International or Local

M

mrs momo

Registered User
I can?t read and write any Chinese but my conversational Cantonese is very fluent. Should I enrol my baby in a local or international school? If I do decide on local, I will be sending my baby to Victoria for nursery and for international I will be choosing Woodlands. My husband is 100% HK Chinese so his English is only average. I converse mainly in English to my baby but when I am with my husband or his family, I would use both. I know it is very early to plan now but we are going to move because of schooling so I want to make the right choice. I have been told there is no turning back once I make my decision. My friends have advised me to choose local schools and save the money for tuition instead.

I want to be able to assist my baby in his homework. I do not mind the strict rigor of local schools and I do want my baby to learn Chinese but the thought of not being able to assist him in his daily schooling makes me feel hopeless. We have no intentions of leaving HK as we have a business here. What to do? :bawling: :bawling: :bawling:
 
hey Mrs. Momo,

It depends if your child wants to stay in HK, China or other countries after college.
But now the scenario is learning how to read, speak and write chinese are definitely an advantage. even my nephew who grew up in US has been travelling a lot to China for work.
My son is now studying in international school, but I am planning to hire a chinese teacher for him so that he can learn more chinese.

Hope this will help in your decision! (My son used to study at Victoria too!!)



csy
 
Hi Mrs Momo,

I have a somewhat similar situation here. My husband is not good in English and he really wants our daughter to go to international school so she'd have good English.

I can read, write and speak Chinese, but I don't feel my Chinese is good enough to teach my daughter, or help her with school work. So I'll insist that she goes to a local school where she could learn from her teacher and classmates. There are so many places where you can learn English outside a proper school I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Chinese is so difficult to learn, that I found myself lucky to learn it as a child. If you don't have certain level of Chinese, you wouldn't even be able to look up a word in a dictionary. And there are only 26 letters in the alphabet.

I think if I keep track of my daughter's progress, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. CSY definitely has her point about learning Chinese nowadays, and especially if you're not planning to leave HK in a short time.

Sandy
 
Mrs Momo, My son is in Victoria as well, and I think if you speak to some other locals, they would consider Victoria to be more International than local. Victoria is a bi-lingual school, so you have your choice of English/Cantonese or English/Putonghua. So your son in effect is getting his English reinforced as well as his chinese.

I don't agree that there is no going back, that is too much pressure to put on you right now. I don't foresee any problems of your child getting into an international school since Victoria will be IB school soon anyway. I agree with the comments of the importance of Chinese in the future. I honestly believe it is much easier to learn english from different mediums (books, audio, TV, DVD, computer, etc.) than to learn Chinese.
 
Hi All, thankyou for your replies. I do agree that English is much easier to learn than Chinese. My Mandarin is still so hopeless that I feel like a complete idiot when I am travelling with my husband to Taiwan and China. I guess I will take the local route :):):) mmm... the money that I will save seems fairly attractive too. I guess we will just get tutoring in kindergarten and pray that everything will workout.

Schooling is such a hassel in HK. I saw a little kid getting off a school bus tonight at 6, I wonder what time he finished. He goes to Victoria because I saw the sign on the bus and recognised his unitform. I would hate for my kid to sit on the school bus for more than an hr after school if he were being dropped off at the last stops. Now my next problem is moving to where, so we can get into a good local school. I have been told where you live will be taken into consideration for getting a place at a good school. Does that mean the school will judge your social status or they just prefer kids who stay nearby?
 
A quick question.... what about if we are both western and speak only very basic cantonese.
Our son is 2 and learns to speak basic cantonese also. We would really like him to learn chinese but is it ok to send him to a local preschool, will he be welcomed?
 
Hi Kiwi Family,

both my husband and i are fluent in both Cantonese and English. and we also feel the importance of chinese education when she's young, although i despise the rigor of local schools, so i'm very torn.

i'm only starting to look into this (daughter is 1y.o.), so i speak as someone who was schooled here, not as an experienced parent. i think any of the basic bilingual schools (like Victoria) would welcome you. as bilingual schools (which are most kindergartens nowadays anyways) have a mixture of both English and Chinese. While having the opportunity for you to communicate in English with the school, also has a chance for your son to learn Chinese. but it might be more difficult for you as he gets older, when the Chinese gets more complicated and he needs more help from you. maybe you can then get a tutor or outside help at that point ;-) i think it's great that you're trying to expose your son to learn this while he is young.
 
Hi moms out there,

It is somewhat a relief for me to see other moms having the same dilemma, local or international?? We are also trying to decide whether to send our baby to a local school or international school. And it seems like we have to decide very early, even in the pre-school stage. I heard the kids have to go through interviews to enter kindergarten and they have to be able to understand the language the kindergarten uses. For example, for an international school, they will interview the baby in English and for local school in Cantonese.

My question is can we still have both option opens once he goes to kindergarten? If we send the kid to a bi-lingual kindergarten like Victoria, will his English be good enough for international primary school (such as the ESF)? If we send the kid to an English only kindergarten, then will he still be able to go back to the local school stream, if everyone at home will speak to him in Chinese?

Since my husband and I still don't know which stream we want our baby to follow, we now have trouble deciding which language to use at home, English, Chinese or a mix of both??? It seems so ridiculous! :frown:
 
one of you should speak one language and the other should speak the second language.

my son is 19 months. my hubby is local, i'm canadian. my husband speaks to my son in cantonese and i speak to him in english (mostly). my helper speaks to him in english and my parents-in-law speak to him in cantonese.

now he understands both languages equally. he's just starting to speak himself. somethings he says in english and others in chinese.

as for schooling....i have the same dilemma. i want my son to know both languages. but i WILL NOT have him go to a local school. i have tutored privately for the past 11 years(among other things). i have seen what the local system can do to a child. i do not want to do that to my son. (this is my personal opinion, and i dont judge those who choose otherwise. everyone has their reasons for their choices based on what they think is best for their child). however, we cannot afford an international school.
the other thing is i have no intention of sending my son to school before he's 4 years old. so, no pre-kindergarten for him.

i think hubby and i are seriously considering a move back to canada by the time our son is old enough to go to school.
 
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.
 
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!
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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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?
 
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!
 
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!
 
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!
 
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