有冇家長后侮選了國際學校，而非傳統小學？

shadeslayer

原帖由 NLai 於 13-04-28 發表
Sorry,我理解有限。看了，我覚得完全離題呀！香港有好多不同的國際學校，有D真係得個名，D學生D英文真係:to ...

仲有D學生係中學才入國際學校的，在口音上已很難改。

Xxx

本地有名英文好的女校，中學生無乜香港音我也聽過。

shadeslayer

原帖由 Littleho 於 13-04-28 發表
I have two kids studying in IS and I have thus far no regret for making the decisions. The teaching  ...

Chinese as good as locals is a very high target for IS students. I am sure others here including me would be very interested to know how you achieve that if it is not endless tuition classes.

shadeslayer

原帖由 hkparent 於 13-04-28 發表
知否林鄭、鄭x樺、葉劉等是否有名女校出身？她們都有港音。

我不是說每位讀本地女校也沒有香港音。大部份有香港音，少部份沒有。

shadeslayer

原帖由 Littleho 於 13-04-28 發表
There is no other more efficient way than studying in the right school . Second, family must encoura ...

Thanks. Mainland standard of Chinese is even higher than HK standard. So those kids's Chinese are better than local school students. That is very impressive considering iS students typically spend much more time speaking and using English than Beijing or HK students.

shadeslayer

原帖由 Littleho 於 13-04-28 發表
From P2 onwards , they use local textbooks . There are also 背默，讀默，reading reports , but the wo ...

Gifted in languages. Of course it is easy for your child. How much of your child's case can be applicable to ordinary children who form 98% of the population?

Ordinary people achieving both Chinese and English at first language level has always been very very few. Ordinary people spend most of their time on the first language and part time on a secondary language, thereby achieving first language proficiency. Ordinary people spending half of their language time on Chinese and the other half on English and yet achieve both languages at first language level is exceedingly difficult.  This means they need to spend less time than other people and yet achieve the same proficiency level, in both English and Chinese.

Don't forget these bilingual children have to do all other subject like everyone else.

shadeslayer

原帖由 HKTHK 於 13-04-28 發表
回復 Littleho 的帖子

Would be keen to learn how these kids develop over time on their language abil ...

I share the same concern with you that all the finance companies and management consulting firms don't really look at candidates without fluent Mandarin

Xxxx

You use that in present tense so I assume  you talk about present situation.

From years of actual experience working for a European bank, guess what is the one must-have criteria which is consistently not being met by mainland candidates when we hired staff running the China operation? Do you know how much Chinese the top bosses running HK, Taiwan and China operation know?

PS. They have operation in China for tens of years already.

shadeslayer

That's why I started with saying you used present tense so I like to share a "present" situation. Remember, that particular bank has operated in China long before the cultural revolution.

Don't get me wrong, i think Chinese is important for my child's education, but I won't get "better" Chinese at the expense of everything else.  If you look into the future, yes, Chinese can only become more important, but at what rate?  May be we can take a look at the field of science for inspiration.  

Building skyscrapers is easy. However, ten or twenty or thirty years is not a lot of time in terms of education and improving soft skills of a nation.

shadeslayer

原帖由 HKTHK 於 13-04-28 發表
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BTW, my guess would be they lack integrity and the head of China today some ...

The China management based in China has more HK, Singaporean and expats than Chinese.  They all obviously have fluent English, Chinese or not. The regional management based in HK and Singapore who manage greater China region knows practical zero Chinese.

Even junior positions they hire in China "requires" English. People who speaks conversational English can ask for double the salary compared to Chinese only candidates.  Again this is present. God knows how this will change.

shadeslayer

The bank I referred to is a foreign ibank. Fact is, if you work for a foreign MNC, English is still the business language. It does not matter whether it is China, Indonesia or Pakistan, they need almost everyone to know English well. Of course if you work for local or Chinese banks, the de facto language is therefore Chinese/Mandarin.  But as a HK person without Mainland connections and you want to be successful in a mainland Chinese corporation, good luck.  After all, the society don't need everyone to work for MNCs and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Like I said, the company I refer to, the greater China management team has no mainland Chinese and most of them do not know a word of Chinese.  Will foreign ibanks, commercial banks or MNCs change their business language to Chinese/Mardarin, and when?  I don't know.  Your guess is as good as mine.


