen a pencil for her. Once she is on a roll I usually do some of my own reading.

Aside from the teachers and living in Taiwan for a month, I think that just being with other students with a shared experience has been very motivating.

Most of the other kids have a family connection to Taiwan but have come here from all over the United States, Canada, and a few other countries. Like her, many have been studying Mandarin for several years and, back at their elementary schools, are the only kids studying Chinese.

Citrus and her friends, two sisters from camp. In this photo, the sister on the right looks like a mirror image of my daughter!

The teachers here, like her Chinese teachers elsewhere, have been very supportive, I think because they know how much work it takes to become fluent in this language. After seeing Citrus’s stack of flash cards this morning and hearing about the study session, her teacher hugged her with joy and admiration.

It is a stark contrast to her experience in American public schools, where I think most of the teachers simply cannot relate. Studying another language is viewed as an extracurricular activity, detached from and unrelated to learning in school.

When her second grade teacher asked me how she was doing with her 20 minutes of homework a night, she did not really know what to say when I told her that it was going very well in addition to the seven hours of Mandarin a week. This part of my daughter was completely off her radar.

Considering that she does not receive recognition from her peers or the teachers she looks to for support every day makes her accomplishments even more remarkable.

 
Today after camp we hopped on the MRT (subway) with some new friends to have dim sum for dinner. As the train left the station the girls, without prompting, each opened their notebooks to try to finish their homework before we reached our destination.

With my daughter at summer camp every day, my challenge is to do at least one interesting activity with my son every day. It is not a hard task except that nap time falls in the middle of the day and the heat has been oppressive.

A few days ago we stopped by Xingtian Temple, which is devoted to the patron god of businessmen. The temple was packed for services so we quietly walked around the perimeter.

 

 

Philippines 2009. Laos 2011. Taiwan 2014: During our 2-hour shuttle ride from the southern tip of Taiwan to the train station, our van blew a tire. This was our third flat tire in Asia, proving once again that the only kind of bad tire is the one that completely stops turning.
 

 
See the Laos Vomit Comet in 2011, and our jeepney in the Philippines, 2009.

The kids and I have now been in Taipei for two weeks and it is remarkable how quickly Citrus has transformed from being self-conscious and hesitant to serving as our guide and interpreter whenever possible. Knowing that she can have the deep-fried Oreos if she can order them in Mandarin is a powerful motivator.

Learning how to read menu options written in traditional Chinese characters.

Of course, there is a lot that she does not know, and I push her along — sometimes physically — at times but overall her confidence has increased.

There is just a huge difference between being the only 8-year-old in her community studying Chinese and attending a language-immersion summer camp in a Mandarin-speaking country. Her new, temporary, normal.

The pay-off of studying Chinese for five years: Ordering deep-fried Oreos at a night market in Taiwan.

Time for deep-fried mushrooms!

Several of the children at camp are from the United States, but others are visiting Taiwan from Hong Kong and other places. Many have at least Taiwanese parent and most of the children have been studying Mandarin for several years.

Citrus is in the top level for her age group. At first she said she was bored but it turned out that she already knew the vocabulary words in simplified form. She now has to learn how to write them using traditional characters and seems to be doing fine.

The goal, after all, is not to be stressed during summer camp but to have fun. Mornings are spent reading and writing, while afternoons and Fridays are dedicated to games and field trips.

Searching for something to eat in Taipei.

The time we spend outside of class seems to mainly involve searching for something to eat.

Citrus orders several dumplings for us.

A disappointing dumpling: Only cabbage inside.

At a playground after camp, Lemon told another parent that he was hungry for chicken rice — one of Singapore’s national dishes — and she directed us to a restaurant known for it.

She could not remember the name of the restaurant or exact location but said that all we had to do was start asking people where to find the chicken rice and they would show the way.

Sure enough, Citrus spotted a Singaporean name on a sign: Boon Keng Chicken.

