Hi,
Now we are living in our third Asian city. Taipei, Shanghai and now Singapore. My daughter has thus far attended the french international schools. So far I feel her education and experiences have been good. But now that she’s in middle school I am considering switching her to a local school. (language isn’t a problem)
Although the international schools have been good, I feel as though she lives in an “expat bubble” apart from the local culture. That she’s not really part of the community in which we live, nor is she really part of the community in which we came from (Canada). I wonder how that will effect her later on.
Anyone have their kids grow up entirely in international schools?
My biggest challenge is working out the hell a TCK is. Is it a Totally conscientious kitten? A terribly critical karrot?`
third culture kid
[quote=“mechelle”]Hi,
Now we are living in our third Asian city. Taipei, Shanghai and now Singapore. My daughter has thus far attended the french international schools. So far I feel her education and experiences have been good. But now that she’s in middle school I am considering switching her to a local school. (language isn’t a problem)
Although the international schools have been good, I feel as though she lives in an “expat bubble” apart from the local culture. That she’s not really part of the community in which we live, nor is she really part of the community in which we came from (Canada). I wonder how that will effect her later on.
Anyone have their kids grow up entirely in international schools?[/quote]
I don’t have kids, but have many friends that do, and would say that the quality of education a child is receiving typically trumps the importance of having a cultural / community experience for a majority of expats. That’s why parents will enroll their kids in good international schools rather than local ones if they can afford it.
I spent 1~7 grade in Taiwanese public schools, 8~10 in an International School in Germany , and 11~12 in a Texas public school.
I find that since international school is such a small circle, students tend to feel really close even after they graduate. That isn’t to say it can’t be the same for public schools, my elementary classmates were especially close as well (we faced classroom beating together, so maybe that is a whole other kind of bond). But the later kids go to public schools, the more difficult the situation could be. Not saying public schools are all going to be bad.
I myself went to a Texas public high school at 11th grade. My English wasn’t completely fluent yet. Aside form white Americans, there were also a large group of Spanish speaking kids in school, and very few Asians. I would sometimes get teased in English or Spanish (for what it’s worth, I got teased at the international school as well, but then again I ain’t white and I couldn’t speak English). But compare to what other kids went through (from news or TV shows), I think I had a pretty easy time. I didn’t know a lot of jocks, and the jocks don’t go out of their way to pick on nerds/geeks like so many TV shows. Most of the time people are extremely friendly to me. But if I did enroll in a school like those TV show, I think I would have a very tough time.
However, Singapore generally is friendly and multi-cultured. I don’t think Singaporean students would hold anything against a Canadian girl. Public school classes, I believe, are taught in English. So maybe it won’t be as bad a transition. But the school system seems very different from rest of the world, so that it the only thing might take some getting used to.
thank you.