Spoken English at CKY

clifflam

My friend's daughter is studying at CKY. Her written English is good but spoken English sucks.  Is it a common phenomenon for students at CKY?

sschiu

Unbelievable! Students have so many opportunities to speak English at school and have to do presentations in English frequently. Perhaps she is just too shy or she really needs extra help then.

clifflam

Hi sschiu, your understanding is correct when we compare with students at LS.  Yet the real english speaking opportunities at CKY may not be as many as you and I expected, based on my understanding from my friend's daughter and what my spouse observed on CKY's open day.

fatgoat

如果担心这个问題，乾脆讀国际学校好了。

sschiu

Hi clifflam, bear in mind most of these children speak Cantonese at home and they are learning English as a second language. The student mix is not what it is like in international schools. Also, CKY is a "bilingual school", not an English-medium school like ESF. The school wants students to aquire high standard of English and Putonghua at the same time. Therefore, the students are speaking a mixture of Cantonese, Putonghua and English in the school. Hope it explains a bit.

clifflam

fatgoat 發表於 13-5-26 06:39
如果担心这个问題，乾脆讀国际学校好了。

Disagreed. CKY is an IB School, isn't it!?

clifflam

Hi sschiu, yes what you said is right and also clarifies to some parents who might have had a misperception CKY is "nearly" international. Thanks for sharing!

siubchumama

回復 clifflam 的帖子

It may varies from class to class..
I had a couple of times with the kids (in my girl's class) outside school. They normally only speak English or Putonghua, and a lot of my friends agreed that they cannot distingush their English with international school students.

However, I also heard from some of the parents in CKY that the kids speak cantonese in school when teachers are not there.

I think it varies from class to class, for most of the cases I encountered, they always speak English (much more prefer than putonghua) even when they were playing outside school (i.e. Birthday party)

just my observation....

kunggi201

CKY’s vision is: “In our school, every kid is good at something.”

It doesn’t say: “In our school, every kid is good at English speaking.”

kyliema2006

良莠不齊有何其。問題是高水準的水平如何，水平差的又如何。以我所見，spoken english整體上是不錯的。但每班也有些唔多講英語的學生。

學校係一個環境，都要靠家庭的配合。

clifflam

siubchumama 發表於 13-5-27 09:42
回復 clifflam 的帖子

It may varies from class to class..

I see. Thanks for sharing your observation.  

clifflam

kunggi201 發表於 13-5-27 14:20
CKY’s vision is: “In our school, every kid is good at something.”

It doesn’t say: “In our scho ...

Thanks for your quality response.....

clifflam

kyliema2006 發表於 13-5-27 19:07
良莠不齊有何其。問題是高水準的水平如何，水平差的又如何。以我所見，spoken english整體上是不錯的。但每 ...

Agreed. Self-discipline is also crucial in language learning.

catyoyo

Yes, while we are cantonese speaking family, my son and his classmates only talked in English even when doing their group project at my home during holiday, as well as their field trip, in order to follow the ECECE rule. But it heard that the higher levels may not follow strictly.

clifflam

catyoyo 發表於 13-5-28 02:36
Yes, while we are cantonese speaking family, my son and his classmates only talked in English even w ...

My friend's daughter is at Year 7.  She said all classmates speak cantonese outside the classroom. Teenage rebellion....

Chima

Hi, my girl is now in year 8.  Actually, they can switch channel easily.  They can speak fluent English, Mandarin and Cantonese, of course.  My girl has some friends studying in IS and they chat in fluent English and getting along well.  I think the beauty of CKY is that the students can speak English well and learn Chinese well.  With the increasing influence of Asia, certainly China, learning Chinese and speaking good Mandarin is actually a privilege.

bc8006

My boy's English changes when meeting diff people. At home, with maid, HK style, with native eng speaking classmates, become native, he doesn't know he changes. Putonghua learns from yr 2, great progress, all speak in PTH. Outside school, change back to Cantonese/English. But the Chinese wording in Cantonese uses some PTH vocabulary. The PTH environment changes his use of words.

bc8006

So far in year 1 and 2, except ECECE, they use English more when playing. 愈得興奮, 愈用英文.

ourbaby

clifflam 發表於 13-5-25 18:14
My friend's daughter is studying at CKY. Her written English is good but spoken English sucks.  Is i ...

over 1.3 billion people speak potunghua in china alone, i guess you are the worst in the world.

cat_house

When you realize that they speak better English than Chinese, it is time for you to worry that you will need double effort to get them back to Chinese.