My children’s household registrations have been in the school district of a prestigious elementary school in Keelung since they were born. We thought that this meant they would eventually attend that school.
After visiting four or five possible kindergartens, we decided to send the children to a public kindergarten near our home, which my eldest daughter chose when she was three years old. The plan was for her to eventually attend what we considered a prestigious elementary school.
However, the elementary school affiliated with the kindergarten became a public bilingual elementary school that year, presenting us with a difficult choice between sending her to the prestigious elementary school or one of Taiwan’s first public bilingual elementary schools.
Since each of the schools had its benefits and drawbacks, there were inevitably some differing opinions within our family.
Our main concern about the bilingual school was whether a child who had just started elementary school would be able to learn Chinese and English properly simultaneously. In pursuit of an answer, I researched immersion learning.
The children’s father mentioned that our household has been bilingual since we began to raise our fist child, speaking Mandarin and Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese).
He said the children would naturally pick up whatever languages they hear in their daily lives. At first they would only understand some of what they hear, but after a while they would naturally learn how to speak it.
That is exactly what happened with our children with Mandarin and Hoklo. The public elementary school provides a bilingual environment, so that is where we chose to send them.
My eldest daughter is starting third grade this year. After learning English for two years in the bilingual elementary school, without any after-school tutoring, her listening skills are good, because during the summer vacation this year, we have been watching several movies, and she understands all of them effortlessly.
As for speaking, she is quite willing to do so.
For a while, she had to attend online classes because of COVID-19, and I would sit to the side and watch how the classes were going.
The school’s foreign and bilingual teachers encouraged students to speak and gave them many opportunities to do so.
Consequently, she can communicate quite well with the foreigners who buy things in our shop and is not shy about chatting with them.
Our initial worries were rooted in overanxious parenting. Many parents start speaking Mandarin to their children as soon as they are born, even if they do not understand, and when they eventually start talking, are the first words they utter not the same ones they hear every day?
When our children are with their grandparents, who only speak Hoklo, they naturally respond by switching to that language.
This shows how important the environment is for language learning, and public bilingual elementary schools provide a bilingual environment in which children can speak English naturally.
Therefore, if anyone asks me whether I would decide to send my child to a public bilingual elementary school if I could make the choice again, my answer would definitely be “yes.”
Chang Wei-shan is vice-chair of the Keelung City Jhong Hua Elementary School parents’ association.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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