speak cantonese at home but study in IS

popolung

1. ESF Kinder doesn't need interview at all. If you and your kids hold overseas passport and birth certificate you will have priority.

2. I agree we need to teach kid chinese as we are all chinese. But to speak to them with Eng and watch eng tv is simply becuase some IS will need to interview your kid in pure English, and they need to know if your kid can understand english good enough to learn in P1 onward. I think you need to accept the rules of the game first, otherwise please don't consider IS as you may not be able to fulfil their min requirment.

3. Remember, the 1st priority student is expat, not local HK people. So if we want our kids to get in IS, like ESF, better you prepare them to soak in a at least 80-90% English environment

4. Of course, once your kid has a place in IS prmary school, switch them back to talk to them in Chinese, take them to have some more Chinese lesson. For ESF, you can do this switch at 4 which I think it is not too late.

Just my 2 cents. Remember, if you can't give a good Eng environment to your kid, or if you think you can't teach them good english, please re-consider actually what you need. You can't get the best of both sides, and you are hurting your children by giving them "semi-salty water" to drink. If your kid can't speak good english and got fail out from IS interview, can you (or your kid) afford to go back to local school and face the "Duck-feeding) kind of educational system?? Think Think!

popolung

原帖由 BabyMiMi 於 09-2-5 23:08 發表
One of my friend' gal and my son do not hold any overseas passport but are accepted by ESF this yr.  However, my another friend's son who holds an overseas passport is in the waiting list.  So, I thin ...

ESF Kinder or Primary you are talking about?

popolung

原帖由 Ruby1219 於 09-2-7 22:49 發表
I had the same 'methodology' as popolung.

My son is now in IS Year 4 already. Both me and my husband are home grown Hongkies. We speak fluent  but not very good English. We talked to our son is Engli ...

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Thanks for proving my concept to be right, as my daughter is only K2 now. Though she can speak not bad Cantonese now (but I think she can't read Chinese at all as I intentionally don't teach her now) but still 80-90% she is speaking English. Once Y1 interview process finish I will gradually switch back to more Chinese / Cantonese focus, and hope I can do it just like what you said.

popolung

原帖由 Ruby1219 於 09-2-8 11:47 發表
popolung,

Wish you success!
Surely you will face difficulty and the process won't be smooth. The kids would hesitate to talk to you in Cantonese. I think English is much easier to master.
Besides  ...

actually she can now master Cantonese quite well, but I guess the most difficult part is read and then write....... right?   Anyway this is what we choose and hope will not be too hard to do it. Thanks again!

popolung

原帖由 wcllks 於 09-2-10 22:34 發表
popolung and Ruby,

I also adopt the same "methodology." My kid is now in ESF primary. If I had to make a choice, I would make the same one

My daughter can speak both English and Cantonese fluen ...

Yes, my daughter in K2 already "fix" my pronouncation too, and will try my best to start to teach her better Chinese, though not easy.  

Today I started "testing water" by asking her: "later on I willl take you to learn more Chinese as it is a lot of fun" and you know what she said: "hmmm, better not"......

So it is a no easy path, but I will try my best, but at the same time, I will not push. Just try to make it happen, naturally! Once they really find sometimes fun in Chinese they will stick their head there sooner or later. I still think for us in HK it is easier to teach them Chinese ourselves than teach them English, at least we can read and write better.