Kindergarterns that will produce fluent mandarin speakers (besides KCS)

[kahling]

Hi

Besides KCS are there any other kindergartens that would enable a child to be fluent in Mandarin by the time they graduate to Primary?

There seems to be a number of bi-lingual ones eg, woodlands, IMS, Tutor time but not sure if they produce fluent mandarin speakers..

Thank you.

 

[funkyrascals]

In my experience, Kingston International. Of course, not everyone is fluent. It depends on the support at home - after all, kids are only in kindergarten 3 hours a day. However, my son is Eurasian and we do not speak Mandarin at home. He is now in P1 and his Mandarin is pretty fluent. Not native, obviously stronger in English but his Mandarin exceeds my expectations by far. My younger son, 2 and 9 months, speaks native in English and recently started speaking in sentences in Mandarin. This is with parents who cannot speak Mandarin. Obviously their classmates with parents who can speak Mandarin are much better.

 

[jackie0]

Agree with funnymommy that it really depends on the support at home. If you pick up Mandarin as your child is learning the language at school, it really helps make learning Mandarin more meaningful and fun.
IMS is a good bi-lingual school, and has a strong Mandarin program. PIPS is also another good bi-lingual school in addition to the ones you mentioned, kahling.
Hope this is helpful!!

 

[kahling]

Thanks for your replies. I will look more into IMS. PIPS and Kingston are too far from my home. Does anyone know much about the 100% Mandarin classes at Woodlands Pok Fu Lam. It started last year and currently they have about 4-5 kids in the class....

 

[talk2amy]

My kids have been in Kingston since they were 2 and are now in P2. They are fluent in Mandarin despite us being an English speaking family. I am now struggling to find a secondary school that will enable them to continue in a truly bilingual environment. Most schools just teach Mandarin as a subject rather than use mandarin as a medium of instruction (which in my view makes all the difference).

The only downside to Kingston is that the campus is tiny, classrooms are small and they have no swanky facilities but it is faultless as far as their Mandarin curriculum is concerned.