speaking in tongues
the time has come to talk about education.
as you know, sebastian is enrolled at the ESF kindergarten and loves it. every day he happily gets on the school bus, and his diary (and backpack) spills over with artwork (he made me a purse out of a bran flakes box and a ribbon!) and reports of what he is enjoying.
but english speaking schools in hong kong are, surprise!, expensive! and even though my measly salary could cover the school fees if the babies went to the same school, magnificent and i are considering another route quite seriously….sending them to a chinese speaking school.
some bilingual schools are very chi chi la la, and we aren’t considering those. if we had the money, we might. but for these early years, no, we’re not.
complications arise though. chinese schools are known to be VERY homework happy. two hours a night by grade one. i cannot imagine. and it is NOT easy to get a child into an english speaking school, unless you have recently moved here. if we did want to transfer our kids into an english speaking school once they had mastered the basics of mandarin or cantonese, there is no guarantee they would get a place. and then i would be home schooling and we KNOW how tough that would be.
but i want my children to speak either cantonese or mandarin, preferably the latter. my french is passable, but in today’s world, french is not a particularly beneficial language in the business world. in canada, knowing french is a HUGE boost, and i am glad Canadians learn in. but internationally, it is not that important. believe me, i learned that when i moved here.
cantonese and mandarin are all about tones. the best time to get an "ear" for tongues is while they are very young. now. the schools are pretty definite that english speaking children with NO exposure to chinese language would have a good ear for tongues and a basic understanding of the language after one year of schooling.
it is a huge gift, and a huge acknowledgement to the culture here. i have tried to learn mandarin but my ear is PITIFUL. maybe i am wanting to live through my children, but i would love it if they learned one of the two Chinese languages, preferably mandarin.
but it is also a huge risk. if it doesn’t work out, sliding into the english speaking schools won’t be easy. and what if one of the kids is left handed, and they tie their left hand behind their back and train them to write with their right? don’t laugh, it happens.
in case you are asking why sebastian didn’t go to a chinese speaking school…by the time he was ready to enter the chinese system, his grasp of english wasn’t strong enough. we suspected he had a hearing problem, and we knew he would find tones overwhelming. i don’t regret the decision NOT to send him to a chinese speaking school at all. i think he agrees.
