Which international schools have less than 50% Chinese?

hkparent

Are expats moving away from HK? From recent forum discussions, many international schools are dominated by local HK Chinese and Mainland Chinese.

jolalee

回覆 annie40 的帖子

個傻仔唔肥唔圓但討人喜愛(又為食)，是老師個靚囡囡(十歲，已是大美人)的至愛，探她媽媽班時經常同我仔仔玩。我常笑言，阿仔被鬼妹又攬又抱，人生中可能只此一次   相信很多媽媽都認同，有孩子，的確是福氣。

我倆的孩子都有幸迷上孫悟空，教導中文的確多了不少空間。早半年自行教認字時試過在簿上寫上「孫悟空、豬八戒、唐三藏」和他自己的名字讓他認，的確很揍效（當然名字中有數字幫助不少）。不竟自己教缺乏系統，我也不是有恆心的人，不是妳提起我也忘記我曾這樣教過，所以希望能盡量配合老師的方法。幸好你這一提，我也可以告訴老師他的喜好，希望裡應外合能再提昇他的學習能力。

我孩子的學習動機的確需要花更大努力培養。他生性好動貪玩坐不定，也不知大點兒會否改善。只能慶幸他現在的學校很配合他性格，返學暫時是一件樂事。

annie40

回覆 jolalee 的帖子

Jalalee,
今天才認真看妳的分享。孩子很可愛，能照顧他，是媽媽的福氣。

從前教女兒中文，抄寫簡單的字，例如：大，小，海，天等，她乖肯做，眼睛卻完全沒神釆。原來這些基本字，跟她完全沒有connection的， 沒意義的東西，干嗎要學？於是開始教跟她生活和興趣關連的字詞，例如教她寫喜歡的神話人物，歌詞，餐廳名字。教她寫「孫悟空」，竟然比教「黄色，白色」容易，學一個她喜歡的「悟」，等於學了三個字，心，五，口。這時才明白淺白中要對孩子有意義，有感覺的東西，才能提高學習動機。

當初孩子為ice cream 而學，為討好媽媽而學，慢慢地發現了自己有「學」的能力，便為自己的「驕傲」而學，這些經常性的「驕傲」，就是自信了。

baybaymom

ESF Kennedy School

炸嬌媽

原帖由 Shummamapapa 於 15-02-27 發表
好認同

好認同 x 2

炸嬌媽

原帖由 cowmoon 於 15-02-27 發表
本帖最後由 cowmoon 於 15-2-27 08:09 編輯

You may consider Kellett, Hong Kong Academy, Peak school ...

Agree with u!

annie40

其实不用看ESF annual report, 香港区的expatriate families 必定高于九龙,新界 楼房价高的,人口稀少的, 也多些外籍家庭了.这是历环境所形成的自然条件

连传统本地名校, 香港区已多出九龙区很多.  

jolalee

回覆 hkparent 的帖子

There we have it, from the ESF 2013-14 Annual Report:
"The largest ethnic group in ESF schools was Chinese (44.4%)" (for primary & secondary schools, excluding PIS)

It falls nicely under your original target of under 50%, and given the figures would vary from school to school, you can do further research each target ESF school (for your area or for areas you would consider move to). I am guessing anything between 20-40% would be ideal for you, but note that if you are going ESF and Chinese is important to you, additional wisdom and effort should be made in order to keep your child interested in the language.

There are some wonderful parents on this forum who went the ESF way and still able to keep their children's level of Chinese at a pretty healthy standard. I do wish my Chinese is good enough to do the same, but i know myself, and is happy now with our family's choice :)

Radiomama

回覆 Jackieson 的帖子

ESF剛出了最新一份年報，我覺得當中提到學生和老師的情都相當準確。

ESF Annual Report 2013-14

Jackieson

hkparent 發表於 15-2-26 23:58
Are expats moving away from HK? From recent forum discussions, many international schools are domina ...

