We (my Taiwanese wife & me, German) have a 4 years old daughter. She is bilingual (Mandarin/German) however her Mandarin is a bit better than her German.
After returning from Germany (she went there to a Kindergarten for 1 year) we have to make up our mind, what Kindergarten we sent her to in Taipei.
Any experience, oppinions out there ?
My son is now five and a half. He speaks Norwegian with me, Mandarin with the wife, and English at Kindergarten.
At first I thought it would be nice to send the child to Taiwanese kindergarten, but now I think it was better to that he went to an “All English” Kindergarten. He is now trilingual.
The funny thing was, during the first week of the first year, he came home from school and told me my English is wrong.
My oldest girl went to an English kindergarten first and a local one later, as she did not like the first one. She did learn some English, though. She speaks some Danish too. The little one started out in a local kindergarten with some additional English language tuition, she speaks 5 words of English, and seems very happy there.
I therefore don’t know what’s best. I would say that the English can always be learned - when the kid’s 10+ years old, send him/her to an English summer school if you don’t back up any English tuition yourself (Like me who’s Danish).
“I am what I develop into”. Only partly agree Chris.
There are some studies that indicate that if you don’t learn a language when you are 6 or younger, your grammar will practically never become perfect in the language. Even students who forgot all their English and started in a true beginners class learned the grammar. Everyone else in the studies made common mistakes. They think the brain is just naturally wired to receive grammar until you’re about 6 years old. After then it takes hard work to get perfect grammar.
The pronunciation of a language is easier. If you start learning the second language before “puberty” your words will probably sound like a native speaker’s.
By this evidence, it seems to me that the Taiwanese government wants the older children to work very hard at learning English, even though it will be unlikely that they will ever get the grammar “down”.
I have to agree with twocs. I started speaking Norwegian as a teenager. My son started speaking Noregian at the age of two. My parents say my son has better pronunciation than I do. I am still correcting his grammar however - this might be because he has been growing in a Taiwanese environment.
However, talking to other Norwegians in Taiwan leads me to believe that this varies from person to person. One brother might be fluent in the foreign parent’s language, while the other brother has problems.
The research I’ve read about (sorry no links, this was a few years back) says that the magic number is ten, for both languages and music. Looking at families that emigrated with more than one child to the US, it seems to be true.
Those I know who learned to speak English after the age of ten don’t speak it fluently, and those who spoke it before ten (even if it was at nine years of age) speak and write like native English speakers.
OT, Mr. He–how old are your girls? I once saw a foreign gentleman at the Zoo Mall with two pretty little Eurasian looking girls and wondered if it might be you and your daughters. :bouncy:
[quote=“braxtonhicks”]
OT, Mr. He–how old are your girls? [/quote]
My beauties are 3 and 6, and well, they were 1 and 4 last time we were anywhere near the zoo mall.
Thanks for all the comments.
I am lucky enough to spend quite some time with my daughter, so I guess her language capabilities are good in German and Mandarin. Since my wife and me speak English most of the time, she picks up a lot of English as well.
What I actually meant to ask was your viewpoint about the different education systems in Taiwanese and “Western” kindergarten.
Are you OK with that, when they line up the kiddies in one row to go to the toilet. They also have to play what the teacher tells them, its not that they can play other things.
Since Thea went to a Kindergarten in Germany for 1 year it might be a big change for her.
[quote=“braxtonhicks”]The research I’ve read about (sorry no links, this was a few years back) says that the magic number is ten, for both languages and music. Looking at families that emigrated with more than one child to the US, it seems to be true.
Those I know who learned to speak English after the age of ten don’t speak it fluently, and those who spoke it before ten (even if it was at nine years of age) speak and write like native English speakers.[/quote]
That’s what I’d read a while back too. There was a fantastic article a few years ago in one of the major news magazines that explained how our brains are literally wired (with neurons) for sound and that the prime time period for language learning is birth to 10 years old. I can’t find that particular article, but here is an excerpt from another article that says basically the same thing:
[quote]Prime Time for Language Learning / Why can babies learn language so much more easily than adolescents or adults? Part of the answer has to do with differences in our brains. The baby
Prime time for language acquisition, not learning (which is a formal process of learning “about” something, i.e., writing/reading, although reading, being receptive, is easier to master.)
Don’t expect native writing, however, without long-term education in that language. Writing is not a “natural” skill the brain is necessarily wired to “pick up”, while spoken language is. And being a native speaker doesn’t guarantee good writing, either…but usually, if the parents aren’t too closely related by blood before marriage, it will give the kid good grammar in spoken language 
I’d say go to a Taiwanese kindergarten. I mean #1) she is in Taiwan #2) she is partly Taiwanese. I don’t see why there would be a need for her to speak another language at such a young age when everyone around her, the food she eats, ppl she sees are mostly Taiwanese. Unless she isn’t staying in Taiwan for very long, and you’d want to raise her in another country, it would be wise for her to learn in a Taiwanese kindergarten, not just for language reasons but for her heritage as well.
[quote=“ironlady”]Prime time for language acquisition, not learning (which is a formal process of learning “about” something, i.e., writing/reading, although reading, being receptive, is easier to master.)
[/quote]
when kids learn languages from bi/trilingual parents, is it true that the parent has to speak consistently in one language. ie dad speaks english, mom speaks french in order for this hardwiring to work. curious, cuz my chinese is really screwed up. my mom and dad spoke 3 dialects plus english interchangeably, even midsentence. so now i have fragments of 3 dialects, but at least fluency in english (though i’ve noticed a downward trend living here. i blame it on my boss. her english is so poor, i can feel myself getting stupid.)
Send your kids where you want to send them. Others have their own take on things but in the end, the choice is yours. What do you want your child to get out of school? And . . . why?
For our family, our daughter went to a local kindergarten, Chinese. There really weren’t many options for an English one in our neck of the woods, although in the past few years the things have popped up pretty much everywhere.
I wouldn’t dream of sending my daughter to TAS . . . partly as I believe living in Taiwan my daughter should be a part of the local cultural experience rather than apart from it . . . and partly (well, mostly) as the blasted place is too far away for a convenient commute and more expensive than regular humans should ever be willing to pay.
Of course, as I work in a university with an excellent affiliated experimental school system, my daughter has wonderful opportunities in the local system - and her school is just around the corner from where we live, literally.
While . . . for me . . . it is very important that my daughter have an identity of “being American” as I am sure you want your child to “be German” . . . we also live in Taiwan and my daughter is also Chinese so I want her to have that experience and identity as well.
It’s a tough choice . . . but don’t worry too much about it . . . just decide what sort of identity you want your child to have . . . and make the choice based upon that . . . a mutual decision with your wife’s input as well as your own with what you both together feel has your child’s best interests at heart.
Thanks again for the comments.
In the meantime our doughter had her first day in the German Kindergarten, part of the Taipei European School. After going “Window shopping” to some Taiwanese Kinderartens, we liked the huge campus and rooms the kids can use. I also quite like the more personal relationship between teachers and parents. (Majority are also Taiwanese-German couples)
Surprisingly, it is not that much more expensive than the Taiwanese Kindergartens.