I did not say your children gain better Chinese at the expense of everything else.  I said I would not want my child to gain "better" Chinese at the expense of everything else.  Don't get me wrong, I do want my child to achieve as good Chinese as possible within reasons, given she is not gifted.  

Of course the university you attend is more important than secondary school, which is more important than primary school.  But primary & secondary schools have a much bigger impact in shaping who you really are deep down.  The broad character of a child is basically formed before entering university. Local or International curriculum do make a difference.

shadeslayer

What made you think I am naive about IS?

Are you saying parents do not need to be concerned about moral standards as behavior if the children study in LS?

I have seen countless number of cases where IS children achieve first language level English but speak straightly Cantonese at home. What is the problem?

shadeslayer

原帖由 HKTHK 於 13-04-29 發表
回復 Littleho 的帖子

I am aware of that but I am not sure what is your point though?  Depending on  ...

I am also scratching my head on the point being made here by littleho.  Bilingual people are more intelligent?  Everybody can develop multilingual ability if we want to?  To what level?  First language level for multiple languages?

shadeslayer

原帖由 Littleho 於 13-04-29 發表
By the way , there is only one bilingual school in Hong Kong

I have read bilingual education books and i do know about bilingual immersion. I agree it sounds like an interesting idea.  But my book did not tell me if bilingual immersion would produce balanced bilinguals.

I am not sure if you are right that there is only one bilingual school in HK. There may be other bilingual immersion schools in HK, SIS, KCIS or even CKY.

I do know that there is one school who are very keen on being a bilingual school.  How well it works? I am not sure. Do most students achieve balanced bilingual capability both at first language level?  No idea.

shadeslayer

What is very interesting is that parents can make their own (crude) bilingual immersion program by doing LS in Chinese primary (say 80% Chinese, 20% English) and keep their children's English sharp by home schooling, then switch to a good IS at year 7 (say 80% English and 20% Chinese) and keep their Chinese sharp by home schooling.

Of course this demands parents to have good language proficiency themselves and have adequate financial means.

shadeslayer

HKTHK

Only one I own: 香港雙語現象探索，盧丹懷。

shadeslayer

Littleho 發表於 13-4-29 22:25
回復 shadeslayer 的帖子

There are growing Westerners sending their kids to local schools. Take a lo ...

Again, I am not sure what you are getting at.  You want to switch your child to a local school because of Chinese?

Nobody would argue against the importance of Chinese.  Foreigners wanting their kids to learn Chinese in HK is like Chinese parents wanting their kids to learn English in the UK or the US.


But have you watched the RTHK program not long ago about how difficult it is for foreigners to learn Chinese in local schools.  Most of the kids in the program were giving up.

shadeslayer

HKTHK 發表於 13-4-29 22:50
回復 shadeslayer 的帖子

Hmm, I think technically doable but only if the child only sleeps 8 hrs a d ...

The interesting thing with studying in a Chinese primary and wanting to keep English sharp is that the only pre-requisite is "extensively" reading English books from a young age.  Which is quite easy to do given the wide spectrum of interesting English books.  With some listening/oral practice by watching TV or parents speaking to them some of the time (eg Saturday).  Some parents can even give children reading time as "relaxing" activities, no work load needed.  I have seen some successful cases like this.

shadeslayer

It is not about whether or not a person is smart.  If we assume if all else the same, the IS/western students know what questions to ask (the way HKTHK put it).  Local/Asian student know the answers.

This means local students are more suitable for a professional career, while the IS people tend to be better management or creative people.  Of course this is at the risk of stereotyping, and there are many vice versa cases.  But I think it is generally true.

shadeslayer

原帖由 EASTCOAST 於 13-05-16 發表
With the increase of IS school fee consistently in the coming years, coupled with economic downturn, ...

人生的事邊預料得咁多。選校不一定要選國際，但一定要選好學校。良好的教育是一生有用的。

人生便是解決一個接一個的難題，睇開D。