English, Chinese , French Parttime Kindergarten

[luisparis]

Hi,

I must say that we are a bit confused about educational and linguistic orientations for our daughter, who has a chinese mother who favours cantonese and hakka although she uses mandarine with our daughter and I'm french, speaking french to her. Our nanny is burmese and speaks english. Missus and myself converse in french.

We are looking for a mostly english speaking education for miss Junior but would like her to be able to speak fluently also mandarine and french.

Our daughter is only 10 month old but we are already looking to socialise her. In Paris as soon as they can walk you can send kids part time to upmarket private schools where teachers will work on the intelectual development of 5 to 8 kids at a time. A friend is sending her daughter in such a school twice a week. Do they have such schools in BKK for very young kids, and do they offer part time deals as i don't really want to fork out 3 times 50000TBH a month for a 1year old education , and we'd like to use perhaps two or three schools wich use different languages ?

Besides are there multilingual options around, using at least 2 of the 3 languages above? Please leave thai out of the equation, it's aready diverse enough at the moment.

Besides we live around Saphan Taksin so options near our apartment would be favoured.

Thanks for specific advice or just experiences to share on the topic, they will be most welcome.

Cheers

Luis

[Thailsacien]

Hi Luis,

I don't know any school in your area, but there is a kind of nursery on Yenakat (behind Sathorn) :

http://www.centre-acacia.com/home.html

One of the founders is a native Chinese/English speaker from Singapore and she is very fluent in French too (she teaches French at Garden school). The nursery starts with 18 months children and they are thinking of adding some chinese activities to their programm.

Edited August 18, 2008 by Thailsacien

[luisparis]

Hi Luis,

I don't know any school in your area, but there is a kind of nursery on Yenakat (behind Sathorn) :

http://www.centre-acacia.com/home.html

One of the founders is a native Chinese/English speaker from Singapore and she is very fluent in French too (she teaches French at Garden school). The nursery starts with 18 months children and they are thinking of adding some chinese activities to their programm.

Thanks a lot. I hadn't heard of that school yet and they do offer flexible enrolment options. Will definetely go and check the school. Would you know if there are mostly french kids going there and how many of them teachers take care at the same time?

Edited August 18, 2008 by luisparis

[Thailsacien]

I don't know the conditions for the nursery, but for the language workshops, they have set a maximum of 6 children by teacher and by room.

Last time, they told me that they have both thai kids and luk krung (thai/french - myself, I bring my daughters there every Saturday morning to improve their English). They have been asked for chinese activities too and they are thinking about it.

[luisparis]

Thanks again,we will definetely go and have a chat with them.

[geovalin]

I read the Alsatian (btw, thank you) post and went to Acacia yesterday about nursery.

I had been pretty impressed by the premises and the professionalism of the two directors.

The nursery is not open yet and will see its fist day of class on September 1st... probably with a few children only.

The web site is very well done so check it to find the information you are looking for.

http://www.centre-acacia.com/home.html

Now, I'm not very fond of the system: some hours in English, some hours in French.

We'll see.

[yeti]

Does anyone know from what age do they accept children in their nursery program? (it's not indicated on their website).

[Thailsacien]

From 18 months

If you click on "Nursery" on the homepage, you can see a small green square on the upper left where you can read (from 18 months to 3 years old":

http://www.centre-acacia.com/espaces/eng/nursery.php

[yeti]

You are right, I should have looked better. Thxs

[luisparis]

You are right, I should have looked better. Thxs

Anymore feedback on that school ? Went to check and although it looked nice it appeared they have 1 teacher only for 15 to 20 children a day in the nursery, and 2 local assistants, who are the same on french and english speaking days, and are supposed to switch between the two languages. Hence aren't the children likely to confuse french with english as the same adults use those two languages ? And are those 2 adults even speaking those 2 languages fluently ?

[geovalin]

You are right, I should have looked better. Thxs

Anymore feedback on that school ? Went to check and although it looked nice it appeared they have 1 teacher only for 15 to 20 children a day in the nursery, and 2 local assistants, who are the same on french and english speaking days, and are supposed to switch between the two languages. Hence aren't the children likely to confuse french with english as the same adults use those two languages ? And are those 2 adults even speaking those 2 languages fluently ?

My grandson spent 3 months at Acacia and I'm very pleased.

The team is professional in anyway. The foreign "teachers" are perfect.

The two Thai women come from another nursery and have an important experience. They speak French and English.

Switching language: I guess the children understand that, like them, the assistants switch language according to the "head teacher".

You'll have a written report every day about how your child spent the day.

Besides the languages, kids learn a lot!

[luisparis]

The two Thai women come from another nursery and have an important experience. They speak French and English.

Have you tried speaking french with both of them before asserting they do speak french ?? The school looks fairly nice but I still suspect such an education is a bit confusing for the kids - especially that from my little experience there the assistant I talked to is very very far to speak fluent french, and it seemed far to speak even broken french. I don't know about her english level but that's one aspect i find a little disturbing about that place.

Besides although she claimed she did speak good thai it appeared the new burmese nanny/maid we hired speaks as little thai as she knows english and this linguistic mess is losing more charm everyday. Think I will send kiddo to the Goethe Institute...

Edited March 31, 2009 by luisparis

[julieph]

The two Thai women come from another nursery and have an important experience. They speak French and English.

Have you tried speaking french with both of them before asserting they do speak french ?? The school looks fairly nice but I still suspect such an education is a bit confusing for the kids - especially that from my little experience there the assistant I talked to is very very far to speak fluent french, and it seemed far to speak even broken french. I don't know about her english level but that's one aspect i find a little disturbing about that place.

Besides although she claimed she did speak good thai it appeared the new burmese nanny/maid we hired speaks as little thai as she knows english and this linguistic mess is losing more charm everyday. Think I will send kiddo to the Goethe Institute...

I have sent my kid to Acacia the last four months and I am very happy with the result. My boy arrived at Acacia with pampers and a pacifier the whole day, refusing to eat by himself and only speaking french. After 4 months, he is toilet-trained, he eats by himself and he no longer needs his pacifier. He can count from 1 to 10 in english and he knows some letters of the alphabet in english. He enjoys singing the english songs that he learns at the nursery. My little boy has grown up after 4 months and it is amazing. I am now not afraid to send him to his first year maternelle in Paris in may this year.

Concerning the assistants, one of them told me that she works part-time after 4pm as an assistant in alliance francaise and I find that she has a good level of french and english. The other assistant, althought her french level is not as fluent, it would be a little exagerating to say that she seems far to speak even broken french and she does has a reasonable level in english. I have spoken to both assistants everyday for the last 4 months that my boy is at Acacia and they are very professional in their job.

The activities are all handled by the teacher who is with the children all the time and she is always there with the children, teaching them and playing with them.

I saw my son react in french with the french teacher and in english with the english teacher with no problem. From what i observe, the french teacher only speaks french and the english teacher only speaks english. The assistants only speak french when it is french days, and they only speak english when it is english day. They do not mix the two languages so there is no problem for the children. THe children are very happy in Acacia and so is my son, and it is a joy to see this for me. :-)

[luisparis]

Julie,

Thanks for your input. Do not infer from my former post I have any doubts about the children well beeing in Les Acacias, we are also very satisfied in that respect.

Edited April 6, 2009 by luisparis