School Daze

If you told me a year ago that I'd be spending my October days and nights preoccupied with what schools we should have Evangeline apply to for next year, I would have fallen out of my chair laughing. The awful truth is that schools in Hong Kong are an incredibly big deal, even for preschoolers. At age three, children start going to school for three years of kindergarten before starting primary school at age six. All kindergartens in Hong Kong are technically privately run, but most are subsidized by the government. However, all "international" kindergartens are completely private and don't receive any government funding. Before we moved here, I thought we would definitely put Evangeline in a government-subsidized kindergarten so she could learn Cantonese. But almost all of the Westerners we meet are horrified by this concept and insist that we send her to an international kindergarten. The rationale is that it's fairly worthless to know Cantonese from an international perspective, people are worried about their children losing their English ability, and that generally, "local" schools are of lower quality and are designed to prepare students for the exam-heavy Hong Kong primary schools.

I've been researching schools and have narrowed the possibilities down considerably. First of all, we don't want to send her to a kindergarten that is far away because it's ridiculous for a three-year old to commute a long way every day to go to school for three hours. And we'd really like her to learn another language, either Cantonese or Mandarin. That weeded out quite a few of the international kindergartens in the area, since they just don't have enough Chinese to make it worthwhile. There is one international kindergarten that seems to have a good balance between English and Chinese, so we're going to go there this Saturday when their application period opens. They have a class that is in Mandarin and English, and then a class that is in Cantonese/Mandarin/English. The best "local" option so far seems to be a Lutheran kindergarten in our village. I went there last week for a tour, and on Saturday we went for their carnival and Evangeline's interview. They don't seem to have any Western students, but the principal said that they've had Asian students from other backgrounds that didn't speak any Cantonese and they have done fine and picked it up quickly through immersion. They do instruction in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English, although realistically, I'm sure it's mostly Cantonese in their first year. I was a little worried about homework, since I have heard that many kindergartners have daily homework (at the request of the parents), but the principal assured me that they don't have homework until the final year of kindergarten.

Our interview was really weird. First of all, it's strange that they interview two-year-olds, although it's just the norm here. We sat at a little table with one of the teachers and she asked Evangeline some questions. She had Evangeline look at a book and name the parts on a doll's face. Evangeline wasn't really at her best, since we had been interacting with a lot of strangers already and it was right before her nap time. And there were some language barriers, since the teacher's English wasn't awesome and it's hard to understand a two-year-old no matter what language you're speaking. I felt funny walking out of the interview, finding myself wishing that we had prepped Evangeline better! I'm already getting caught up in the hype, I'm afraid.

Assuming Evangeline isn't restricted by the application process, we'll just have to decide what school will be best for her. As is so often the case with tough decisions, I almost wish we didn't have the luxury of options. Since all of the kids in the local kindergarten at least appear to be Chinese, it did occur to us that maybe she would feel isolated by being the only one who looks different. I've poked around on the internet and it seems like at least on the kindergarten level, that isn't a problem. The kids are mostly inclusive, and if there is any extra attention, it's almost always positive. If we were of another ethnicity, particularly a less desirable Asian ethnicity, that would be another story!

I will keep you posted as we learn more and go further through the process. Wish us luck!

Evangeline waits to do a craft at the kindergarten carnival

Getting a hand from one of the teachers