Look what we found! No, not the love hotel on the left. The Singaporean chicken rice restaurant next door! Although perhaps not a bad combination. After all, it’s the Best Love Hotel.

It turns out that the restaurant also has a location in Singapore. The chicken rice was excellent and the kids were happy.

Just another day of Chinese and food!

A Singapore meal of chicken rice, fishball soup, bean sprouts and a red bean dessert, along with dark soy sauce.

When we landed in Taipei our first destination was the Kenting National Park area located at the southern tip of Taiwan. Elysia visited there about two decades ago and remembered it as a sunny and somewhat sleepy coast with beaches.

The area was no longer sleepy and it rained the entire time with fairly high winds.

We visited the hotel pool and went to the night market but the weather definitely limited our options. On the bright side, when we visited some gardens in the national park, we had the place mostly to ourselves.

Mostly.

Hm, okay.

They are not kidding. We were walking on a path when our daughter spotted a giant centipede crossing in front of us. It looked like the kind of rubber insect you find in a toy store, about six inches long and fairly thick.

I believe we saw it some time after I told Citrus that we should consider ourselves lucky if we saw a snake.

Yeah, I hate when that happens. But at least the plants are harmless.

There was a water garden as well as several orchards, and also a cave with stalactites.
 

 
A 300-year-old tree![/caption]
 

 

The kids were fairly well-behaved.
 

If there is one rule about Navy life, it is that you have to expect that plans will change. I booked tickets in April for summer travel expecting that Elysia would be away but here I am with the kids in Taiwan for a month while she is at home.

A reverse deployment.

Elysia just returned from several weeks of travel to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, while Citrus finished third grade. The kids and I also snuck in a week-long visit to Singapore in anticipation of meeting up with Elysia but plans changed and instead we spent our time there with friends.

It is a sign of our comfort being apart that I was not certain how long she had been away but when we realized we would only have a week together, Elysia decided to use some leave time and come with us to Taiwan for a week.

Our family, all together in one country, and then Elysia left us in Taipei.

There is something exciting about wandering around a new city to discover without much sense about where things are and how to get around.

It reminds me of when I moved to New York City by Greyhound and my first mistake was winding up at Macy’s with my one box of luggage instead of at a friend-of-a-friend’s apartment. West 34th Street vs. East 34th Street, a rookie move.

At least this time I do not have to start looking for a job. In New York City it took a week to interview and start working as a word processing temp.

In Taipei I do not know what I would do for work. Teaching English is always a possibility for foreigners which would probably save me from a worse fate. To paraphrase David Sedaris, there would be nothing more sad than to see me on a street corner handing out leaflets while dressed as a steamed pork dumpling.

Fortunately the kids are used to adventure and I have my daughter to serve as my interpreter. She is enrolled in several weeks at a summer camp with the goal that she gets a chance to practice her conversational Mandarin. Already in one week she has shown remarkable progress.

She was initially reluctant to approach other people but now, after six days, has taken charge of order meals and asking for assistance. We will be fine, although I think it made Elysia nervous when I asked her to jot down a translation of a dumpling menu at one restaurant. You know, in case of an emergency.

So far we have not needed to use it.

The last project for the year in my daughter’s class was to participate in an Economics Fair by creating a business plan for a product or service. Quickly dismissing the examples of cupcakes or lemonade as too boring, Citrus decided that there was nothing better to sell other than Hainanese Chicken Rice. She was certain that no one in the world could resist a hawker stall serving one of Singapore’s national dishes.

My idea of luggage.

I thought she was overconfident.

Then again, I am the guy who mailed all of our clothing home from Singapore so that I could carry about twenty boxes of Southeast Asian sauces and other ingredients in our suitcase.

Writing her business plan.

She immediately set out to develop her plan, including a mock-up of her advertising and a detailed list of ingredients and supplies needed.

We figured out that it was going to cost about US$14 to create a minimum of 20 servings.
 

Chicken.

