Love this school. From the Early Childhood campus located at Confucius plaza to the 29 Mott street location. I love that they have a strong curriculum and incredibly supportive and helpful staff. The Eartly Childhood campus is warm and safe. The teachers and all the staff are phenomenal. Everything is clean and inviting. My child had the best instruction and guidance throughout her time there. The Mott street location is lovely. A wonderful community of staff and parents. Also strong in academics! My child is thriving at Transfiguration school. Highly recommend !!! read more

The 2 stars is for how the people working and running the Chinese weekend sch. Bad service, lack of communication and unprofessional in dealing with parents. The people have this can't be bother attitude: If you want to put your kids here, fine, pay up and leave. Else don't bother me! My last draw is with the cancellation of lesson with no proper instruction or notification. Seriously, this can't be a good school with such lousy attitude and service. read more

Transfiguration school is a great catholic school. There are caring teachers small class size for a closer community. A great education in morals is included with the academics. It is connected to a beautiful church. read more

Transfiguration School - Elementary Schools Near Me - New York, New York

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I officially started the Adult Beginner Course in Mandarin for the summer this past Saturday. The classes are on Saturdays from 10AM -12:15PM until August 15th. I've taken language classes before and paid up to $400 - $500, but Transfiguration Chinese is only $240. Plus, the class size is really small (about 6 students) which gives you the individual attention you require when learning a new language. Overall, I'm excited to see how this summer goes and will provide a subsequent review once completed. read more

Transfiguration School - Class materials - Elementary Schools Near Me - New York, New York

My classmates are smart and committed. The cost of the schools is very reasonable. The director of the school and teachers are terrific. You should study here read more

My daughter has been attending since kindergarten. She is now in grade 4. Her experience is invigorating! She does not want to miss a session, and becomes very irritated when I get her to school late- we travel from uptown Harlem to Chinatown every Saturday....even in the summer. I appreciate the traditional academic instruction, the student presentations, and the support from Principal Fung and her staff (they are very understanding and always welcoming.) KUDOS to this program! read more

Back in circa 2002, we, the students from the Association of Student Organizations created a logo that is still in use for the school today, *sniffles* I attended Cantonese class on Saturdays from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. from circa 1990 until circa 2006. In order to learn anything, your heart must be in it. Yes, you could go to class from 130 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and assume that somehow, osmosis will occur and you'll have perfect Cantonese. Perhaps it will occur and you'll actually learn something that way. There were students in my class who skipped class from 130 to 4 p.m. and claimed to be "late". I bet those students who stayed a mere 30 minutes each class didn't learn as much as I did. It was my experience that teachers really want to teach and most students actually want to learn. I met some of my best buddies here at TCS and I hope that this next generation's students will have an even better learning experience. read more

This is the best Mandarin Chinese school I have ever experienced. My eight year old child and I take classes here. My daughter, having been raised in an English only household (bad mommy!) had zero background in Chinese; I had taken the equivalent of four years but 20 years ago, and forgotten most of it. My daughter has learned tons after just one and a half semesters. Her class is a mix of English-only kids (all races), Cantonese speakers from the neighborhood, Chinese adoptees, and some-Mandarin kids, and the teacher and the aide makes it all work somehow. The kids get a reasonable amount of quite doable homework. For three hours of class a week, the kids get a lot of instruction. I am pleasantly surprised when my daughter makes connections between words she learned and words in a sign on the street. Socially, it is also good for these kids to see each other every week to half commiserate together, while hiding their secret pride in doing something that makes them a bit special, or confirms their unique identity as Mandarin students. There are different classes for kids of different ages and skill levels. It's so great for them to be in Chinatown every week, too, to remember that there is a whole parallel civilization out there and here, to know and understand. [For point of comparison: my daughter did do a semester at the Language Workshop for Children, but got extremely little out of it because it was not rigorous enough, and there was too much mixing of differently aged kids.] My grown-up class is something too. There is a beginner, intermediate, and advanced class. I am in the intermediate. The class is a mix of middle aged people who have studied Mandarin at some point in their lives. Everyone brings something different. The teacher Ms. Luo is trained in Chinese pedagogy and she is the best teacher I have ever had, and I had studied in Taiwan and in two Ivy League universities, too. I thought three hours a week would be too much, but it is actually just right, and I even look forward to it. It is great to drop my child off at her class, then go to my own class. This way, she cannot complain that she is the only one "suffering." The beginner class seems good too. People start with no background, and after a semester, they are reading pinyin proficiently and learning vocabulary words in Chinese. Check it out! read more

