Bi lingual Vs Immersion at KG level

[applesmom]

Hi

What is the difference between Bi Lingual and Immersion program regards to Mandarin teaching in an international Kindergarten environment here.

For a non Chinese speaking family, which is relatively better for the kid as we can not support at home.

if a school provides 30 minutes of mandarin (out of 3 hrs of KIndy session), it comes under which category of the above two(bi lingual or immersion)

thanks

 

[howardcoombs]

30 minutes doesnt come close to bilingual or immersion.
Bilingual implies close or equal teaching. Immersion implies 80%+ in the target language.
30 minutes is just a waste of time and will not get you to any amount of fluency.

If you cannot support a child at home with tutors then I would not bother going down the route at all.

 

[Jomama1]

For a true bilingual school, there should be two teachers present in class at all time. (one from each language). This is how my son's kindy does it, like most bilingual schools i know.

For immersion purposes, you might consider putting your child in a good local kindy with support from the school who has experience with non-Chinese speaking students. However, you must also consider where you want your child to study in primary onwards. In HK, the type of kindy leads to a certain type of primary, which leads to a certain type of secondary and so on and so forth. That's why there's this whole stress on putting the kids in the right kindergarten...

 

[applesmom]

Thank you very much for both of you for your time. Understood the difference. Thanks.

 

[Gabriel ma]

That's how a local KG define Bilingual Immersion Programs:
Learning Habitat