[quote=“kaipakati”]I’ve had a different experience of the Taiwanese elementary education system than most - extremely positive.
My daughter had always had problems fitting into school, starting as a five year old back in her home country. I’d heard all the stories of the perils of the Taiwan education system and was very very worried about what I was bringing her to. She was nine years old at the time, and spoke no Mandarin. After some hunting around, I decided on a small “mountain” school. These schools are still part of the govt system. Because of difficulty getting a sufficient roll of children from their local area, they often expand in creative ways to fill a niche, and like to take students with “special needs”, who are eligible to be counted as one and half, or two students, for funding purposes. Hence, schools can continue to operate with very small class sizes. Cool!
Cheers![/quote]
Thanks for this kaipakati. My wife and I are fed up with my daughter’s school/class. She is in second grade. They have listening tests every Monday and my daughter has to study for these on Saturdays and Sundays (because we found the extra review involved by studying over two days brought better results). She works so hard and she gets her fair share of 90s and 80s on the tests on all of her tests (including on her math tests), but there are also tests where she gets 70s and even one in the 20s! That 20 test was the last straw. My daughter mentioned that one boy got a zero on that test. Zero! Why not just give him a 59? It’s still an F. That’s just too brutal for second grade. Well, I could go on and on, but my wife and I just decided yesterday on one of these mountain schools not too far from our house. My daughter will be switching next week. I know it will be the best decision we ever made.
We want our daughter to have a life and extracurricular activities. We want her to have self-confidence. She will get none of these things continuing with a normal school in Taipei/New Taipei City.
Lol, yes, 0% is not uncommon I think. Although it’s not really funny. My Taiwanese step daughter (not the daughter I was talking about previously) has dyslexia and dyscalculia. She did okay in the mountain school with lots of extra coaching from a wonderful teacher, but just bottomed out in middle school, and no-one bothered to tell us. Her behaviour fell to pieces at home, so we knew something was wrong, but didn’t know what until I came across a maths test with a zero on it. Went down to the school and we were told “Oh, yes, well we didn’t tell you because she often gets zero on tests and assignments, so we guessed that you just didn’t care about her education.”
She’s now in high school in New Zealand and blossoming.
[quote=“kaipakati”]Lol, yes, 0% is not uncommon I think. Although it’s not really funny. My Taiwanese step daughter (not the daughter I was talking about previously) has dyslexia and dyscalculia. She did okay in the mountain school with lots of extra coaching from a wonderful teacher, but just bottomed out in middle school, and no-one bothered to tell us. Her behaviour fell to pieces at home, so we knew something was wrong, but didn’t know what until I came across a maths test with a zero on it. Went down to the school and we were told “Oh, yes, well we didn’t tell you because she often gets zero on tests and assignments, so we guessed that you just didn’t care about her education.”
She’s now in high school in New Zealand and blossoming.
Good luck! Hope the new school works out.[/quote]
Well, we didn’t switch her over after all. My daughter seemed sad about the prospect of switching schools after the reality set in. And then she gets great grades on her tests since then (two in the 90s, one in the 80s, and another one yesterday that she thinks she aced). And my wife all of a sudden also seemed reluctant to have our daughter change schools. So now I’m completely confused.
Eventually, we will be switching our daughter over to a bilingual school or an all-English school so I really don’t see the need for her to work so hard at this, but I guess if it’s what she wants…
Hello everyone! It’s now 2012 and I am the guy who started this thread about 2 years ago! We moved to Vietnam in 2010 and now my post here is going to finish by Feb next year. It is obviously that my boss will send me to Taiwan for sure. I have been successful in delaying my work in Taiwan in 2010. In in return I agreed to be posted to Vietnam as my wife has some root in the beautiful communist country. But I am afraid that I will have to move to Taiwan next year. The good thing is my kids got along very well in Vietnam during past 2 and a half years. They enrolled in a local bilingual school and now they can read and write quite well the local language. The bad thing is they are now 11 and 9 and will be 12 and 10 by next Feb and I think it will be much more difficult for them to fit in Chinese speaking world of Taiwan. Another positive thing is that, as they’ve grown up, they talked to me that they think they’ll be doing okay in Taiwan when we discussed the possibility of moving once again and this time is Republic of China! Well, I will bother you again soon in this thread. I hope now when I have no other choice, I will just face it and work it out. Have a good weekend everyone. I hope to talk to you soon. Cheers!
Wow I can’t believe I last spoke to you two years ago! I’m glad to hear you all had a good time in Vietnam. Now you’re finally heading for Taiwan, I’d like to say I think you and your family will have a good time here too. We’re finding Taiwan a great place to live so far.
I don’t know them but I think there are two or three international schools in Kaosiung, and maybe some bilingual schools too. Hopefully someone will be along soon who can tell you more.
Hi Petrichor, I can’t believe time flies that fast! It’s like we just discussed a couple of months ago, and I looked at the date and I oh ah to myself: 2 years have past!
