Mandarin courses for children in China

[mumofone]

I feel whilst my western children from the UK are learning mandarin 4 times a week plus 2 extra home lessons they would benefit from doing a week mandarin course actually in China. Has anyone done this with their children and has any recommendations? My youngest would be 8yrs and looking to do it perhaps Easter next year.

Many thanks.

 

[penguinsix]

We took our kids to Shenzhen for a few weeks a Summer ago and enrolled them in a private international school up there in the hopes they would pick up some Mandarin. It did not go well. The students already had a cohesive group and we wary of a new person, the teaching style was significantly different from what your children may be accustomed to, the facilities while 'nice' were not quite upto the standards you'd find in Hong Kong. Generally the experience did very little to help our kids Mandarin. In fact, it probably hurt as it showed how behind they were in that language vs. their counterparts up there who speak nothing but Mandarin. Our kids self-confidence took a bit of a blow.

Last Summer we opted instead of a Mandarin day-camp at their HK international school. This was much better in that our child was with people he knew (or saw around the school) and he was in an environment he was familiar with. He ended up improving a great deal, and was speaking it at home more often than anytime in the past. He's gone into school this year feeling much more at ease than he was last year, when he was very nervous.

There are some places that cater to international students in Shanghai and I've heard good things about a few in Taiwan. Not sure what we'll do next Summer. One of the things we discovered was his own self-confidence was very important to him using a second language, and being in an environment where he was constantly reminded that he wasn't a native speaker was problematic.

 

[mumofone]

Mandarin courses for children in China?

We took our kids to Shenzhen for a few weeks a Summer ago and enrolled them in a private international school up there in the hopes they would pick up some Mandarin. It did not go well. The students already had a cohesive group and we wary of a new person, the teaching style was significantly different from what your children may be accustomed to, the facilities while 'nice' were not quite upto the standards you'd find in Hong Kong. Generally the experience did very little to help our kids Mandarin. In fact, it probably hurt as it showed how behind they were in that language vs. their counterparts up there who speak nothing but Mandarin. Our kids self-confidence took a bit of a blow.

Last Summer we opted instead of a Mandarin day-camp at their HK international school. This was much better in that our child was with people he knew (or saw around the school) and he was in an environment he was familiar with. He ended up improving a great deal, and was speaking it at home more often than anytime in the past. He's gone into school this year feeling much more at ease than he was last year, when he was very nervous.

There are some places that cater to international students in Shanghai and I've heard good things about a few in Taiwan. Not sure what we'll do next Summer. One of the things we discovered was his own self-confidence was very important to him using a second language, and being in an environment where he was constantly reminded that he wasn't a native speaker was problematic.

Thank you so much for your honest insight. Its good to hear that this may not necessarily be the best route for us. I'm not sure my children's school would be offering any intensive mandarin programme. Would you mind sharing with me either on here or privately which international they went to for this course. Please do keep me posted with any further ideas or information you receive on this.

Thank you once again. I hope I may hear from other parents on this topic.

 

[penguinsix]

Thank you so much for your honest insight. Its good to hear that this may not necessarily be the best route for us. I'm not sure my children's school would be offering any intensive mandarin programme. Would you mind sharing with me either on here or privately which international they went to for this course. Please do keep me posted with any further ideas or information you receive on this.

Thank you once again. I hope I may hear from other parents on this topic.

Our son is at HKIS where they have a Summer Mandarin program for younger students. I think there is also a Summer Mandarin program at CIS, but we opted for HKIS as it was more 'familiar' to him and he was able to concentrate more on studying than a new environment.