Bilingual or CSL Schools

Hi, I’m looking for bilingual or CSL schools in Taipei. So far I’ve heard of Lih-Jen (bilingual) and Xinsheng (CSL). Are there any others?

Also, does someone have a contact at Xinsheng? I can’t read their website very well so had a hard time finding contact information.

Thanks in advance!

This thread might help. Many of private schools have bilingual courses.

Private Schools in Taiwan Thread (For Teachers)


School phone number is
Tel:(02)2391-3122
Fax:(02)2357-6284
E-mail: xinsheng@snes.tp.edu.tw
If you call the school, they may tell you the right number.

#this might be an old info.
Who should I contact for questions about CLP?
Meilan Yang, Section Chief for Data and CLP
Taipei Xinsheng Elementary School
36 Xinsheng South Road, Section 2, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC (Area Code 10650).
Email:meilan@tp.edu.tw/ Tel:886-2-23913122 ext 242
Our school website: http://www.snes.tp.edu.tw/

Quoted from
CLP-brief introduction1020510網路公告版.pdf
http://www.snes.tp.edu.tw/index.php?op=download&file_id=9656


Shi-Dong Elementary School (士東國小) may have CSL class.

郵件地址 Address
111 臺北市士林區中山北路六段392號

No. 392, Zhong-Shan North Road, Section 6, Shi Lin District, Taipei 111

總機電話 Telephone (switchboard )
886-2-28710064

傳真 Fax
886-2-28738591

行政人員分機 Administrators Contact List
校 長 連世驊 Principal 28710064 Ext.111

教務主任 陳玥妘 Director, Academic Affairs 28710064 Ext.212

學務主任 紀力仁 Director, Student Affairs 28710064 Ext.232

總務主任 黃介宏 Director, General Affairs 28710064 Ext.242

輔導主任 吳志豪 Director, Counseling Affairs 28710064 Ext.252

人事主任 陳仕蘋 Chief Personnel Officer 28710064 Ext.262

會計主任 袁郁淳 Chief Accounting Officer 28710064 Ext.272

幼兒園主任 曹惠真 Director of Kindergarten 28710064 Ext.263

I visited Xinsheng and they were super friendly but they also said they’re only pulling kids out of regular classes for something like 3-7 hours a week, so they’re basically full-immersion with some CSL classes. The kids get a little extra help, but there’s no change in pedagogy and they said it really only works if you are coming in early on and can catch up. The other two public schools in Taipei that do this are Shidong in Tianmu and there’s another one in Neihu. I had to go and talk to the school in person.

For bilinguals there are a lot but they have different roles on admissions. These include: Fu-hsing, Kuei-Shan, Kang-chiao, and some others (I think maybe there’s one named Gloria? There’s one in Danshui called Chunde Sun-Tek?). These schools have their issues also–they tend to be very affluent. There was a recent scandal about Kang-chiao kindergarten where a teacher was told not to recruit black teachers. The teen in Philly who was stockpiling ammo and is in prison (I think) attended Wego and Kang-Chiao, both private schools.

I wish there were more experimental bilingual schools. There was a recent failed effort by a school called Alinea. They were hoping to do bands of students, grades 1-3, 4-6, etc. I’ve talked to Christian groups and some of them do a sort of homeschooling out of churches, but that’s not really my thing.

If you’re serious enough about this, I’d write around and come out for a week and check out schools. Try to visit Xinsheng and Lih-Jen and some others. My experience has been that they are good schools and students can learn there, but they require a lot of effort and adaptation and they’re not a one-stop solution.

iirc, shidong makes a class with foreign kids for each grade. There must be many parents who send kids there, but I don’t see much information on this school on internet. I didn’t know Neihu has one too. Some public schools in new taipei city might have some CPL system for kids with foreign parents. Nangang has a public bilingual school, but that is for kids with parents working at certain places.

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I thought there was one in Neihu but it could be I am thinking of Nangang. Is Nangang really bilingual, or does it just have a Chinese catch-up program for recent returnees? I visited a school in Tainan that had a program like this also (and it was bilingual), geared towards the high tech community and giving priority to people recently coming to Taiwan from abroad (usually scientists/tech workers).

The hard thing for me on a lot of this is a lot is still word-of-mouth and requires some personal visits. For instance, when I visited Xinsheng, there was a new director (who, again, seemed really great) but said that the admissions guidelines had changed recently and they were still figuring it out. At the private bilingual schools, it’s a mix of international students (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, etc.) who typically make up just 5-10% of students. I’ve said before that our eldest is at Lih-Jen and likes it, but there’s not really a “foreigner parents” group there and a lot of stuff you have to figure out on your own.

I’m probably oversharing here, but partly it’s really hard to find info on any of these topics (bilingual schools, the public schools with CSL for foreign students, local school admissions downtown in Taipei) so I hope my take is helpful to other.

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Thank you all for the helpful information. We do plan to visit Taipei next February/March to check out some schools. Did you just walk in and ask to speak to someone? Or did you have to make a prior appointment? My experience is that it’s been quite difficult to find contact information and then to get a response.

Taiwan is more of a “phone culture” for businesses, which can be a bit annoying. I would say to keep emailing, but you may need a Chinese-speaking intermediary or you may need to write multiple times if you’re going the email route. When we looked around, Kuei-Shan was a “drawing only” admission system, and we just gave up on them. We looked at “Huaxing Elementary and Middle School” and did a campus tour and our son (then kindergartner) hated it (I think just because it was bigger and overwhelming). We didn’t try Fuhsing, Kang-Chiao, etc. I visited Chun-teh in Danshui, which is Presbyterian.

What’s hard is that that public school programs are really designed to help mainstream kids coming in from abroad (probably mostly Taiwanese returning home), and 90+% of the bilingual school student population is local, wealthy Taiwanese (some of whom are really trying to get into international schools or who don’t have passports to get into those schools). None of these programs are really designed for little English-speaking kids coming in from North America, Europe, etc. We are also a minority of international students (compared to Japanese, Korean, etc.), so these systems are not super accommodating (and there is high turnover among such students). I still feel like theoretically there are a lot of options, but I’ve lived here 10 years and I know very few kids who were raised to have excellent Chinese by parents who don’t have excellent Chinese. Does that make sense? Do you or your spouse speak Mandarin? Do you have any family here who could help you navigate it?

I think nangang is bilingual. It is like the one in Tainan. For kids of professors and tech workers.

This is another bilingual school in new taipei.
Yu-Tsai bilingual elementary school
http://www.ytes.ntpc.edu.tw/index.asp

Age is a big factor. If they are younger that 6yo, you don’t need to worry much about their Chinese. In many cases, they will catch up in 1 or 2 years even in usual local schools.


Last year, 文昌國小 & 東新國小 became public “bilingual” schools in Taipei. One third of all classes (8 classes / week) are taught in English.

This year, 永吉, 懷生, 明道國小 will become bilingual schools.

https://udn.com/news/story/11322/3035879

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That’s about right. Entering level ESL kids in NY get 180 minutes of pull out per week; however, they would also get 180 Integrated help in the class as well, with modified lessons.

OP should ask how much support the kids get IN class for Integrated time. How do they scaffold and differentiate the material?

Is there an updated list of bilingual schools in Taipei? Thanks!!