由本地學校轉往國際學校後的轉變

Fatrara

Hi, tutorvk,

You mentioned that you went to a local primary school, than an international secondary school.    I am just curious, if you can do it all over again, would you choose to attend an international primary school as well?

tutorvk

Fatrara 發表於 12-1-12 12:47
Hi, tutorvk,

You mentioned that you went to a local primary school, than an international secondary ...

Hi Fatrara,

No, I wouldn't. Actually going to a local primary school gave me a good foundation for Chinese language which is important as I am a Hong Kong person. It also gave me a good foundation for Mathematics, which made the first 4 years of British system secondary school a breeze. I only really needed to start learning any new Maths starting year 11 (Form 5). But then again, I went to a highly demanding local primary! Hope that helps.

MissMusic

Do you all mind telling which kindergarten your chidren studied before?

meowji

回復 scl227 的帖子

Kis 難入嗎？

meowji

I spent my primary n secondary in a very good local girl's school with high academic standard. I wasn't a good student then as I hated school n boring classes although my school is already American style with less homework comparing to other band one schools. My parents sent me to canada for grade 12 in a private school. Just one year, I started to love school, the way they teached was totally different. I can say hk students still have a lot of advantages coz of good math background n I saw most canadian students cannot compete with us on some subjects. But once we got into college, most surpassed hk students becoz they have very solid fundamental training to help them think openly, not just by memorizing contents. It's hard to explain, but that year totally changed my life, made me hunger for knowledge from then on. Therefore, even I have connection to top local school, I rather send him to international as I believe we can speak n teach him Chinese at home.

Fatrara

Hi, meowji,

What is KIS?

It is good to hear your sharing.  I myself went to average local primary and secondary school in HK.  Primary was ok, but I hated my secondary school life, except most of the priests and brothers there were great people, and I admired their sacrifice for naughty kids like me.  

Anyway, I then went over to the US for one year preparatory study and then university.  Like you, I started to develop a love for learning.  In sciences and mathematics subjects, the Asian students excelled in the first 2 years, but then starting from the 3rd year, most could not carry on.  It was the American students who passed us.  In fact, leaving us in the dust.  I have several university classmates (Americans) who went on to top-notch schools like UC Berkerley, Standford and Columbia to continue their PhD with full scholarships in sciences and mathematics.

Now I have kids of my own.  I am struggling what primary schools to send them to.  I prefer international, but learning Chinese is a big concern.  My kid is already studying in an international school, but just got an offer of a place with a top local school starting this coming September.  By conventional (& local ) wisdom, most of my friends tell me to choose the local elite school.  But I am thinking otherwise.  I hope I am not making a mistake.

Your thoughts on this would be very welcome.

Chole

It is extremely difficult to maintain a good level of Chinese for international school students.  I have seen successful cases but these are rare.  

My girl spent 5 years in local school and did well before joining an international school.  She's now at the most advanced level Chinese of her grade.   I met her Chinese teacher recently and asked if she could do IB Chinese at High Level.  Um, her answer is basically - 唔好奢望!    And she suggests my girl to take Standard Level.

Besides, >90% of those who came from international primary is attending classes at lower levels.  I really wonder if they should choose another language at IB exam.   

tutorvk

Well, Chinese/Mandarin is getting increasingly important in the job market, or in.. life generally. So if the Chinese classes taught at school ain't that advance, I strongly encourage mandarin tutoring / lots of exposure to it in various media means..

WYmom

回復 Chole 的帖子

Students in IS with really very good Chinese actually are Chinese with mother tongue in mandarin, whose parents are Chinese from Taiwan or mainland China.  HK students who have studied in local primary schools don't really have good Chinese standard.

Chole

回復 WYmom 的帖子

Yes!  That's what I observe too.  And I really don't think tutoring once a week will help, especially when the kid is doing alright in the school (because most if not all of the other kids are so so).  There is simply no motivation for my girl to improve her Chinese standard.

Littleho

I think some international schools (at least one) produce some students of very advanced Chinese standard . It's Chinese program  involves local style of coaching students.

FattyDaddy

If learning Chinese is a major concern, then one simply should not opt for international schools, expecting these schools to provide good coverage of Chinese will be like asking McDonalds to serve up a good char siu bau (roast pork bun) {:1_1:}

蜜蜜

I agree that HK students study in local schools doesn't mean that they have good Chinese standard that can compete with those from China in the future, all I want from my girl is to be able to speak and communicate in Mandarin and Cantonese, able to understand the headlines of the chinese newspapers. There are lots of choices of different companies and jobs in HK, I do not think that in future she must be choosing a job required high ability in Chinese language, as well, my girl learnt Japanese since she was 2 and is now able to read, talk and communicate in Japanese (of course in a simple way, but at least talking only Japanese with her Jap teacher and able to play with kids when we brought her to Japan last year), may be this is an alternative of learning Chinese that might help her in future as we are in Asia.  Parents here can consider letting their kids to explore another kind of language in stead if you find he/she has difficulties in learning Chinese, my girl does Japanese well because she loves the language.   
Everything has a cost and having not so good Chinese standard must be the cost of sending my girl to an IS, but I am happy with it.

蜜蜜

I think it is all depending on individual kids, their attitude of learning as well as their attitude of being a person. My girl is still young, I cannot predict how good she can be in future, but all I am doing now is to teach her not to be lazy and to love to learn, so that she will be more than happy to learn by herself throughout the system. ESF system does not suitable to lazy students, because lazy students would never wanting to do anything no matter he/she is in an IS or a local school. So good luck everyone!

Fatrara

What do you guys think about putting the kids in local primary schools for a few years (say, 4 years), then switch them to international schools?  That way, we seem to get the best of both worlds - good Chinese language foundation and liberal education environment (from 5th year on).

CSJ安樂窩

Fatrara 發表於 12-1-26 14:18
What do you guys think about putting the kids in local primary schools for a few years (say, 4 years ...

haha, how will you feel if I tell you now that I will put you in a Mainland firm for 4 years and then switch you to an American firm? would you appreciate the change? or will you prefer to be stable and work for the American firm all along? My view is that sometimes there is no best solution and we have got to learn to give and take.  I will try to minimise any major changes to my kids education unless I really have to.  I do know a parent who sent his kid to a local KG for K1, to another local KG for K2, then Year 1 in an IS but later considered that IS is too 'relax' and then shift the kid back to a local DSS for P1.  I personally don't see any good in doing this except damaging the child's social life.

chongnicole

回復 Littleho 的帖子

Which one u are talking about? KCIS, CIS or SIS?