其實係咪間間禮賢會幼稚園都係一樣既呢
===>No....禮賢會係個"堂口" only :lol: 即係佢下面既人搞既幼稚園可以唔同 quality 的, 個 overall objectives 就會跟大隊既, 但質素就真係個別的會有d唔同的, 所以有d 係 popular d, but some are not lor...
I'm a newcomer and it's my 1st time writing in a chatroom . Sorry I don't know how to chat directly to you so I check the "response box". I also don't know how to type Chinese. I 've been reading all your pages and become one of your fans. You once said that you were looking for some Eng Tutoring class but can't find a good one. Do you have any comment on the toddlers' class at HK YMCA(TST)? It seems no one mention about it here. I also heard that Kumon has Eng class for 3yr+. Any comment also?
如果我個仔佢用英文表達好過中文,咁你又認為佢應該讀EMI OR CMI既幼稚園呢????
==> 只係幼稚園 EMI 冇用的, 我前面都已經講過, language 係 SKILLS , SKILLS 係要用時間 train 的, 仲有, 唔用得耐就會生秀, so 只係幼稚園係 EMI 有鬼用, 一陣小學係 CMI (大部份小學 in HK 都係 CMI, pls note...even 喇沙呀個d 都係 CMI 小學, 即係講中文教架, 係d書用英文咁架咋) , 另番到屋企又係全翡翠台, 人人都中文, 咁點會有效果呢...so why waste $$$ at this stage if you are not sure you can continue to provide such environment (EMI) to your kid ? 而且幼稚園得個 3 個鐘上堂, 仲係唔係 part part 都係教 English ga ma...so...how much do you think they can learn here, if there are no reinforcement after that?
再者, 又係提提你溫書了, 你有冇睇彥媽前面d野架...
我一向都支持響幼稚園既階段無須太刻意去揾所謂 EMI 幼稚園, 原因係響六歲以前, build up a positive and correct attitude (value sytem) is far more important than whatever knowledge and skills that you give them, and even to train up their physical ability, attention span, etc...(你有冇睇前面架) 係更應響前面做, so 你睇完先再睇睇你是否仍是想 make the same decision 先丫..
你叫 Paulmom, hehe, 咁咪係我 99 lor (我老公叫 Paul ar ma...hehe )
YMCA Toddlers Class
==> 我有留意呢d class, well, I cannot say they are no good at all, but the point is....你要知...好多呢d class is not DIRECTLY taught by YMCA staff, i.e. most of these courses are "outsourced courses", so in that case, the profit margin for those English Centre who co-organised with YMCA 都係為左搞大自己個名, 之後就可以令自己個 centre 名氣大d, then 就間接可以令自己個 centre 收多d學生 or even 令本身 YMCA D 學生"轉會"直接去佢地樹讀, 仲平d 添..so in that case, 基於商業考慮, 又要同 YMCA 拆賬, then 又要分俾老師, so for sure the salary of the tutors will not be too high, 咁試問又點可以揾到d好好質素既老師呢...又或者咁講, 好既唔會幫佢地教, 因為自己都揾到食了, 駛乜去 d English tutoring school 呢類學校掛單呢...??
so 我會咁睇, 當細路仲係細, 我地既目的只係想佢同多d唔同小朋友接觸, 又有機會見下外國人, 訓練下佢地大膽d, 咁就無妨既 (i.e. 4-5 歲以前我都或者會見d course 平平地, 師生比例唔好太多, e.g. 1:4 就最好 or below) 但去得 K3 or P1 and above, 我要佢地就唔係只係 fun fun fun 咁學英文嘛, 而係要有章法了, i.e. grammar, listening, comprehension, composition etc...then 我就會話呢d course 唔會 meet 到我既 requirement la...我會寧願比高少少價錢, get an experienced English teacher to train them in the form of 1:3 something...that's much better, 我仲想睇到好清楚既 evaluation standard (how can I know they have learnt, behaviorally speaking, 要識答我, 同表達先得架嘛...etc) so since 彥媽 is so demanding here, so 一直未 bok 鎚啦, 不過最近我又有人 refer 左間 English tutoring school 比我 (我一定唔會 walk in 去揾架, 要睇 referral, 因為依家 HK 地實在太多人唔係"貨真價實"了), so I plan to try try this one (refer by somebody) next week la (I am not in HK right now ar....will be back this Friday)..
I also heard that Kumon has Eng class for 3yr+.
==> well..do you know how KUMON system works? The most significant achievement of KUMON is that it can train up the kid to be "self-disciplined", i.e. they can be able to do the homework on their own, w/o much (or even no) supervision...and this could relieve parents' quite a lot, and train the kid to be independent, however, the other side effect of doing so will be the boredom that attached with this system, all kids need to do the KUMON exercise repeatedly from time to time, and I have to say, not all kids could be able to stand with that.
另一方面, KUMON English 係靠聽 DVD 練讀音的, 即係屬於較單向性既 learning, however, language training would rely very much on two-way interaction. So in that case, I dun think kids will find that too interesting, they will just do the exercises with an objective just to complete it (bcos mom needs me to do so) instead of doing that with a learning heart.
仲有, 佢地係會有 centre tutor to teach them with English, but I really wonder about the quality of the teacher there, KUMON 係 franchise business, 個d tutor 只係 learn how to use KUMON exercises when they run their own centre, 唔係 learn "English", 所以佢地d英文水平都可以好參差的, 因此, 我之前俾大仔試過 (因為有 free trial) 但最後都冇 continue 就是如此.
