Working on the 2021-2022 School Choice Guide was illuminating, to say the least. We were lucky when choosing a school because my husband went on so many business trips before we moved here that he could squeeze in a few tours, and found a school that really fit our children’s personalities well. Then I came over on our look-see trip, also toured our top choices, and voila! We found an excellent match.
Even so, there were hurdles, and over the years I’ve learned about quite a few subtleties that families should know while choosing their school so there isn’t a rude awakening on the first day.
Bilingual, Immersion, International, or a Beijing Experience?
Touring a school in person is incredibly helpful, but fewer expats will get that choice with the travel restrictions staying in flux. There are many schools with helpful virtual tours, and here is one specific thing you will need to know before you choose a school: do you want an “international” or more of a “Beijing” experience?
What do I mean by that? They’re typically lumped together as “International schools” so they’re all international, right? Not quite. And let’s be clear here: we are not talking about the student body demographics themselves, but the primary method of learning Mandarin within each school.
A number of the schools’ populations skew heavily towards children and thus languages from one part of the world, and those are usually obvious: German Embassy School of Beijing, French International School of Beijing (LFIP), Swiss School Beijing, etc. But here is the question you need to know as a family before you contact or tour any school: are you more interested in your child(ren) being in a classroom with a majority of students from different countries for the “international experience”, or a classroom with a majority of students from China or who are fluent in Mandarin already?
This is not a judgment on any person’s end. Like most subtleties of school choice, it really is up to a family’s preference, desires for learning outcomes, and wishes for their children. Sometimes a child is more comfortable knowing they aren’t one of the only kids learning Mandarin for the first time, and sometimes that challenges them to learn faster. A Beijing mom told me her experiences with Year 3 and Year 5 students:
“We moved to Beijing at the end of 2017 and started them at one school that was a nice, beautiful school and good staff but my kids had trouble adjusting because they were practically the only expats in their classes…It wasn’t about not wanting to learn Chinese. When we moved here we wanted to put our kids at an international school…. If our kids wanted to learn Chinese they could but they didn’t have to. We just wanted them to feel comfortable in their school environment. [The] same goes for when we return to the US soon….. We left [that school]for a more international community. It was the right move! My kids feel more comfortable in the English-speaking environment and I like the rigorous academics.”
As for the Jenkins boys, when we return to our home country, my kids will automatically have advantages simply because of the color of their skin color, income bracket, and sex. That’s partly why we chose a school here where our white male children are not in the majority and where they have to work a little harder than their peers. However, our kids started at their school when they were three and five years old, so there were fewer social and academic stresses than the family quoted above would encounter with even just slightly older kids. If they were even a touch older, we also may have looked for a different kind of school so the immersion aspect wouldn’t interfere with their learning.
Melita F., a teenager who started in an immersion environment for Year 8 then switched to a larger, western-based high school, offers her perspective: “At the western-based school, you get people from absolutely everywhere so it makes it easier to understand the pop culture and ease your way in. Specifically, as a teenager, I think now is the time where we have to find out what we like and don’t like, who we are, and where we stand. Having enough diversity and differences around you to be able to truly pick your crowd is a great opportunity. I’m positive you could do the same at a Chinese-based school. I did, but it was just more difficult for me because of how small it was… But if you’re ready to submerge yourself into a totally different traditional environment, it’s still a super cool experience.”
So yeah, it’s tricky. And like most of the decisions involved with choosing a school, it’s personal to every family and every child. Sometimes the preference between international or immersion hinges on what age your children are, sometimes the length of time you’ll be an expat, and sometimes where their friends are going. Be sure that all parents, guardians, and children are on board with the primary language spoken at a school, why that’s your preference, and how you’ll prepare your child for their reality. So when looking at the schools profiled on our website, here is some advice:
- Ask what percentage of the day is conducted in one language versus another.
- Listen to the playground chatter when possible and picture your child in that play environment.
- Is there a Chinese class a certain number of times a week or is every class conducted in two languages?
- If in two languages, what do primarily English or Chinese speakers do in class when the material is being translated?
- How much help outside the classroom is needed for students to learn the language?
- How well do Upper Primary students learn the language through immersion?
- Do parents need to know the language in order to help with homework?
KEEP READING: Letting Kids Learn From the Process, Not Product
Images: Canva