This time seem unavoidable so I’ll check things out. Again, kids’ issues are my most priority. Look to chat with you on about Kaohsiung and Taiwan. I am sure I’ll have lots to ask. Are you in Taipei?
[quote=“Petrichor”]Hi LAGuy
Wow I can’t believe I last spoke to you two years ago! I’m glad to hear you all had a good time in Vietnam. Now you’re finally heading for Taiwan, I’d like to say I think you and your family will have a good time here too. We’re finding Taiwan a great place to live so far.
I don’t know them but I think there are two or three international schools in Kaosiung, and maybe some bilingual schools too. Hopefully someone will be along soon who can tell you more.[/quote]
Yes, we’re in Taipei. We’ve been here about nine months now I think and our son has nearly finished his first year at a public school. Ask away, but as I said I can’t help you with anything to do with Kaohsiung, I’m afraid.
It’s a Christian, K-9 school, modeled on the US system. (After grade 9, kids can transfer to the high school campus in Taizhong for boarding school, if desired.) My son attends the Taipei campus of Morrison Academy and we have been very pleased with it so far. It’s not cheap, but it’s much cheaper than other international school options, and the standards are high. Other posters may have other suggestions for you. Hope the transition goes well and that your family enjoys Taiwan. We have loved it here.
[quote=“AmoyMama”]Hope your move goes well, LAguy, and that your family adapts quickly! I know of one international school in Kaohsiung, Morrison Academy:
It’s a Christian, K-9 school, modeled on the US system. (After grade 9, kids can transfer to the high school campus in Taizhong for boarding school, if desired.) My son attends the Taipei campus of Morrison Academy and we have been very pleased with it so far. It’s not cheap, but it’s much cheaper than other international school options, and the standards are high. Other posters may have other suggestions for you. Hope the transition goes well and that your family enjoys Taiwan. We have loved it here.[/quote]
Thank you for your kind information. I’ll do research about it.
To Feiren: what do you mean by “international public school”?
To Petrichor: does your son use English or Chinese or both in that public school in Taipei?
My son uses both English and Chinese at school. It’s a normal school curriculum so that all of the classes are in Chinese, except for English and Taiwanese classes. He doesn’t understand everything by any means but he understands enough to do most of the work set. He can speak and understand a little Chinese and he has bilingual friends in the school, so he gets by. He can play in Chinese, .
I know to stay away from Dominican Academy and Ishou - a poster here used to work for Dominican and they’re pretty …shocking? It’s very much like a cram school, apparently - and Ishou seems to be geared more towards rich Taiwanese families than actual expat families.
I am Spanish, so first of all I’m sorry for my English…
I am moving to Taipei in February 2013 and like most of you school is my most priority (my daugther is 4 years-old), so this I was reading all your comments and I was so excited with the “mountain” schools, but now I am confused…
Petrichor I am wondering why you didn’t choose the mountain school at the end and you choose normal school curriculum. I would appreciate your answer very much.
Thanks so much to all of you, this forum is helping me very much to have things more clear.
I know one poster who sent his kid there and one poster who went to school there. Their experiences don’t match yours.[/quote]
I helped out a person who used to work there. Apparently the curriculum’s quite behind what it should be for grade levels and whatnot. Don’t really remember anything else I was told, but I wasn’t very impressed with the administrator when I met him.
I know one poster who sent his kid there and one poster who went to school there. Their experiences don’t match yours.[/quote]
I helped out a person who used to work there. Apparently the curriculum’s quite behind what it should be for grade levels and whatnot. [/quote]
Again, their experiences don’t match yours. True, only one parent and one alumni. One’s kid is on the fast track at a good US university now, the other has her degree from a good Canadian uni. The kid got into uni a year early, too. So that doesn’t seem to jibe with your experience, either.
I am Spanish, so first of all I’m sorry for my English…
I am moving to Taipei in February 2013 and like most of you school is my most priority (my daugther is 4 years-old), so this I was reading all your comments and I was so excited with the “mountain” schools, but now I am confused…
Petrichor I am wondering why you didn’t choose the mountain school at the end and you choose normal school curriculum. I would appreciate your answer very much.
Thanks so much to all of you, this forum is helping me very much to have things more clear.[/quote]
Hi larryher and sorry for the late reply.
It wasn’t so much that we didn’t choose the mountain school as they didn’t choose us! When my husband went back to talk to them further they were full for next year and didn’t have a place for our son. The mountain schools do have roughly a normal school curriculum anyway, though.
I know one poster who sent his kid there and one poster who went to school there. Their experiences don’t match yours.[/quote]
I helped out a person who used to work there. Apparently the curriculum’s quite behind what it should be for grade levels and whatnot. [/quote]
Again, their experiences don’t match yours. True, only one parent and one alumni. One’s kid is on the fast track at a good US university now, the other has her degree from a good Canadian uni. The kid got into uni a year early, too. So that doesn’t seem to jibe with your experience, either.[/quote]
Are you two talking about the same place? I think tsukinodeynatsu might be talking about the one in Kaohsiung and Sandman about the one in Taipei.
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