Kids At Learning A New Language
Some of my friends were surprised that we planned to send our kids to a Thai bilingual kindergarten this year when we relocate. They questioned my kids’ ability to converse in a language which is totally foreign to them. Actually, that’s the main purpose we are sending our kids to Thai school. They need to pick up the language and it’s best to learn it with the new friends from school. Kids pick up a new language faster than adults and I’m not worried about that. They have take a year or 2 at the Thai kindergarten before we transfer them to international school when my elder boy is 6 years old. For elementary, it’s best for them to continue at international schools instead of Thai syllabus.
On top of that, they might be learning some simple Thai consonants and vowels at school and I will learn from my kids later. It’s hard to survive in Thailand if you can’t read Thai. I found that I almost got lost when hubby drove in Bangkok weeks ago as not all the signboards were written in English too.
Of course, sending them to a local Thai school will save us a lot of money initially. It’s costing near to 10k for one but then again, if you know how much we have to pay just to send a kid to an international school, you would agree with our decision too.
I think it is great that you want your kids to learn the local language – it is easier to find schools when you are in host country. I imagine that learning Thai yourselves will also help the kids learn because they can practice at home.
We live in an English-speaking city in Canada, but we want our child to speak French in order to communicate with relatives. It will be tough to find a French school, so we are starting by speaking French at home – it will be helpful later on for practicing the language learned at school.
Alajen, ya, I’m learning Thai from CDs now. Of course, I’m not good enough to converse in that language yet but maybe I’m using the language more often later, I will be good at it and my kids and I can learn from each other too.
Good for you! I wish my own parents had been able to put in the effort. It would have made things easier for me when I first learned French.
Tough to pick up a new language as a kid, when you can only practice at school. Great way to get even closer to your kids by sharing the learning experience (and frustrations!) together.