International or Local

[Jonathanmommy]

Hi Carang,

My husband and I were going to do the 1 language for each person thing but we have come across some difficulties.

Since we both speak Chinese, it is hard for me to stick to speaking only English to the baby. Even if I speak to him in only English, he will hear me speak in Cantonese to my husband, grandparents, and even the maid. Will it be too confusing for the baby to understand why everyone speaks in Cantonese and mommy speaks to him in a strange language?

Because of this situation, we are thinking of speaking to him only in Cantonese now and then send him to a 100% English speaking pre-school and kindergarten.

Do you think it will work?? Would love to hear your opinion.

My baby is now almost 8 months and I feel like the longer we delay making the decision on the language situation, the harder it will be for him to adapt later.

 

[carang]

it won't be any more confusing than it is for my son.

i speak english to him(mostly). and a mixture of english & cantonese to my husband (i'm trying hard to learn!)

hubby speaks cantonese to him (mostly...occasionally he slips in english)

helper speaks mostly english with a little cantonese & tagalog

in-laws ONLY speak cantonese.

the thing is, with so many languages, his verbal skills are only starting to develop. but he understands both languages equally. i don't think that it will confuse him as he will hear cantonese all around him.

the earlier you introduce languages, the better!

 

[mrs momo]

i agree with carang, my brother speaks to my nephew in english and my sister in law speaks in mandarin. my mum would speak in cantonese and he seems to understand all three. however he would normally reply in english and mandarin as he spends more time with his parents and only sees his grandma once or twice a week.

 

[snow51193]

Dear Mrs Momo

Although many local schools offer English and Mandarin classes, the learning environment is still predominantly in Cantonese which is the dialect only useful in Canton areas, in comparison English and Mandarin are far more useful and thus important. If you send your kids to International school, they will be fluent in both, at least English for sure. Also the learning environment is better as Western education method emphasis on creative thinking and personal development rather than memorise things to pass exams, they don't have to suffer the pain and pressure from local education system. However on the hand, international school has it's own curriculum, which is easier then local curriculum and is not designed for passing the exams to local University. So if you plan to send your kids to overseas for Uni, personally I think international school is a better option.

 

[run4fun]

Dear Mrs. Momo and all mommies,

I don’t know whether I have made the right decision by sending my son to the traditional stream of KCS, but here are my reasonings behind:

(1) Studies from Dr. Montessori reveals that children are most receptive to languages at their age around 2-3. During this window period, they pick up languages without much effort. Everything seems “native” to them. They speak without accent. The window period of language skills end at around the age of 5. Languages acquired after their window periods are their “second languages”. I think children should be placed in an environment where they could be exposed to both Chinese and English before the age of five. After the age of five, they have a stable school environment, but since the schools in HK are either English or Chinese based, the question for me boils down to – whether I am more confident teaching my son Chinese or English at home, while he learns the other at school.

(2) Now I myself went to the traditional stream of KCS from kindergarten to primary. After that, I attended the ESF for several years before permanently transferred to the US for high school and university. Thanks to my mom, because of this dramatic educational path, I can read and write Mandarin, Cantonese and English fluently. I appreciate my education at KCS because only 6 years of Chinese there last me a lifetime. I can’t write legal contracts in Chinese today but I have no problem reading them. I traveled to the mainland and Taiwan and people think that I am a native Mandarin speaker.

(3) The most difficult period was the transition from a complete Chinese local school to an English school. I did struggled. But those painful years didn’t last for too long. I still thank my parents tremendously for their decision. Knowing the pitfalls of this path, I now need to make sure that my sons could keep up with his English while he is in a local Chinese school. To me, that’s a zillion times easier than the other way round.

(4) I really don’t think we should limit ourselves by thinking that choosing either English or Chinese school is making a “point-of-no-return” decision. It is true that it might be a bit difficult to switch, but if there is a will, there is a way. My 2 sisters who went through a similar path as mine both did outstandingly in schools and both went on to Ivy Leagues and landed great jobs. I guess what more important than grades and schools are - strong characters and right attitudes.