Which international schools have less than 50% Chinese?
EDB有官方數字提及IS的 'local students' vs 'non-local students'，真係好難知 'dominated by local HK Chinese and Mainland Chinese' 的實際數字。

annie40

補充是女孩讀了兩年iS幼稚園，家𥚃沒能力供讀iS小學，只能入傳統主流小學。課餘每星期一課的英語活動教學。應該是kinder的英語腔的延續吧！

annie40

回覆 hkparent 的帖子

原來她爸爸媽媽的英語，不會比我講得好！
原來未出過洋的北京老學者，有漂亮的英式口音。

原來去英國留學，口音還是.......

有次看一個國際運動屆論壇，原來乒乓球女皇鄧亞萍說得一口流利的牛津口音，絕對佩服。那個牛津大學博士學位是實至名歸。

原來我們很想全部擁有，把全部送給孩子。原來無論我們有多大能力和能奈，他們是年紀少，就是收不下。現實是只能把最重要的幾樣做好，日後便比較容易續步的接收到........那些爸媽很想很想給他們的禮物。

hkparent

原帖由 annie40 於 15-03-03 發表
本帖最後由 annie40 於 15-3-3 08:17 編輯

囡囡的公園玩伴，小學念聖加肋(未算名校)，中學念港大同學會 ...

From what I've seen, those students in elite local schools who can speak without a local accent usually have either one of the parents being ABC or stayed overseas for a long time.

annie40

囡囡的公園玩伴，小學念聖加肋(未算名校)，中學念港大同學會，高中去了李宝椿，父母是地道香港人，打從小三邀請她參加囡囡友儕間聚會開始，已是非常標準的国際學校囗音和口語了.是天份加熱愛。女孩幾乎甚麼也喜歡，除了中文科，因此IB情願念German HL. IB 是PG43.，女孩從未補習，，細個時比普通孩子玩得更多。

ABC dad 在資优欄出題是:識玩成就素質孩子，分享調查。看來是過來人。

Artie

annie40 發表於 15-3-2 14:50
1) passion (需要发掘和家人支持)
2) learning attitude (需要生活的培育和习惯来做就)
3) 教得其法, 学得其所,  老师更要有德行, (需要遇到或找到合适老师), 有德行的人, 彼此交心, 才能长久共处.  

Thank you. I enjoy reading your messages.
I hope EK can really get back on the right track and have more meaningful discussions.

jolalee

shadeslayer 發表於 15-3-2 23:17
小女讀過你所説的一間「名校」，後來轉了間 lS。

個人認為，DG能出產較多本她口音少的學生，係學校語文政 ...

From the sharings here and from my personal experience,I must conclude that accents is malleable to a certain extent, depending on:
- who
- when
- where

Some people are just talented in the (auditory) articulation arena, but like my son's case with (visual) text recognition, it is trainable to a certain extent.

Early exposure definitely has its advantage. My mom only came to HK in her twenties. Although she's been speaking canto for decades, she still has a strong Shanghaiese accent. For kids whom emigrated overseas from HK between age 6-13 (from a Chinese background), the strength of non-native accent increases respective to age. Ie. 6-7 year olds bearly has an accent, 9-10 year olds has a hint of an accent, 12-13 year olds has a strong Chinese accent. Of course, that depends on the person as well.

For some people who are often immense in various context, accent changing is possible. I was taugh the HK way to speak English until age 10. When I was in Canada the system 'corrected' me so I had my typical Canadian accent, eh ;) While working with my British boss closely in Dubai I picked up his savvy British accent. When I took my first holiday with my Auzzie husband in Sydney, I was so overwhelmed by the accents that I half-consciously studied it. When I finally met my sister-in-laws after being there for two days, they claimed that i didn't have an accent (as in i have an Auzzie accent). Of course, the facade soon has its holes as i am not a professional actress . Unfortunately, after all these different exposures, now I too has this strange 'international' accent. When you have a bit of everything, it actually boils down to nothing... :(  

shadeslayer

原帖由 jolalee 於 15-03-02 發表
本帖最後由 jolalee 於 15-3-2 01:20 編輯

小女讀過你所説的一間「名校」，後來轉了間 lS。

個人認為，DG能出產較多本她口音少的學生，係學校語文政策，學生質素和家庭給予孩子的英文資源之結果。

聖心德望是傳統英文較「好」的學校，在本地家長心中是英文考試成績較好。口語口音方面，依我所見，多數學生本地音頗重，但亦有口音較 neutral 的。有些英文好的幾個孩子，小息走在一起會自發以英文溝通，講得多自然好。這是幾年前的事了。

