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I volunteered a couple times at an elementary school near Jordan (a neighborhood in Hong Kong) where lots of South Asian kids attend. I am not sure if the ones

by khc 10y ago

I volunteered a couple times at an elementary school near Jordan (a neighborhood in Hong Kong) where lots of South Asian kids attend. I am not sure if the ones I saw were refugees but they clearly needed more help. Many of them were sufficiently smart to do well in school but the curriculum was only designed for people who are fluent in Chinese. For example, the Math homework was all in Chinese but many of the kids could barely spoke Chinese, let alone read (they spoke English reasonably well though). It's no wonder that many of them didn't want to do homework and (presumably) not doing well in school, even if you don't consider the situations at home. Hong Kong has good public education but the local schools are all designed for the local population. The expats (and well off families) send their kids to international schools which are expensive. I am really not sure what's the best way to help those kids.

analyst74 10y ago
Do they not have special classes to teach people Chinese? Like how in English speaking countries, there are normally resources to help people learn English.
- khc 10y ago
  They might have. I was volunteering at a weekly afternoon tutoring session but clearly that wasn't the objective of the session. There could have been another session where Chinese was taught. Judging from their language competency though I don't think whatever classes existed helped. Even if those special classes existed, you have to realize how much of a daily discouragement it is to be asked to do homework everyday in a language you don't understand. I ended up translating the Math problems into English for one kid and she had no problem doing them afterwards. (Another kid though couldn't do basic additions even though he was already at 2nd grade. Not trying to say that language is the only problem they have)
- pcr0 10y ago
  The schools don't offer them, as they aren't a part of the public curriculum. People are still campaigning for it. Apart from that there are free Chinese classes at some churches, that's about it. Outside classes are simply not enough though, there's no way a foreign child could catch up to local children who've been immersed in Chinese since birth. And the public Chinese curriculum is a challenge even for locals. Lastly, Hong Kong people speak Cantonese which is considerably more difficult that Putonghua which most of China speaks. (More complex characters, more than double the tones)
pcr0 10y ago
That's unfortunate. I was able to go to a subsidized private school for ethnic minorities, which cost about USD 300/month. Same local curriculum, all English.

by khc 10y ago

analyst74 10y ago

Do they not have special classes to teach people Chinese? Like how in English speaking countries, there are normally resources to help people learn English.

khc 10y ago
They might have. I was volunteering at a weekly afternoon tutoring session but clearly that wasn't the objective of the session. There could have been another session where Chinese was taught. Judging from their language competency though I don't think whatever classes existed helped. Even if those special classes existed, you have to realize how much of a daily discouragement it is to be asked to do homework everyday in a language you don't understand. I ended up translating the Math problems into English for one kid and she had no problem doing them afterwards. (Another kid though couldn't do basic additions even though he was already at 2nd grade. Not trying to say that language is the only problem they have)
pcr0 10y ago
The schools don't offer them, as they aren't a part of the public curriculum. People are still campaigning for it. Apart from that there are free Chinese classes at some churches, that's about it. Outside classes are simply not enough though, there's no way a foreign child could catch up to local children who've been immersed in Chinese since birth. And the public Chinese curriculum is a challenge even for locals. Lastly, Hong Kong people speak Cantonese which is considerably more difficult that Putonghua which most of China speaks. (More complex characters, more than double the tones)

pcr0 10y ago

That's unfortunate. I was able to go to a subsidized private school for ethnic minorities, which cost about USD 300/month. Same local curriculum, all English.