Job Discussion Forums

[jennyn]

I am going to be teaching English language in Shenzhen and I need to find an international school for my 9 year old son to attend. Does anyone have any suggestions, clues or experience? I did find one that is operated by the oil companies and costs $18,000US per annum - just a tad expensive I thought.

Many thanks - any other information on Shenzhen greatly appreciated for this Australian mum and son.

[klasies]

Hi there

I have my 11 year daughter with me. English schools are vey expensive. My daughter learnt to speak Chinese the first year here and now she attends a Chinese school. They pick up the language very quickly. Perhaps you could do that.


Andre

[Edward]

I agree with the Klasies 100%! Children are THE ideal learners of foreign languages, and your child is at the perfect age; after 12 or so, they lose a lot of natural language learning ability, and it decreases from there even more so [remember your French/Italian/Spanish classes in highscool?]

Also, I agree about expense. I do not know first hand, but second hand. I good friend, a woman from Ireland has her son in an international school in Guangzhou, and it costs her 10,000 RMB/month [that works out to 14,000+ US dollars!] so that is very relative to your mention of cost.

Save some money, and help your child REALLY learn from another culture. She/he could pick up Chinese in about 4-6 months, no problem, I am SURE of it! I was married before, and my ex was Russian. She had a daughter who was just starting school in America at the age of 9 also. She was put in a language class, and by the end of three months, she was a babbling brook of ENglish.

Good luck with Shenzhen!
Michael

[scot47]

Tell me Jennyn did you get the job and THEN think about the school for your dependant ? Iask becasue on the old forum there was a chain started by a woman who was planning to go to Japan. She fixed up a job and then asked about education for her three schoolage children. Perhaps she thought the Japanese government provided free English-medium education. They don't. When sopmeone explained the economiocs of it all she suddenly realised that with three kids in tow she could not just up and off to Nippon.

The Middle East is one of the few regions I know of where employers often provide education or pay an educational allowance. In China you will only get that if you work in one of International Schools. Why not explore that possibility - but you need to have teacher certification, preferanbly in the USA.

[Roger]

This throws up the old question whether parents with teen-age children should go to work in a relatively poor country like China!

The sad truth is that they simply can't afford this on the salaries they are going to make there!

Around Guangzhou, there are two couples of fairly international schools, or schools that use English as a medium of instruction beside Chinese. All of them charge 10'000 to 40'000 a month!
Now if your salary is 3500, even if it is in the top range of 10'000 - there still is a shortfall!

[jennyn]

Just to confirm that I do not have a job in Shenzhen yet - it is just my hope to go there towards the end of the year, but I am fully aware of the need to research the costs of taking a child. Which is why I posted this query.

Does anyone have any information about Shenzhen itself? The only other alternative for overseas work would be Hong Kong - which I understand pays more. Does anyone have any info on schools that instruct in English there? (....I am still considering the possibility of sending him to a Chinese school).

Tks for your input one and all

[Roger]

In HK, school fees are even steeper than in the mainland. The ESF charges 46'000 to 75'000 HK$ per annum for a child, they follow a British syllabus and have a good reputation, which may explain why there is a waiting time of around two years before your son gets admitted!

ESF has come under closer inspection now due to public funds being paid to them (called 'subvention'). A private school on Lantau Island joined in the fray, claiming they can do the same job for considerably less money. If you are interested, you need to send your kid to Discovery B ay International School. But I doubt you can find a job in the same community (a 20 minute catamaran ride from HK Island, costing some 25 HK$ one-way.

Your interest in having yochild attend a Chinese-medium school is interesting - it runs parallel to the Chinese desire to have their children attend bilingual classes or schools where English is the medium of instruction! Ironically, English-medium schools in HK have always been regarded as far superior in quality than Chinese-medium schools. Every year, there is a mad scramble by parents to place their kids in the most prestigious schools!

I don't know if it is a bad or a good idea to have your child take lessons in Chinese! Your son will at the beginning be seriously disadvantaged, and I doubt he will get the attention and support he might need. If he gets any extra attention from Chinese teachers this might create tension.
On the mainland, the regular schools don't offer much to be proud of. Your son will not learn to think analytically, imaginatively and learn to solve problems. It's nice to have a son who can produce beautiful CHinese calligraphy - but this will come at high cost to him! He will not learn to be self-responsible, to do homework even when no teacher is supervising him, and he will probably never develop any intellectual interests!

[eric the king]

There was a very interesting and similar thread on the old forum (about taking children to China) where people expressed these very generalised opinions. I love the one that presumes no Chinese children develop intellectual interests - amazingly genralised, patronising and offensive and of course wrong. Plus, there is more to a child's education than just school. I'm seriously ready to admit that some posters on here live in a cocoon of some sort.
The majority of Chinese schools would not be a good idea for your son but some would be ok - one or two very good (and finacially affordable) ones in Beijing that I have heard of. Mybe someone with more experince in these matters (rather than just opinions) can help.