Primary School in English AND Cantonese????

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MamaBearTo3

New member
We're moving to HK from the US at the end of the year. I would like to send my elementary kids to a school where they can learn Cantonese, and continue with mastering English. ESF schools offer instruction in Mandarin, but not Cantonese. Am I limited to the local goverment schools, and could my kids even get in? Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thanks!
 
Most, if not all (may be forgetting something), international schools offer Mandarin to some extent. Could be quite minimal to quite extensive (like SIS, CIS, ISF, KCIS, etc.). Cantonese is taught at local schools. There are English Medium of Instruction (EMI) local schools and I am pretty sure they'll do Cantonese there as well (as there will be quite a lot of Cantonese speakers anyway). Advantages is that the local system is quite cheap (cost are close to nothing) while international schools can be quite expensive. I don't know anything about applying for local (or EMI) schools, how hard it is, etc. There are many very popular local schools too. However, international school places are also very very hard to find. The schooling situation is far from ideal in Hong Kong and many people, especially newcomers, struggle to find places for their children. The more flexible you are in terms of schools the better (the most popular ones are ESF, HKIS, FIS, GSIS, CDNIS, SIS, ISF, CIS, etc.). There are other (international) options, especially in the New Territories. Whatever you decide, don't put all your eggs in one basket, because you may be empty handed. Especially lower Primary is very hard. HTH.
 
MamaBearTo3 said:
We're moving to HK from the US at the end of the year. I would like to send my elementary kids to a school where they can learn Cantonese, and continue with mastering English. ESF schools offer instruction in Mandarin, but not Cantonese. Am I limited to the local goverment schools, and could my kids even get in? Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated!
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No, you are not limited to government schools.
There are a number of private Cantonese schools out there catering to those who wish to have private schooling but in Cantonese language. One that I am familiar with and would recommend is an organisation called LingNan : Lingnan Primary School and Kindergarten
There are many others but we picked Lingnan for our kids due to proximity.

ESF does not offer anything in Cantonese. If you wish to have a Cantonese education or exposure, you will need to go with a government school (or DSS) or a private institution.
 
Thanks, MommyTo3.

I'm quite concerned about the schools -- most of the message boards indicate how difficult it is to get in, and yet our HR VP (who lived just across the border in China from HK, but spent time in HK a few years ago) keeps telling us that it won't be a problem..... We'll just have to be flexible.
 
Your HR VP is correct - if you are flexible then there is no shortage of schools.
Most of the posts you are seeing are from expats who refuse to consider Local, DSS, non-International and non-ESF type schools.
 
Thanks, Howard. Can you tell me, did your children speak Cantonese before you enrolled them in LingNan? Do you find that the teachers are willing to spend extra time with them to develop their Cantonese ability? Are the private schools as rigorous and demanding as the public schools -- I've read about kids having hours of homework each night. If I'm searching for a private school which offers Cantonese and English, I would search for EMI private schools, correct? Thanks for your help!
 
I have 3 kids and we are 2 western parents. No one in the family spoke Cantonese nor Mandarin before the kids went to Lingnan. The kids were able to start speaking after about 6 months in the school.
The teachers were very helpful but really didnt spend any extra time with my kids. Kids are just sponges and they picked things up pretty quickly.

Every school is different, some are very traditional (repetition and homework) and some are more progressive (more play, more relaxed and less homework) and some in between. You will need to visit them and find out more about them. Lingnan is in the middle.

If you are considering Chinese education, you have to accept the fact that your child will get a fairly large amount of homework in early years and most of it will be repetition to learn characters. You just cannot learn all those characters by playing and relaxing :-)
 
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