BILINGUAL

Darth

原帖由 lsftsang 於 10-6-25 11:11 發表
Other than IS, are there any local schools (kinder) provide bilingual environment for the kids? Or I have to stick with IS? Thx.

Actually, no IS is genuinely bilingual. So, if you want bilingual education, IS should not be your choice anyway.

[ 本帖最後由 Darth 於 10-6-28 00:01 編輯 ]

Darth

原帖由 iamfine 於 10-6-29 11:28 發表

They are thousands of bilingual schools in this world.  What makes HK so different that "genuine" bilingual schools become a rarity, if not an impossibility.  Have HK parents been subjected to some unknown radiation that they have to blindly worship English and believe that their kids must give up some Chinese to learn English?  What's so special about English?  It's one of the easiest language to learn.  Obviously we are living in different worlds (phew...)  Sons and daughters of people I know see no difficulty in becoming truly bilingual/tri-lingual/multi-lingual.

Ooooo!

Did my message give you the impression that I worship English? Did my message give you the impression that I think English is special?

I have only stated a fact: I am sorry to say so but unfortunately, I do not see any international school being able to provide a curriculum that is truly bilingual. Most students that are eventually bilingual were able to achieve a somewhat close to bilingual level because they were once from local schools and have really good Chinese language foundation.

International schools teach in English. Only very little time is used in teaching Chinese. I know some people think that since their sons or daughters are learning Chinese at school, they are proudly saying they are bilingual. But I would not be lying to myself. If my 15 year old child is learning Chinese using Book Two of Chinese Made Easy, I would not be so proud to say he is a bilingual person.

Hong Kong is an interesting place. I know a few local schools are providing Japanese and/or French classes at as young as P 3, as a third language class.  Parents are happy and schools become popular. Honestly, even elite schools like DGS do not have the guts to introduce a yet another language until secondary school. In any case, that is the market here: the more the better. Or in some ways parents prefer kids to be "jacks of all languages".

I have lots of friends that are multilingual. It is very common for western people to know at least 2 to 3 languages. I myself know French and Spanish too. But I guess a lot of other parents would agree that these are languages that are a lot more easy to learn than Chinese.

Obviously, we are indeed in different worlds. You are living in a hostile world.

[ 本帖最後由 Darth 於 10-6-29 12:40 編輯 ]

Darth

原帖由 Mighty 於 10-6-29 12:40 發表
I think you both have points.  It also depends on how you elaborate the meaning of being bilingual.  If one has to speak/write/read relatively well in 2 languages, then I think Darth was right.  Howev ...

Of course, it is arguable as to how good you need to be in Chinese to be a bilingual person. However, generally, I do not believe being merely able to speak would be it.

Further, since we are talking about school education, when people asked about "bilingual" education, I think be are talking about at least some academic qualification.

As far as I know, most people that eventually get a bilingual IB diploma (taking both English and Chinese A) did not stay in the same IS from P1.

Darth

原帖由 iamfine 於 10-6-29 12:48 發表
Question of the Day:

Who will tend to think that local Chinese students can't learn both Chinese and English well?

My answer:

Stop being hostile.

Darth

原帖由 iamfine 於 10-6-29 12:42 發表
And, isn't it strange that gweilos are more fond of Chinese these days?  It's the very local HK Chinese who tend to belittle their own language and culture, and to overstate the difficulty of learning English and Chinese.

It is again interesting seeing people jump and clap their hands when a Gweilo speak some chinese.

Darth

So, FIS is not genuinely bilingual; nor is GSIS. And SIS/RC/ISF don't know what they are doing.

I though we were talking about bilingual in Chinese+English. I do not believe FIS and GSIS have emphasis in Chinese.

I do not know SIS much, I would not comment. But what I know is they are teaching in English adn students use mostly English at school.

In RC, there are 3 levels of chinese classes. However, most students are still in the "foreign language" or "second language" chinese classes. Still want to say they are bilingual, huh.

ISF is trying hard to be a truly bilingual. But I guess they need to think of a curriculum and can (1) brush up non Chinese people's Chinese skills and (2) brush up Chinese people's (that know so little English) English skills. Two tasks to run at the same time. Good luck to them.

[ 本帖最後由 Darth 於 10-6-29 13:35 編輯 ]