 

[bbc mom]

I had originally planned on taking the international route, but having read all your posts and hearing both sides I seem to be reconsidering my options.

I would like my son to learn cantonese, after all he is living in HK and even if we did return to the UK he would still have the option to come back to HK to live/work in the future. However my main concern is being unable to help him as he’s not in a cantonese speaking environment at home.

I also regret that our own parents never taught us cantonese but instead we grew up speaking their rural chinese dialect and english. I picked up cantonese after arriving in HK but it is still quite poor. My husband’s cantonese is a lot better since he converses in it daily at work, but I wouldn’t say it is fluent since there is obviously a lot of vocabulary he is not familiar with. Another concern is proper pronounciation/accent, since the locals usually know that we are from overseas and not native.

I noted in a few of the posts that at least one parent is native. What if neither parent is completely fluent in cantonese (spoken, reading and written)? Could my son become fluent just by attending a bilingual school?
Private tuition could also be an option, but how often would he need it?

 

[Vrindavan]

Sales Tax on Education Spending

http://www.geobaby.com/forum/thread119264.html

 

[Hagrid]

I'm so torn by this question and kept changing my mind for the past year. Now that my son is 2, I really need to decide...

I'm more inclined to the local route and run4fun has made a pretty convincing case from someone who has been there. I have heard a lot of good comments for KCS but we'll need to travel for about an hour if I want to send my son there. On the other hand, there is an ESF just 15 min from home. I now understand why people relocate to get closer to a good school network.

The other concern I have is that if I send my son to a local school now and later decide it doesn't suit him, is it difficult to get him a place in ESF? My son speaks pretty good english already but neither myself or my husband graduated from ESF and I worry that the other international school would be too expensive. Any comment would be much appreciated!

 

[Jonathanmommy]

I heard most local schools now put a lot of emphasis on Mandarin as well (i.e. the Chinese language classes are taught in Putonghua instead of Cantonese).

We have been debating whether to send our baby to local school vs international ever since he was born. We still haven't completely decided but we are more inclined to send him to the local stream. I think learning Chinese in school is probably much better than us teaching him at home. I haven't really seen any successful case where a kid goes to international school and still manage to learn Chinese very well at home. My niece and nephew both goes to English school and now they only want to speak English. But they are 100% Chinese and born and raised in Hong Kong! It is a bit absurd that they feel embarrassed to speak Cantonese!

For parents who are not fluent in Chinese, you can always hire a tutor. It is not so hard to find Chinese tutor who moved to Hong Kong from Mainland China. They can teach in Mandarin and their Chinese standard is much better than local Hong Kong people anyway.

On the other hand, it is much easier to increase the kids' exposure to the English language. Esp. if you send them to study overseas later on, they will pick up the language easily. My husband didn't go to the US until he finished high school (local school) in Hong Kong. But after spending several years there, he now speaks fluently without any Hong Kong accent at all.

Anyway, I think it is such a big decision and I hope to make a good one for my baby. So it is really great to hear all the comments from parents so I can get different opinions. Thanks!

 

[mrs momo]

after some more discussion with my husband and friends who work for the EMB, we will most likely put our son thru the local stream. however i still have the following questions and i hope some of you can answer them.

1) is the local curriculum much more difficult then most overseas curriculums. the reason why i have raise this question is because i remember friends who used to fail badly in hk (eg in maths and science particularly) did very well when they got to australia. i remember this from high school.

2) if we decide to switch back to international, is it easy to get into if we have the $$$. Ii have always belived that as long as you have the $$$ you can definitely get a place. i know ESF will be harder but other international schools seems to be very $$$ focused. pls correct me if this is a misconception.

3) for international schools, i also have the belive that some of the kids are not that fluent in english and their cantonese is way better than their english. is that another misconception?

thanks!