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naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

What's wrong the with Singaporean schools?

bludevil96 · Joined: 07 Aug 2006 Posts: 82

I posted before reading yours.

Really, "reread" when I quoted it in the text? Perhaps your choice of wording was not clear at all. "Proper" is a bit vague, no? No reason to call me out on not understanding you for that. Thanks for the clarification at least.

I was referring to this: "I forgot smart phones, jeans and tank tops, and K pop style and music were all Vietnamese traditions Laughing " As Vietnamese as KFC," a common expression." This is popular culture that you've referred to, is it not? I was talking about manners & behaviors such as urinating in public, cursing, driving on sidewalks, running red lights, etc. These are not considered "proper", even by Vietnamese standards; yeah, shocking. How is that "vague"? I wasn't talking about the quote within the quote.

Really, "SOUTH Korea"? Even the boards and forums here refer to it as just "Korea" because no one ever thinks about North Korea as anything but a near-failed state. Perhaps in Korea they give it more thought...
Hmmm...I always thought that since they're sworn enemies perhaps we should distinguish them apart but what do I know?

A good salary? For a family? For how long? What's the typical wage in Japan right now - the inevitable end state for Vietnam's ESL market: Like $20/hr after tax for the basic mill schools? And it's like $17/hr here? Well, we have so much to look forward to in the coming years...

Ok, I'm not that great in math but $17/hr based on a forty hour work week is over 35K/YR. If you're bringing home that kind of money after taxes, you're doing just fine EVEN IN THE U.S. (outside of major cities).
So to say that you can't raise a family here on that salary is unrealistic, even if you're chasing 10%+ inflation every year. That salary would put you in the top 1% of Vietnam. From what I've been told, pay scale of schools such as RMIT exceed this.

Basically, the cost of living and inflation are going to rise at 10%+ per year while salary does nada/zilch, if not worse. The salary is decent for a single person now, yeah. In 10-15 years, it's going to be miserable to pay for private schooling, etc, etc, for all that a family needs even on two such salaries unless you're at the top-tier pay range with fully assured hours. Even then, the budgeting PLUS savings for retirement while living in your own house in a fairly decent neighborhood? Well, if the OP doesn't mind not having hot water and all the frills of modern, middle-class life then it shouldn't be a problem, I guess, but in general it would be for most I'd think.

You're assuming that current market forces will remained unchanged for the next 10 to 15 years; that's an awful long time for a country with a market economy. If the supply and demand for teachers is saturated, then your theory is correct. But the market has a way of correcting itself and will respond to serious demand for qualified individuals. Don't get me wrong, what you're saying have some validity but things will change as it always does but disseminating fear won't help. As the OP stated, she's been to worse places and I personally know of people who are doing it here, and they're doing just fine, myself included.

vabeckele · Joined: 19 Nov 2010 Posts: 439

I know someone who was expected to teach with no curricula, no books and was expected to do this continuously.

The parents were expected to pay entry for their own children's performance on the day of the show. On top of this, children were not provided any food and no water was available. All this when parent's are paying over 10k a year for them to attend.

Telling parents only native speakers of English are hired when Chinese nationals were teaching (this also included Indonesians, Filipinos and Koreans). I'm not debating the professionalism of these teachers, just the fact when given the tuition fees, these teachers are cheaper and leave students walking away with 'funny accents'.

Mr. Kalgukshi · Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 6:32 pm Post subject:

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naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

Wow, lots of responses. How about a different question: does anyone know any Western children who go to local Vietnamese schools? MIssionary kids or children of teachers?

snollygoster · Joined: 04 Jun 2009 Posts: 478

My child goes to a Vietnamese Mam Non. (Pre School). Sure he gets to learn to speak Tieng Viet, but uses English at home. Best of both worlds.

The education in the Mam Nons is really very good, but declines once the child moves to a State primary school. Disadvantage is its in Tieng Viet, but if you live here, why aren't you and your family making an effort to speak the local lingo?

My 3 year old moves effortlessly between the two languages, and knows when to use which.

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

snollygoster, are you planning on having your child go to Vietnamese schools for most of his schooling?

snollygoster · Joined: 04 Jun 2009 Posts: 478

No. I plan to return to my home country by the time my child is of an age to attend "big school". However, that is by coincidence, and I would not hesitate to send my child to a Viet school, as long as I was able to supplement his education with some home schooling if I intended to stay in Vietnmam that long.