Excellent Chinese school in the bay area…read more
My son was attending school in Hong Kong in his early age, during the time, his teachers were mostly using Cantonese and English, and of course, his classmates were speaking Cantonese too.
When we relocated to the bay area, we found a problem that he started NOT using Cantonese to talk to us and so does talking to his little brother.
My wife and I think it's critical to keep his mother language, which is Cantonese, in both verbal communications and writing skills.
We start looking for a good Chinese school, which is teaching Chinese using Cantonese and Traditional Chinese characters, for my sons to learn Chinese. And then realized finding such school is extremely difficult!
Most Chinese schools are teaching mandarine and simplified Chinese characters; I don't against using it, but as a Hongkonger, we grew up using Cantonese and Traditional Chinese, we can better teach our kids using the same language, and we think Cantonese and Traditional Chinese are harder to learn, kids can always be able to learn the mandarine and simplified Chinese when they grown up, provided that they have a good foundation of Chinese culture and understanding of Chinese.
as a result, we go to this school, west valley Chinese school.
The class schedule is every Friday night, 2hr each, we can still have Sat to do something else, it's a good fit for us. The most important part is the teaching programme, which can continue his Chinese education without much difficulties on starting, which make everything easier for parents to send their kids to school.
My son had been there for two years, we are really enjoying the learning environments, making friends who're speaking the same language with us, and a lot of activities that can enhance the ability of my son (and us) to use Chinese. I am really glad that the teachers there are very professional and teaching with heart;
As an example, my son was having a read-a-loud competition, and the teacher were using her spare time to do extra training with him, for two months before the class; We are talking to the teacher almost everytime after class, learnt the difficulties of teaching kids the Chinese in the US, and got a lot of advice from the teacher on how can we do better, and also share the techniques to communicate with kids. Just like normal daytime school.
I will send my 2nd kid to the school for sure.
I hope my kids can be attending the school till grade-12, making friends there and having fun. So far from the two years school life, I would say it's promising ;).