Looking for private thai school for 3 kids

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bigideas
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Re: Looking for private thai school for 3 kids

Post by bigideas »

Hi Nille,
I think you should visit Yamsaard School Hua Hin website and also put it on your list of schools to visit. My daughter has had a great year there. It's a bilingual school with both a Thai teacher and a foreign teacher assigned as homeroom teachers for every class. It costs the same as Somtawin. Has many completely foreign kids too - Swedish, German, Russian, Indian, Greek and more. The atmosphere and behaviour of kids is excellent. They have started doing Cambridge English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) exams for kids. But IGCSEs or IB you will have to organise and prepare for yourselves. I have written alot about it in other posts so I shall stop now but I think your children will be happier there than at Somtawin - though I am biased as my son has attended Somtawin for 5 years and we have found the admin inefficient.
Nille
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Re: Looking for private thai school for 3 kids

Post by Nille »

Thanks, its now on my list.
STW_Ryan
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Re: Looking for private thai school for 3 kids

Post by STW_Ryan »

Nille wrote: Just one thing with schools - parents and teachers seems to be biased towards their choice... :?
That's human nature. For what it's worth, I say my STW is a good school because I wouldn't choose to be there for 3 years if it were not.

Somtawin is primarily English language but has 5 Thai lessons a week, and our Thai students generally don't have a problem reading, writing or speaking Thai. I guess though it depends on what you're looking for, so if the amount of Thai we offer isn't enough for you then maybe other options will be more suitable. Our aim is to provide an education that fits the needs of our students. The best opportunities for our Thai students will come from knowing English (most of the best jobs require it I'm afraid, and it opens up opportunities for them to do business abroad when they're older), while our foreign students may not be in Thailand permanently, in which case English will be useful wherever they go.

I certainly don't want our students to neglect the Thai language, but in my view it is essential that they speak English well so that they can have more opportunities in life when they get older, both here in Thailand and abroad.

One final point before I vanish for some well-deserved sleep. Kids are brilliant. They can absorb so much information, it's amazing. Kids can deal with two languages much more efficiently than us oldies can do it.

Anyway, good luck with whichever school you choose. I would recommend doing as much research as possible (which you seem to be doing) and talk to parents at each school, try to look around the schools to see the facilities (and meet staff if you can), and hopefully you'll find the best option so that your children can be happy, well-rounded and have as many opportunities open to them as possible.
Nille
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Re: Looking for private thai school for 3 kids

Post by Nille »

Just want to let you know that we have tickets for Septemeber 27 and have still not enrolled our kids anywhere. If anyone here of a school low on students please do not hesitate to contact me :)

We plan to visit schools of interest during October
nanyang
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Re: Looking for private thai school for 3 kids

Post by nanyang »

Somtawin is primarily English language but has 5 Thai lessons a week, and our Thai students generally don't have a problem reading, writing or speaking Thai.
I certainly don't want our students to neglect the Thai language, but in my view it is essential that they speak English well so that they can have more opportunities in life when they get older, both here in Thailand and abroad.
Regarding the provision of Thai lessons, it is mandatory to have the Thai language in your curriculum even though you are a private school.

Kids are brilliant. They can absorb so much information, it's amazing. Kids can deal with two languages much more efficiently than us oldies can do it.
My second point is that the key to foreign language fluency is to start language acquisition as early as possible http://www.ourlanguages.org.uk

My comments are not intended to be critical merely informative. :D
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tarakandi
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Re: Looking for private thai school for 3 kids

Post by tarakandi »

A few years ago I was interviewing young Thai graduate engineers and the one lad was from British/Thai background, born and educated in Thailand.

His technical knowledge was good and his English was excellent and I was keen to employ him.

Once I had finished interviewing him the next step in the process was the HR interview and he failed miserably, seemingly his spoken Thai was barely adequate and reading and writing poor.

So unfortunately we could not employ him and I never so the lad again.
Last edited by tarakandi on Thu Jul 29, 2010 5:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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sandman67
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Re: Looking for private thai school for 3 kids

Post by sandman67 »

The words "home schooling" usually have me running for my baseball bat, but there was a thread started recently by a home schooler group in Hua Hin who, from the sound of it, will give your kids a start ten times better than any rote learning and plagarism drone factory the Thias laughingly call a school.

and before I get accused of being anti-Thai I have the words of two friends in the profession - one teaches english and another maths at local schools. They both said they wont send their kids to the schools they teach at. That should tell you something...

My kids can only now show me on a globe where Thailand is. And thats because when they visit us daddy teaches them in a fun way that gets the knowledge in rather than drills rote learning into their heads in an atmosphere of fear of asking questions.

Their educations are pretty compromised already...Mrs S didnt know better......dont make that mistake.
"Science flew men to the moon. Religion flew men into buildings."

"To sin by silence makes cowards of men."
nanyang
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Re: Looking for private thai school for 3 kids

Post by nanyang »

tarakandi wrote:A few years ago I was interviewing young Thai graduate engineers and the one lad was from British/Thai background, born and educated in Thailand.

His technical knowledge was good and his English was excellent and I was keen to employ him.

Once I had finished interviewing him the next step in the process was the HR interview and he failed miserably, seemingly his spoken Thai was barely adequate and reading and writing poor.

So unfortunately we could not employ him and I never so the lad again.

And your point is?
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tarakandi
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Re: Looking for private thai school for 3 kids

Post by tarakandi »

Sorry I was responding to Nille quote

"My 2 cents. Fluency in Thai is by far more important that fluency in English (it will come anyway) for us. I have met so many international students with a thaiparent that have thai as their second language (living in Thailand). Personally I think that is embarrassing. Imagine being Thai, having a great education, looking for good job in Thailand, and not being able to spell in your mother tongue..."
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Re: Looking for private thai school for 3 kids

Post by poosmate »

Nille. So not to be dissapointed most schools have holidays and are closed for some of October.
no more dePreston
nanyang
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Re: Looking for private thai school for 3 kids

Post by nanyang »

sandman67 wrote:The words "home schooling" usually have me running for my baseball bat, but there was a thread started recently by a home schooler group in Hua Hin who, from the sound of it, will give your kids a start ten times better than any rote learning and plagarism drone factory the Thias laughingly call a school.

and before I get accused of being anti-Thai I have the words of two friends in the profession - one teaches english and another maths at local schools. They both said they wont send their kids to the schools they teach at. That should tell you something...

My kids can only now show me on a globe where Thailand is. And thats because when they visit us daddy teaches them in a fun way that gets the knowledge in rather than drills rote learning into their heads in an atmosphere of fear of asking questions.

Their educations are pretty compromised already...Mrs S didnt know better......dont make that mistake.

If you, or anyone else for that matter, are interested I can point you in the direction of two excellent sites, which are specifically set up to teach kids to read and write.
One also has a structured Maths programme.
They are both free and instruct you how to teach learners in a sequenced programme of lessons.
I can vouch for them as it is working for me with my seven year old.
I was sick and tired of the Thai influence on her pronunciation.
There is no sign of any 'Tinglish' now - thank God and the internet!
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