CDNIS students speak mostly Cantonese amongst themselves?

[howardcoombs]

HappyV,

I'm not disputing the test results nor am I disputing that CDNIS are doing things right. They have a fantastic reputation as a top school and its well deserved.

What I'm disputing is your over the top comment, regarding Mandarin that "The program is easily the equal of any in Hong Kong". Cherry picking a single years results and comparing that to a single other school result does not make for fair and reasonable comparison. Now that you've admitted you have no results from ISF (not even sure they publish it) makes your claim even more suspicious.

Sorry, I dont have the results for ISF, CIS, SIS nor any other schools test results. I do not pay much attention to them when looking and evaluating various schools.

For the record, I have 3 children. 1 is at KCS, 1 at KCIS and 1 at ISF. I did look very seriously at CDNIS as I'm a Canadian from Ontario but their relatively low Mandarin hours caused me to look elsewhere.

HC

 

[HappyV]

I don't think it's an over the top comment. Find me a school that has consistently gained better results in an equally demanding curriculum - then we can have a debate about what is the best number of teaching hours - suffice to say that more is not always better. Any good teacher or student can tell you that.

I didn't say CDNIS' program was superior - I said it was easily equal to. I am sure that KCIS has a different approach - in fact, I know they do. I have seen examples of students' work in English - the teaching style certainly goes for the time honoured approach of 'more is better' - but there are other ways to learn and teach than can be equally effective.

Yew Chung certainly has a different approach to most other International Schools in HK. You couldn't pay me to speak to a child the way I have heard YC staff speak to their charges. Draconian doesn't even begin to describe it.

SIS does not have a track record in any matriculation, given that they are only now setting up their two year IB diploma program.

Different schools suit different children - I would imagine that's one reason why yours attend different schools. CIS is a great school; CDNIS is a great school; HKIS/GSIS/KCS/KCIS/ESF/DBS/DGS - all have their merits.

 

[howardcoombs]

I don't think it's an over the top comment. Find me a school that has consistently gained better results in an equally demanding curriculum - then we can have a debate about what is the best number of teaching hours - suffice to say that more is not always better. Any good teacher or student can tell you that.

I didn't say CDNIS' program was superior - I said it was easily equal to. I am sure that KCIS has a different approach - in fact, I know they do. I have seen examples of students' work in English - the teaching style certainly goes for the time honoured approach of 'more is better' - but there are other ways to learn and teach than can be equally effective.

We were discussing Mandarin specifically. Why are you branching off into KCIS and their English teaching methods???
We were discussing Mandarin specifically. Why are you asking me about "...that has consistently gained better results in an equally demanding curriculum"
Lets stay focused please

I'm a person who has been fluent in 5 different languages and a father of 3 tri-lingual kids. When it comes to learning a language, I say more is better. It seems that we are not going to agree on that fundamental issue. Meh!

Lastly, you keep going back to IB. Why do you keep harping on IB, IB results, lack of IB at SIS, IB scores at CIS etc
Its a method, its a yardstick, its the current edu-fashion.
IB says nothing about how well someone speaks, how well they pronounce, how well they articulate and their overall fluency in a given language. Its think its useless to look at IB scores when it comes language. With my kids, I look at how comfortable they are in speaking, reading, listening, humor, slang, metaphors, getting up and speaking in public, inflections and pronunciations etc etc.

I'm sorry, I still dont buy your main assertion that CDNIS Mandarin program is easily the equal of any in Hong Kong. Its a great school. It has lovely teachers and an excellent facilities; that does not currently extend to their Mandarin. It doesnt come close to at least 1/2 dozen schools in Hong Kong that have Mandarin as a top priority. Maybe 2013-2014, but certainly not today.

HC

 

[HappyV]

It's hardly branching off - you are calling the program limited based on language tuition at other schools. And I think it is entirely relevant to look not only at the number of hours, but also at teaching style and learning philosophy. I would remind you that it was you who mentioned SIS, KCIS, Yew Chung etc

"IB says nothing about how well someone speaks, how well they pronounce, how well they articulate and their overall fluency in a given language. Its think its useless to look at IB scores when it comes language. With my kids, I look at how comfortable they are in speaking, reading, listening, humor, slang, metaphors, getting up and speaking in public, inflections and pronunciations etc etc."

You just shown that you are ignorant when it comes to how language functionality and fluency is assessed in pretty much every curricula around the world, including the IB. For your information, IB Language B students are assessed on pretty much all the criteria that you mentioned, in both oral, aural and written tasks. A student's IB score is reflective of all the criteria you mentioned.

You are obviously happy with the education you children are getting. Why does it bother you so much that a school can gain exceptional international standing in what is univerally acknowledged to be a demanding, thorough, intense university preparation curriculum, by doing things differently than your children's schools?

I am also fluent in several languages, and I also have expertise in the research that studies best teaching practice for language acquisition. I reassert my previous statement that 'more is not always better', and that the assessment of the success of a language program should not be based solely on the number of hours of teaching instruction, but also on how student inquiry and learning is supported throughout the curriculum.

 

[howardcoombs]

You are obviously happy with the education you children are getting. Why does it bother you so much that a school can gain exceptional international standing in what is univerally acknowledged to be a demanding, thorough, intense university preparation curriculum, by doing things differently than your children's schools?

There are many schools that fit the description that you are giving and I have no affiliation with any of them and certainly am not bothered by that. Yes, I'm happy with my choices.

What does bother me is a wild claim that places CDNIS and its Mandarin programme in the same league with other top Mandarin schools in town. We are going to have to agree to disagree.

HC

 

[HappyV]

I think this is the case.

If any parents have questions about CDNIS I am happy to provide more information via PM.

 

[littleho]

Dear HC,

Since you have a kid in KCIS, what year is your kid doing now? My son is very lucky to be admitted by the school for the academic year beginning this September. The school has become more selective as a result of the strong demand.

Can you give me insights on the following apsects of KCIS?

1) Workload (Heavy?). I heard it has a lot of homeworks/projects as compared with most of the international schools. Can students handle the workload?
2) English standard as compared with other international schools
3) Creativity

Many thanks

Kind regards

Littleho

 

[howardcoombs]

I think this is the case. If any parents have questions about CDNIS I am happy to provide more information via PM.

You have, what I consider to be controversial opinions. Keeping them in a PM instead of in an open forum will certainly allow you to dispense them without challenge. Meh!

 

[howardcoombs]

Dear HC,

Since you have a kid in KCIS, what year is your kid doing now? My son is very lucky to be admitted by the school for the academic year beginning this September. The school has become more selective as a result of the strong demand.

Can you give me insights on the following apsects of KCIS?

1) Workload (Heavy?). I heard it has a lot of homeworks/projects as compared with most of the international schools. Can students handle the workload?
2) English standard as compared with other international schools
3) Creativity

I have 1 child currently attending P6.
I find the workload to be relatively light. She does between 30-60 mins per evening for normal school work. We supplement that with private Mandarin tutoring.

Almost all teachers are native English speakers and the standard of English is quite high. As she came from KCS (where there is very little English) her English was quite poor. She was able to come up to speed quite quickly.

Its a lovely school with caring teachers. I'm sure your child will enjoy it there.
HC

 

[HappyV]

You might disagree, but this does not make them controversial.