但無論點都好, 即使你響中間 08 Oct 入, then 到 2009 都係要讀番 K1 ga wor...so 你係咪 OK 先, if 係咪都係 2009 Sep 先讀 K1, then why not wait till that time and even 讀, 都 continue N1 instead??
不過佢又3歲幾,又會唔會大左d呢?
==>點解咁諗....你咁諗 1 月1 號出世個個咪仲"慘"??, 學習最緊要係學到, i.e. create sense of SUCCESS, 唔係 sense of failure, so 在一般情況, 雖則唔可以話細仔學得一定慢過人, 但我地就絕對有理由相信大d 學野會快d, 因為佢地既 development 會較一個同年 12 月 born 既快, so even 讀埋同一年既幼稚園, 反而會較易做到學校既要求, 咁唔係好d咩..??
另...唔好俾 HK 既教育制度嚇親以為越早讀書就越好先得架, 係 HK 人鍾意"行前d搭的士" 個種心態人人亙相影響而比較之嘛...外國好多係 4 or even 5+ 先讀架喇, 又唔見佢地"唔好"???
你suggest西九o既朗思,我都想過這間,呢間好似係國際幼稚園,咁學費一定唔平喇
==> it is not cheap ga....but 佢"客路"唔同丫嘛...so for those who put English as priority 既, they will like "THINK" la..
Thank you so much for your rely and I really appreciated you put a lot efforts to answer in such details. I feel you are just like a god who knows everything and so kind to share with everyone. I hope you can share with me when you find a good Eng class.
I like to tell more about me as you have typed a lot and I don't want to leave like this. My son is going to PC K1 2007. That's why I searched for info on PC and I found your site. As many other PC moms might concern PC is CMI so they try to emphasize on Eng tutoring for their kids, to me it's nothing wrong. Therefore I have joined the playtots class in YMCA (My 1st one and I have no comparison). As you said learning Eng is a long process and need reinforcement and more... For better or worse, Eng tutoring class gives the kids a place to learn or contact Eng, with other peers. It's like building up their interests first and we can talk about learning later. I know it's hard to find a good one in HK as it's a commercial society (like you mention above and I believe what you said). But sometimes doing somthing is better than doing nothing.
I feel the same way about Kumon as you mentioned but I thought your big son joined them before so I just asked. I hope you can share with me if you have time about your experience with classes(any kind) so I can learn.
Thanks again!
Saw your reply to whitesheep about the diff "selling points" of current KGs, wants to again!
"再者, 好多呢d model 都係 developed by other countries, 咁提倡呢d model 既學者又有考慮到幾多 cultural differences 既影響呢? "
I agree some "qualities" or developmental process are universal, but not all. Very agree on this point.
"When East Meets West...美國佬講野就講到嘩嘩聲喇, 但佢地呢d 乜乜 business model 入到大6又有幾 work 呢"
Frankly speaking, I even don't see any "Doman" model in my neighbourhood as recently I am exploring the different pre-schools here in LA, I really think it's a "business model". One more point: westerners are really very diversed. Here near our home in LA, I saw diff kinds of pre-schools: some well-structured like that in HK, some are so free.... And the parents will not say that the latter is a "bad" school, they just need to choose whatever suit their kids.
Thanks for your compliment ar...I am not a god, hehe but just a nosy mother who really wanna know clearly what I am doing before I made any choices and recommendations only. And I love to explore about education - simply bcos my job relates quite a lot with this la... :mrgreen:
As I always emphasized, PC is NOT a "bad" school as people may think simply becos it is a CMI, cos training up a kid should never rely on language training only, but a holistic approach to bring them up, so PC is aiming at this, thus it never surprised me that the amount of resources they put in English is not as much as other schools who claimed to be EMIs. So I would never "complain" about their English standard (yet they are improving quite a lot already as compared to 4 years ago), cos I know so well about how well their English standard is...and I always believe that, if I found that's not enough, there are so many ways and resources outside which could help me to compensate this, that's why my sons are still at PC till now.
But I just feel very sorry that quite a lot of parents want to apply PC (a CMI school), yet on the other hand, keep comparing PC with other EMI schools saying that "We need a NET!", "Why is there only half an hour NET taught lesson!", "I wish my son got good English!", etc....Well...I do think parents got to think carefully what they are their ultimate objective about their kid's education before they enrol them to any of the schools in HK - give and take, a very simple principle here...so I always said, dun just enrol PC becos it is a through-train school, we gonna look at things from different aspects, if English does matter to parents, then why choose PC even if it is a through-train school, right?
But sometimes doing somthing is better than doing nothing.
==> agree with you at this point, as long as there are no better choices we can find at this moment, the "best" one among all the current alternatives should be the "best" choice then
I hope you can share with me if you have time about your experience with classes(any kind) so I can learn
==> sure, as long as all of you are willing to spend time here...彥媽一定得閒就響樹吹吹水先...呵呵~~~
就係: 若問德福幼稚園同祟真比, 兩間我會揀近d, 校舍企理d個間喇..因為老實講, 以幼稚園 level 黎計, 真係間間都差不多的, 分別只在於有d有小學掛勾而較有優勢而已, so if you are interested in 祟小, then 祟真可以考慮, whereas if you are not aiming at 祟小, 就冇必要讀祟幼了, 除非佢響你樓下啦...