Child Learning Perfect English

[bkkman]

My 2 yr old daughter with my Thai wife speaks Thai all day to her mom. I want her to be fluent in English so she has options when she grows up.

 

Do I have to move back to the US for that to happen or can a school here teach her and let her speak English all day.

 

Is it only expensive international schools that will make this happen ?

 

Can you recommend a school where she will learn fluent, accentless, English ?

 

Thanks

 

[Julian2]

If she's learning with other Thai kids, no chance.

Spend a little time with her yourself. Everyday, an hour of more of talking to her in English.

Once she's learning it because it's fun you can start correcting her accent.

[CTO]

I had the same problem - solution was a cheap (er than others) International school.

 

In fact she was speaking Laos (not isaan) with her mum, they spoke Thai with me - English was a distant third

 

By K2 she was top of her class in English and being used as the class translator.

 

She now does sign language as well.

 

PM for details if you like

[loner w/a boner]

Similar situation here. My 3 y.o. speaks Thai with her kindergarten mates and teachers, and a LOT of Thai with her mom / my wife. But my wife DOES speak a LOT of English with her, too. And I use almost exclusively English (easy since I don't speak much Thai). She's gonna have an accent though. Even if it is slight.

 

More importantly is getting her to think logically. Thai schools will help her memory and with rote tasks, but critical thinking skills are ZILCH. I suggest spending time with her ABCs and 0123s, and ask her simple questions that require some thinking. I'm really worried about that one.

 

They've got books on how to raise a kid with a high i.q., but I haven't read any yet. They say it's critical to start before age 3. I just want her to think logically, and not too emotionally.

[loner w/a boner]

Also, I'm considering an "international program" kindergarten, but my wife tells me that the cheapest is around 40,000 baht for 4 month semesters. Again, according to my wife, 12,000 baht will get you a quality traditional Thai kindergarten.

 

I can swing the 40, 12k a month or so, but that's low-end. Now way I can afford top of the line.

 

Any input from you other posters would be much appreciated. Haven't done a board search for the topic of English speaking kindergartens for kids.

[Encore]

>Do I have to move back to the US for that to happen or can a school here teach her and let her speak English all day.

 

 

Can you recommend a school where she will learn fluent, accentless, English ?<

 

"accentless, English" --- USA?

 

???

 

Try moving to England. But be selective about where you settle....

[dullnight]

Some western guys are really sending their kids to thai schools

 

Parents do OWE their children a decent education, and ratings of thai schools and the lightening wit of those who have been through it beg for any responsible parents NOT to send them kids there. Make a hole in your budget if necessary and look for an international school.

 

As of language it seems kids from multilingual families often speak late, but they seem to speak as well as other kids before they reach teenage years, when they should have picked up some very useful skills.

 

As of us we use 3 languages daily at home and none of those is thai nor a regional dialect. If we go to visit the grandparents, you can double the number of languages spoken. We expect our daughter to have issues learning a language properly but will send her to an english speaking school, probably as soon as possible for a couple of half days a week as I doubt she will learn much english at home.

 

Sending kids back to your homecountry for holidays is supposed to help quite a bit as well to learn the lingo fluently.

[dullnight]

"More importantly is getting her to think logically. Thai schools will help her memory and with rote tasks, but critical thinking skills are ZILCH. I suggest spending time with her ABCs and 0123s, and ask her simple questions that require some thinking. I'm really worried about that one."

 

 

Amen that, double amen. Should find some education system where they teach the kids to look for arguments in favour as well as against a topic discussed before making a judgment on it.

 

I would go mental as well if my daughter had to stand to the thai flag in the morning and sing their national anthem(or any other flag to be fair).

 

Which reminds me I still have no clue about which kindergarten we should send her

[radioman]

I'm in a similar state with English and the Thai education system. Right now daughter is in a Thai private school, about 30k per term, two terms a year plus extras. I think we were a bit misled on the English thing and so plan to make amends at the end of this school year. Will probably send her and her brother to a bilingual school, actually trilingual, English, Thai and Chinese.

 

Something I am always being reminded by friends who have been though this years ago is that International schools teach no Thai and simply speaking it at home is not enough if, and this might be a big if for some but less so for others, but anyhow, if you think your children will likely live their lives predominantly in Thailand they can be at a serious disadvantage from international only schooling. Very likely that they will be unable to read and write Thai to any degree and furthermore will have little grasp of the complex social process they will be expected, as Thais, to know instinctively.