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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.
by 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 agoThey 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 agoThe 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)