[quote=“ariel7120”]I need some advice for anyone who’s been in my situation.
- How difficult do you think it would be for my 5 and 8 year old to live and attend public school in Taiwan with the knowledge (of me and my kids) I indicated above?
- I do not wish to send them to international schools. How and when do I register for public school?
- Can anyone suggest a good public school that they’ve attended? Or know ones that are open to accept students in my situation?
- Is there an option to leave my 8 year old behind a grade once in Taiwan so it might be an easier process for her?
- What are some “nice” and safe places to live in Taiwan considering I am a mom traveling with 2 young children?
- Do you think there will be a culture shock for us? (I haven’t been back to Taiwan since 2006 and only stayed a week)
[/quote]
Hi Ariel, I can comment on some of your questions above as I was in a similar situation as your older kid when I was his age, but that was in 1980. In that year my family (two parents and two 9 and 12 year old boys who had never learned Mandarin before) had a similar plan like you, that is move back to Taiwan from overseas for some time, maybe even permanently. As far as culture shock goes, there probably will be some for you and your kids, even though Taiwan hasn’t changed that much from 2006. However, your kids will adapt very very quickly, so you need not worry too much about them. For you as their parent it may be more difficulty assuming you’re not a native Mandarin speaker. That will make things like communicating with teachers, school administration, etc much more difficult and inefficient. In our case, my parents were native speakers despite having lived for 10+ years abroad, so that was not an issue. Also, in 1980 Taiwan was really a very different country from today, a developing country with significantly lower living standards compared to the West. It was dirty, highly chaotic, traffic was 100 times worse than today, and on top of that it was a highly undemocratic authoritarian state where school life, text books, etc was filled with KMT propaganda, school kids would get physically punished for anything but perfect grades or for just saying something “unpatriotic”, while getting a perfect grade in music class for singing a patriotic song in front of the class, things like that. Today, the gap in living standards to a western country is much smaller, it may be negligible or even be non-existent if you live in a good neighborhood in Taipei.
Both of us children were enrolled in public schools in Muzha. However, my brother’s situation was very different from mine since he went to a junior high school while I went to third grade in elementary school which was so much easier in so many respects. There was some gang forming and bullying by said gangs going on at my brother’s school. I don’t know how much of a problem that still is today, but at least I can say that in third grade I never experienced any kind of bullying (however, I believe this does happen more often nowadays). We ended up staying only for that one year which I regretted at the time because I was beginning to like life in Taiwan and enjoying school then. My brother, at 12 years, didn’t adapt so well, naturally, he only excelled at English, but was lost in most other subjects. It was clear he would have a very hard time academically if we stayed in Taiwan. So we went back to Europe.
Now, as far as my experience at a public school in Taipei goes, it was good overall. I’m sure a big reason for that was that the school was a 示範國小, a kind of exemplary elementary school where children of teachers and professors of the nearby Chengda university were enrolled. I believe the teaching methods, and general experience in that school was closer to the standard at public elementary schools of today, save for the constant political propaganda of 1980. There definitely was no corporal punishments at that school.
If your purpose for your stay is mainly for your kids to immerse themselves in a Chinese language environment and to learn Chinese, I’d say you can do nothing wrong by sending your kids to pre-school or public schools in Taipei. They will pick up the language very quickly, though they will also forget a good chunk of it if you return to the US after only a year (speaking from personal experience). At 8 years of age (meaning entering second grade of elementary school), your older kid will naturally not be able to quickly catch up academically with the local kids, but catching up should not be at the top of your mind at this early stage anyway. By starting at eight, chances are he will eventually catch up, but it might take a couple more years. The focus should be on Chinese language acquisition and for that purpose he should also attend the Chinese classes of the first grade. That’s exactly what the school did with me me when I entered third grade, sent me to Chinese class in first and second grade where I had a lot of time learning bopomofo with my juniors. I also had my personal Chinese tutor at the school who gave me one-on-one tutoring in the beginning.
Nowadays, I believe that school life even at elementary school is probably much more competitive than in 1980 when kids knew nothing about bopomofo when they entered first grade. Now all the kids are much smarter than when we were kids (my own older kid is entering first grade this year). They already have their bopomofo under their belt and even some basic Chinese reading skills when they graduate from pre-school. So, it may be a little rougher ride for your 8-year old. However, if you don’t care about catching up academically and only focus on the Chinese learning, you need not worry. I never did any catching up, flunked most subjects except math and athletics. But I didn’t care much about the grades during that year (that would have been totally pointless), fortunately neither did my parents and I still had a lot of fun during that year. When I got back to Germany, I didn’t even lose a year, went straight into 4th grade and all was fine in the end. My brother had to repeat one year. Good luck to you! 
I tell them directly, HE DOES NOT SPEAK ANY CHINESE, but they just can’t bring themselves to let me translate. Then they try horrible English with me, as if that will help. It’s frustrating for them and for me…“Why does he keep asking me!?” 