In her haste, however, she forgot a key element of the project: She was going to do all of the preparation. Panic set in when I brought a chicken from the refrigerator and told her that the first step was removing the heart and any other organs still inside.

Although this was her first time handling raw meat, we had a conversation — in Singapore, coincidentally — about meat and animals in 2009 when she was four years old.

Four years later, I tried to capture this moment again on video. Her brother was very supportive.

Hainanese Chicken Rice!

Her business was a success! She took in $27 of play money, before expenses, from 36 classmates and teachers.

Initially some students at the relatively high price of 75¢ but one friend came back for seconds, referring to it as “highly addictive”.

She also learned that it helps to be the last person with food when your classmates still have money to burn.

Shown here with a friend and competitor who had the hysterical and clever idea to put on a show called “Come to this Concert called WATCH ME”. Only $2 for a ticket and popcorn! Sadly, the teacher only gave parents $1 each.

We got the news this past week that Citrus is going to skip fourth grade. It is a huge accomplishment for her and hopefully marks the end of two years of my frustration with schools reluctant or unable to challenge students who are doing very well. As parents, we have jumped every hurdle.

It is very trendy in the States right now to criticize the Common Core curriculum but so far I do not have any major concerns about it.

I have nothing against repetition — or “spiraling” instruction — as long as teachers and administrators are able to identify when a child is ready to move forward, whether through enrichment programs, accelerated instruction or grade advancement.

The problem is that while schools are very willing to redshirt kids — allow parents to start their children in school later than usual — there seem to be talking points designed to create barriers to advancement.

Our daughter enrolled in second grade in a highly-regarded Maryland public school after attending kindergarten and part of first grade in Singapore. She enjoyed second grade but complained about assignments that she had mastered in kindergarten.

Meanwhile, the county schools had recently introduced a curriculum designed to help reduce disparities in academic performance across an economically and ethnically diverse population, but our impression was that the county was eliminating the disparity by eliminating the measurements. There appeared to be little accountability for the quality of the work completed in class or any way for a student to stand out.

Students received grading scores of ES (Exceptional), P (Proficient), I (In Progress) or N (Not Yet Making Progress), but in a meeting with parents at the beginning of the year, the school principal cautioned parents against high expectations on the initial report cards: Students could not receive scores of ES until the third quarter.

Moreover, the principal told the parents that getting the correct answers in math was not sufficient.

Students had to be able to solve each problem in five different ways.

While I understand the approach — not every child learns the same way and the goal is to understand the underlying concepts — this has the effect of putting every parent on the defensive. Five different ways? I could only think of one or two.

After weeks of P’s on our daughter’s work, I met with her very sweet teacher to ask if our daughter was excelling in any area and was simply told

Citrus is where she needs to be.

With a handful of P’s and that, what can a parent do to prove that their child is ready to move on?

At the end of the year we received her standardized test results. All high scores and at the very end of the academic year, the district identified her as being ready for gifted education programs. With the disconnect between her teacher’s observations and her scores, clearly she had not been where she needed to be.

Then we moved.

First day of third grade.

Third grade, at a DoDEA school, was a huge step in the right direction. A very diligent and communicative teacher, although the school dropped the ball and never requested records from the previous school.

They also never told parents about gifted education or enrichment opportunities, which we only found out because our daughter noticed that other kids were being pulled out of class for assessment. She told us she assumed she was not one of the better students but it turned out that parents had to request the assessment.

Once I raised the issue with the teacher, however, it was as though I had discovered the magic words and the door unlocked. Unfortunately it was already March, but in any case it turned out that the limited gifted education programming had been gutted for the year.

I called the school district office to get more information, explaining that our daughter was bored and was ready to move forward. I was asked: Does she know how to do the math problems five different ways?

When it became clear there was no plan in place for enrichment in 4th grade, we finally put our foot down and requested advancement. At least in fifth grade there is a known daily curriculum.

Last week I met with the school principal, counselor, our daughter’s teacher and a 4th grade teacher where I presented our daughter’s case.

