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anguyen · Joined: 15 Nov 2008 Posts: 15

It really does seem like a lot of people head home when they have little ones. Has anyone out there managed to make it work with kids in tow (by that I mean school age children)? How did you do it?

senorfay · Joined: 08 Mar 2007 Posts: 214

The only lao wais with lao wai kids here are missionaries and all their kids are home schooled.

arioch36 · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 3589

danswayne · Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 237

Zero · Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 1402

A lot of foreigners raise their kids in China, sometimes in Chinese public schools. You can find plenty of Web sites and blogs about them. I think the idea of having one's kids educated in such a different system than the one they grew up in is very off-putting for a lot of westerners, and with good enough reason, I think.
It must be said, though, that Chinese students, on average, do end up with much better math and science skills than their western counterparts. Go to any major U.S. university and check out the PhD programs for things like mechanical engineering and molecular biology. Chinese and Indian students are the large majority, and in many cases you may not find a single American-born student.

vikuk · Joined: 23 May 2007 Posts: 1842

eddy-cool · Joined: 06 Jul 2008 Posts: 1008

Buck Lin · Joined: 13 Oct 2008 Posts: 405 Location: nanchang china

It is not a fair comparison. Chinese kids must learn tens of thousands of Chinese characters. There is no creative way of learning the writing here. It requires repetitive copying.
I spend my time with wei-chi people and these people are creative thinkers. My best friend was the top doctoral student in mechanical engineering at BEijing National university. His favorate quote to me was that," Books poison your mind" People in the know don't spend their time reading but they bring in someone who knows and have them explain things to them. The key to learning whether here or in the west is in quality teaching.
The real problem in China is that there are too many students in classrooms. Primary students must sit with one hand behind their backs when writing because there are so many in the classroom. Those teaching conversational English with 60 plus students know the futility of trying to do a good job.

Izzy215 · Joined: 05 Dec 2008 Posts: 7

Hey there,

Just wanted to jump in one the discussion of raising kids in China and schooling them. I was 'raised' in China. Not my whole life, but for five years, age 10 to 15. I was homeschooled in the beginning and then I attended public schools. I only went to one International school and that was only for one semester. Both my sisters, along with me, did this. Granted, I took being educated in a public school better then my sisters. But that's not my point. I am trying to point out that it can be done, and successfully. I was further behind then my fellow Chinese classmates but when we came back to Canada for my grade 10 year I was fine. So, if anyone is wondering whether or not it is a viable idea to put their children into public schools while they live in China, I do not see any reason not to. Of course, it all depends on the individual parents and the children.

Anyways, I'm done. I haven't even been any use to the original poster... Sad

Zero · Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 1402

Izzy, your comments are useful, actually. they show that having western kids attend chinese public school is not the end of the world, as some may think.

Izzy215 · Joined: 05 Dec 2008 Posts: 7

Well then, if that's the case, I'm glad I could help.