This is an excellent resource. They provide three hour classes at different skill levels for both children and adults. Let me tell you about my misgivings, and how they all proved to be untrue. First, the teachers are excellent. The teachers here are highly qualified to teach because they have backgrounds in teaching Chinese (as opposed to just being a native speaker, which does not make most people good language teachers, IMHO). Also, the teachers speak excellent English, so they are able to explain to you the grammar, the usage, customs, etc. It s not mindless parroting or singing of songs that we don't really understand. There are a number of kids' classes, age 3 through 14, it looks like. Kids are grouped by age and ability. My 8 year old kid is in an advanced beginners class. They don t dumb things down too much, nor is the work too difficult as to be daunting. There is snack time, so the three hours are not unbearable. The kids socialize together and it is not a total ordeal for them. They look joyous at pick up time because they got a good mental work out. I was worried that my child would be ostracized because she is only part Chinese and we do not speak any Mandarin at home, only English. However, there are all kinds of kids there - Cantonese speakers; kids who speak Mandarin well, or just a little, or not at all; Chinese adoptees; kids of all races, truly; everyone is welcomed. The adult classes are also grouped by skill level (NOT age!). There is a great mix of students in terms of background and abilities and experience: people who studied Mandarin long, long ago; non-Chinese parents who adopted Chinese kids; people who are married to Mandarin speakers; business people who go to China; Chinese Americans who speak Cantonese or a non- Mandarin dialect; high school kids; people who lived in China before... ALL SORTS! Can't really generalize about the students because there are all kinds. I was worried that I would be too old to learn, but was glad to see that I am right in the middle, at age 42. Being utterly non-religious and even atheistic, I was worried about being indoctrinated due to the Roman Catholic nature of the school. I assure you, there is no religious bent in the language classes. Once or twice a year, there is a fundraising drive, but the money you give goes to the Chinese school. So you're not supporting the ban on contraceptives or being pro-Life or anything like that. I also like that there are Cantonese classes, and even Mandarin classes for other dialect speakers - it is a true Chinese civilization community center in the catholic (small case). Lots of immigrants use these school, as well as bourgeois suburbanites. Professionals mix with the working class. It is rare that this happens in Manhattan. This is a true hidden gem. And, on top of all that, you have an excuse to have a nice breakfast *and* lunch in Chinatown, every week. read more

I never attended the school but I used to volunteer here during my summer months off from school. It was a great opportunity as I got to interact with many students (I was a TA) and created some lasting friendships with people I volunteered with. The volunteer program lasted for about two months and towards the end of the program, we took the kids to field trips either to Central Park or to one of the museums. Those were the good old days. I remember one summer I was assigned to a class of first graders and they were an adorable bunch. I think that was the best summer I had. read more

I am giving this school three stars because I want to be honest. This school isn't as good as everyone says it is. "How do you know?" Well, it is because I have attended this school. If you plan on putting your child into this school, you should let them study here up to only the fifth grade. Especially if your child's sex is female. While I feel that some situations are unavoidable, I felt as if this school isn't really the best while they are growing up. Now, if you are a hard-core republican or christian, you might hate me for what I am going to say next and I will not be sugar-coating anything. First of all, if you want your child to be a devote christian, sending them here is a one-way ticket for them to become an atheist, especially if they complete all eight years. If they were here since pre-k 3, well there's no chance now. Now, if they aren't an atheist, they are completely brainwashed. This school is like a cult. They have strict ideals that they will force your children to believe, essentially shoving the bible down your children's throats. Now, this will come with certain teachers, some teachers do not find it appealing to shove the bible down your children's throats, and I thank them for making my experience not as horrible. Let me go into detail. There are ideals in the Bible that are not updated and are old, out of date, and pretty much deny human rights to both males and females. Especially if you are not heterosexual, believe one should have the right to terminate a pregnancy, or have a sex drive in anyway. Don't get me wrong though, saving your virginity for marriage is wonderful but I believe it should be your choice, rather than an ideal being taught to you in a school. This school teaches young middle schoolers that being anything but heterosexual is a sin. I find this very damaging because it tells your children that there is something wrong with them if they are anything but heterosexual, and there is always a chance that your child could not be heterosexual. Growing up fearing your own sexuality is extremely damaging to teenagers who are just discovering themselves. By telling them that there is something wrong with them will isolate them from their peers. Reachers are studying homosexuality currently and how it could possibly be linked to genetic factors. (Link: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/10/homosexuality-may-be-caused-chemical-modifications-dna ) This school also teaches young women that if they terminate their pregnancy they are committing a sin. I find this fundamentally wrong. This school brainwashes your child into believing this. I feel that one may decide if they want to terminate their not and that it is their choice completely. This is because these choices are extremely personal, since being pregnant does not necessarily mean that one has been having unprotected/unsafe sex. Reasons behind their pregnancy may be because of rape, contraceptives that were not effective, and many other reasons. One may argue that a victim of rape could report it and take a pill but I assure you that it is not that easy. Simply being sexually violated (ex.molestation that lasted less than a minute) may take years before the victim even tells someone about it. Trauma is real and it is never the victim's fault and I do not believe that a rape victim should be forced to carry a memory of such a traumatic event. Moving on, this school also is keen on getting rid of any sexual drive your child could potentially have, and ultimately shames them if they happen to not want to save their virginity for marriage. This school also loves to be as strict as a military. Walk in a straight line. Don't speak. Cut your hair. Tie your hair. Sit down and don't fidget. Do not speak to anyone. Pay strict attention to the teacher. Have an opinion different to the teacher and you're not afraid to express it? Have fun with 100 lines and detention for the next two weeks. This school is a sure way to stomp out your child's originality and freedom of expression. The true negatives only come out from the sixth grade and on. But this is my own experience and since I have had certain teachers, please take my words with a grain of salt, because if your child happens to have different teachers than I did, they may have a better experience. I have only exited the school relatively recently, between 3-4 years at the time of posting this. I will not give an exact number as I do not wish to be hunted out. read more