As it turned out, the annual standardized test results were released the same day and, in the context of the conversation, I was allowed to see the results.

Overall score: 99th percentile on the national scale, solid in all areas.

On a separate test I had learned that she is reading at the 7th grade level, and that is only because the test does not go higher. And her primary weakness: Chit-chatting, no matter how often her seat is changed.

Three days later I received the call that she is advancing to fifth grade with one of the deciding factors being that the committee is confident that we will provide enough support. After all, in addition to all of the conversations I have had with her teacher, everyone is aware that I sat with my daughter in her high school Chinese class for the first four months of the school year to make sure that she was not overwhelmed.

In the end, however, it is our daughter who has accomplished so much. She has attended a high school Mandarin class and has never turned down an opportunity to do more in school. In math, for example, while the students were only assigned the odd-numbered problems for homework, she insisted on doing every problem for the entire year.

We have a lot of confidence that she will do well in fifth grade.

On September 4th before sunrise, Citrus and I boarded a bus to Tokyo to meet up with the USS Blue Ridge. It was our first time to go on a tiger cruise, an opportunity when families and friends are allowed to sail on the ship. Our journey to the U.S. Navy base at Yokosuka, Japan, was four hours, which allowed us to tour the ship, see Elysia’s office, and meet her shipmates.

Click on any photo for a larger version.

Citrus, on right, and a friend waiting to be escorted aboard the ship.

Citrus on the main deck of the USS Blue Ridge.

Aboard the USS Blue Ridge outside of Tokyo.

Mom and daughter aboard the USS Blue Ridge, departing Tokyo.

Citrus, above the bridge of the USS Blue Ridge.

Citrus, sailing aboard the USS Blue Ridge to the U.S. Navy base at Yokosuka, Japan.

Above the bridge of the USS Blue Ridge.

Citrus, in the center, above the bridge of the USS Blue Ridge.

Sailing into the U.S. Navy base at Yokosuka, Japan with aircraft carrier USS George Washington on the left.

The USS Blue Ridge arrived in Tokyo today for a port call and despite the fact that she can not yet come home, I decided to take the kids to see Elysia.

Citrus and Lemon had no idea. I mumbled something to my daughter about going to a park and Lemon loves trains so I knew that he would not mind taking three trains on an hour-long ride.

He was very happy to sit by himself and watch the stations go by.

In the past, I have been somewhat skeptical about the emotional impact of surprise homecoming reunions, particularly after I saw a disturbing episode on television where a father hid in another room and pretended on the webcam that he was still overseas.

During my wife’s deployment to training and Afghanistan I figured that any time together would be enough of a thrill without any surprise needed when we were reunited as a family. But today I felt differently, and partly because my daughter already knew that she was going to see her mom soon.

We got off the train near Ueno Park in Tokyo and I made up some excuses about wanting to take a rest for a few minutes to take some pictures. We also picked up a small bouquet of flowers to “bring back to the house”.

And then Elysia arrived. While I distracted the kids with the camera, she snuck up behind them. We last saw her four weeks ago but have been separated since mid-June with the exception of our first 10 days in Japan.

Citrus had a hard time figuring out that her mom was standing next to her. For one, it was simply unexpected and out of context. No uniform. No Navy. No ship. In Tokyo. Also, Elysia was wearing sunglasses and a Hello Kitty Australia t-shirt — Hello Kitty is dressed as a koala — that my daughter had never seen before. It took a few moments for reality to sink in.

We hung out by a fountain in Ueno Park and then had a dinner of udon noodles at the nearby Ameya Yokocho night market. The kids and I visited these places in 2011 but all my daughter remembered was a chocolate-dipped frozen banana (“It tasted like marshmallow!”) and the udon noodles. (See HERE for more about the area and photos from our 2011 visit.)

As we said goodnight, I gave Elysia a loaf of homemade banana bread to take back to the ship and the kids gave her many hugs goodbye.

We’ll see her again soon.