我聽過二個國際學校的學生和另一男生交談，風趣幽默，用字遣詞，流暢自然，發音準確。我以為他也是國際學校生，但後來知道是 SPCC 生。我問個國際學校生，她説 SPCC 生説得很好很好，只是有些個別字有點點怪。証明個別名校生中英甚了得，我也想知如何做得到。

另外，口音是會變的。阿女話佢有同學，上學期美國音，下學期誇張RP！有一同事英國來港二年，他也說自己已失去其原來的 regional accent.

jolalee

annie40 發表於 15-3-2 14:50
孩子是甚么也能学好, 只需三样元素配合:
1) passion (需要发掘和家人支持)
2) learning attitude (需要生活的培育和习惯来做就)
3) 教得其法, 学得其所,  老师更要有德行, (需要遇到或找到合适老师), 有德行的人, 彼此交心, 才能长久共处.  

Annie, 你解説得實在太好了，謝謝你！(感動)
我一向著重孩子對中文的正面印象，應該就是你所指的passion & attitude. 「Passion 会随着正确的认识而加固, 亦随着误会了短期能力的失败感而递减」我從來沒有想到passion跟understanding one's current ability有所聯系，但回想孩子的學習過程及興趣，嘩你的形容簡直一語道破！

My son has always been strong with verbal skills but very weak with text recognition (both Chinese and English). The Mando tuition teacher had tried to let my 4-year-old recognize 爸爸媽媽哥哥姐姐 but he didn't seem interested at all, so she decided to move onto other words instead of grinding on fruitlessly. The teacher wrote down for me the 6 food items he was able to recognize on the spot (but soon forgotten by the end of the class). I just bought this HK$20 blackboard adhesive sheet which I stick onto the shoe cabinet in the living room. The quality turns out to be surprisingly good and it became our at-home classroom within days. I wrote those six items on the cabinet blackboard but at first he was not interested. One of the item was 冰淇淋 and I offhandedly yapped that he will get ice cream if he can recognize all 6 words after school. He suddenly lit up and came over, paying attention for the first time :( I know bribery won't last long but I played along. After class he asked for ice cream immediately and after I bought home the Hagen Daaz I ask him to read those 6 items. With a bit of hint and encouragement he did it, so he had his ice cream. I did reiterate that he should be proud not because of the treat but that he is learning. After tennis tonight I asked him to read out the same 6 words, then changed the positions of the words and asked him again. With each new trial he was getting better, and I can see the change in attitude in his eyes. I end each successful lesson with a kiss and I can see the hint of a smile at the corner of his lips.

All 3 factors are important. If the teacher didn't know better and kept on grinding him it would've snuffed him out completely. The passion for text wasn't there at first but slowly with the right trigger it has finally budded. Thanks to that cheap blackboard adhesive film the habit to read became easily accessible and simple to improvise on the spot. Hopefully he'd continue to develop good habits and attitude.


Thanks again Annie for helping to make sense of it all, so that I know how to proceed with his Chinese education. We're fortunate to find a non-pushy Chinese learning centre that's in line with my learning philosophy. It is for younger kids and has many western students in it, so in the long run I'll come back for more help ;) Thank you all for your wisdom and encouragement!!

DreamKid

原帖由 jolalee 於 15-03-02 發表
本帖最後由 jolalee 於 15-3-2 00:53 編輯

Yes but needs practice.  Chinese 公涵 has specific format and 稱/謂語。切合身份、寫得不卑不亢，並不容易。