Somewhere over the rainbow…

Why Thai School?

This is going to be a boring and lengthy post. So if you are too busy to go on, just skip to the next post with lots of pics.

Lots of my friends and relatives are asking the same question these days, why are we sending Justin and Isabelle to Thai school which is totally alien to them, considering that they can’t speak Thai. I want to make it clear that we have thought about this for some time, especially after lots of school hunting on our previous trips.

We visited as many preschools as possible, ranging from Thai Bilingual (with Thai and English syllabus) and International schools (only British or American syllabus and one Thai culture). We have long term plan to build our business here in Bangkok, and there’s no turning back. We invested most of our money here, so we really hope to see a better future. To survive in Bangkok, we need to speak Thai. Hubby can speak simple Thai but me, I just can’t. I understand some words, but not in full sentences. My kids can’t learn much because they still speak in English, so that’s the main reason why they are going to a Thai preschool now. We could just choose a bilingual school, but it’s not near our office. We have to think about traffic jam and time used for traveling, so the nearest school is the best. It has only Thai syllabus, and 90% of teachers and students speak pure Thai!

Besides that, this school is much cheaper. If you are wondering how much you have to pay for international schools, check this, this and this. Besides that, Isabelle is too young for most of the international schools. We really don’t want to separate them now as it’s pretty stressful for kids to start all over in a foreign land.

I guess both Justin and Isabelle have no choice but to learn the language. A year later, I think they can speak well as kids learn faster than adults. Justin said he doesn’t know what’s the teacher teaching everyday, except for English lesson. We pay for extra English class with an American teacher, so he teaches him 4 days a week. I know that he won’t be able to learn much until he masters Thai, but we cannot be kiasu. The main priority is learning Thai language, so we have to “let go” of other aspects first, and he can still pick up the subjects at elementary in international school later.

I bought lots of books from Kumon and other publishers. I thought that I can start some home schooling, but Justin is too tired to do so when we get home. We are only busier in the late evening, so we go home rather late. After dinner, the kids are exhausted, so how to learn more? On weekends, we prefer to bring them around to see REAL things than going for extra classes. They are still very young, so let them have a break first. Maybe they will learn science by digging the worms in our garden, taking care of their turtles or watering their bean plants (I didn’t blog about it). Maybe they will learn maths by helping me washing the potatoes or getting their jelly beans. Maybe they will learn about English grammar by just speaking to us. Maybe they will learn Chinese by watching some movies or speaking to their “half bucket” parents. LOL! All I know is, we cannot compare how much they learn based on academic anymore.

I am not too concern about Isabelle as she’s very young. She only cried 2 days for a short while at school and she’s ok now. She makes excuses like “I want to go to office now” every morning when we send her to school, but she’s alright when I pass her over to her teacher. She wet her pants for the first 3 days because the teachers couldn’t understand what she’s trying to say by “I want to pee pee”. Pee is ssh in Thai. But now they know. LOL!

Both of them like school and I can see their happy faces when I pick them up. We know that our kids cannot be learning as much as most kids in Malaysia and we are very lenient in their education. But again, we cannot be kiasu as they are growing up in a different environment now.

So, now you understand?