Singapore Expats

We are moving from France to Singapore in March 2008. My husband is French and I am Chinese. Our son is turning 3 years old this summer. We are trying to find him a kindergarden where the main speaking language is Chinese, as French won't help him much in Singapore and I know the French school there doesn't teach English (at least not in the kindergarden). I don't want my son to feel lost in an English speaking school as he will have already enough changes to cope with (and bilingual at 3 years old is already good enough, no need for a 3rd language yet). A good choice may be the local schools but I'm afraid they speak more English than Chinese there. Am I wrong?

Hi hnglngwng,

Bienvenue a Singapour. I had just spent 6 months in France, Grenoble studying. Which part do you come from?

To your disappointment, it is pretty hard to find any Chinese speaking kindergarden, primary school or any other school since Singapore had started using English as the teaching medium from the 60s. I come from a Chinese high school which was converted into English, but fortunately it retained much of its Chinese culture and I can say my Chinese is better than average Singaporeans.

One solution you may consider is to enroll your child into a kindergarden where they teach Chinese. The children will only be exposed to Chinese during the Chinese lessons and English the rest of the day.

Also, can you get a private teacher to teach your child Chinese. I know a kindergarden teacher who teaches Chinese in a kindergarden and also private lessons to small children. Currently she is teaching a 6 year old British boy and a 4 year old Indian boy. If you are interest I can introduce you to this teacher.

Demandez-moi si vous avez des questions. et Bon Chance.

you may wish to try nanyang kindergarten at cornoration road (bukit timah area). tel 64663375. my kid is in the school. i believe there is a waiting list though.

the prenursery and nursery sessions are conducted in mandarin while the kindergarten sessions are in mandarin and english.

Thanks for your advices. It's been very kind of you.

I hope you enjoyed your 6 months-stay in France. There are many students in Grenoble. Did you go to ski in the Alpes? It's one of the advantages of being a student in Grenoble.

We live in the suburbs of Paris for the moment.

I'll contact you if we decide to go with the private tutor solution. Thanks again.

Eton House? I thought there was a branch with both Chinese and English but primarily in Chinese.

hello

My son goes to Schoolhouse by the Bay - you might want to have a look at their website.

They have a chinese immersion programme - one day their 'english' teacher conducts the class in english etc, the next day, their 'chinese' teacher talks to them in chinese, so basically my son has 2 teachers. Its' run very very well run I think.

take care, best of luck
ac

Hi Amelia, its good to know yr kids have 2 tutors, but moral education is quite different in that it teaches children how to behave towards parents, friends and society at large. Without moral education, children grow up in danger of falling into bad company. The Chinese in modern China grow up like little emperors and now that they are matured, they are sad to say, quite selfish and incompetent. Same for Singaporeans, parents slog their lives like dogs making ends meet or giving the best that money can buy, except parental guidance, and the statistics shows, a large percentage of juvenile delinquents comes from well to do families. Its a pity ancient classics teaching morals were wiped out by the Nationalists and Communists as they wanted to revolutionalize their culture. Most parents I meet complains about their teachers, but they didn't realize these teachers were like them, they hardly had moral education in school too. Hope I can do my teeny weeny bit to help children grow up properly. Cheers!

Wow.

What can I say? Good for you! Keep up the good work.


AC

Hi, I am a Chinese and my husband is an Australian. My daughter just turned 4 months, but I really want to meet other ladies have the same situation like me.

If you are interested, send me message.

A bientot.