NCS. Non Cantonese Speaking students - this is an important TLA to know. If your child is already of primary school age and you want/need to go to a local Cantonese medium primary school - you can, but you will have to spend time searching for the appropriate welcoming school that meets your educational philosophy and goals.
There are two basic approaches to this:
1. At a Designated School for Non-Native Speakers
These are special Cantonese medium schools that have a high percentage of non-native Cantonese speakers. You can find a list of these on the gov website pages.
These schools each have their own methods of getting newcomers up to speed and will accept older primary year students as long as they have the space. Some will put the older kids down a level or two until they catch up, others will provide extra lessons, some will use a combination.
I saw a school like this take a P5 student, who had little English and no Cantonese and get her to a very decent level of spoken fluency in both within 2 years.
2. At regular Cantonese primary schools that use the standard HK curriculum.
Some schools are more welcoming to foreign students than others, some schools have experience with students arriving with no Cantonese and pride themselves in being able to get them up to speed so they can fully integrate with the local level students.
I have seen a school that has about 10% foreign students, some of which arrived with no cantonese, and this school likes to pull them out of certain lessons and give them small group tutorial during Chinese and math to help them, as well as allow them to use the English version of the General Studies book (sometimes along side the Chinese version) and will sometimes offer bilingual test papers/homework - but it varies and is up to how you want to do it too (this or full immersion). They might also provide after school tutorials or other assistance.
I saw a school like this pride themselves in the students they did this with! They gave me four examples, and of those four I met two of the families, super results!
I also want to add, that many (but not all) of the Designated Schools for Non-Native Cantonese Speakers follow an 'adjusted' curriculum that is not as strict or intense as a standard local school, and with the majority of the students being non-native speakers, the playground language is often not Cantonese. Many of these students either go to a similar secondary school or an English medium secondary school. Some would have trouble going on to a Cantonese medium secondary school.
Other NCS schools have a 'two stream' approach' whereby one stream studies identical curriculum to standard Cantonese medium schools, and the other stream uses more English and has a gentler Cantonese curriculum.
So it really depends on your academic goals and your education philosophy - i.e. gentle bilingual approach or full immersion approach, to get by in Cantonese conversation, or to be able to be fully literate in written Chinese.
Related Links
You can read more about NCS students and schools from the EDB Website
In May 2013, the HK Standard newspaper interviewed me and other NCS parents in this article, and school principals in this article.
Three different views on NCS schools in HK:
Caught Between Hong Kong's Two Systems
Tearing Down the Walls of Segregation
Racism in the Classroom
Recent news in HK:
Court Action against Racially Segregated Schools (SCMP, use Chrome, right click link and choose 'Open in Incognito Window)
From July 2013, a change of thought in the EDB's treatment of NCS students.
Photo: Sassy with some of her friends at primary school
There are two basic approaches to this:
1. At a Designated School for Non-Native Speakers
These are special Cantonese medium schools that have a high percentage of non-native Cantonese speakers. You can find a list of these on the gov website pages.
These schools each have their own methods of getting newcomers up to speed and will accept older primary year students as long as they have the space. Some will put the older kids down a level or two until they catch up, others will provide extra lessons, some will use a combination.
I saw a school like this take a P5 student, who had little English and no Cantonese and get her to a very decent level of spoken fluency in both within 2 years.
2. At regular Cantonese primary schools that use the standard HK curriculum.
Some schools are more welcoming to foreign students than others, some schools have experience with students arriving with no Cantonese and pride themselves in being able to get them up to speed so they can fully integrate with the local level students.
I have seen a school that has about 10% foreign students, some of which arrived with no cantonese, and this school likes to pull them out of certain lessons and give them small group tutorial during Chinese and math to help them, as well as allow them to use the English version of the General Studies book (sometimes along side the Chinese version) and will sometimes offer bilingual test papers/homework - but it varies and is up to how you want to do it too (this or full immersion). They might also provide after school tutorials or other assistance.
I saw a school like this pride themselves in the students they did this with! They gave me four examples, and of those four I met two of the families, super results!
I also want to add, that many (but not all) of the Designated Schools for Non-Native Cantonese Speakers follow an 'adjusted' curriculum that is not as strict or intense as a standard local school, and with the majority of the students being non-native speakers, the playground language is often not Cantonese. Many of these students either go to a similar secondary school or an English medium secondary school. Some would have trouble going on to a Cantonese medium secondary school.
Other NCS schools have a 'two stream' approach' whereby one stream studies identical curriculum to standard Cantonese medium schools, and the other stream uses more English and has a gentler Cantonese curriculum.
So it really depends on your academic goals and your education philosophy - i.e. gentle bilingual approach or full immersion approach, to get by in Cantonese conversation, or to be able to be fully literate in written Chinese.
Related Links
You can read more about NCS students and schools from the EDB Website
In May 2013, the HK Standard newspaper interviewed me and other NCS parents in this article, and school principals in this article.
Three different views on NCS schools in HK:
Caught Between Hong Kong's Two Systems
Tearing Down the Walls of Segregation
Racism in the Classroom
Recent news in HK:
Court Action against Racially Segregated Schools (SCMP, use Chrome, right click link and choose 'Open in Incognito Window)
From July 2013, a change of thought in the EDB's treatment of NCS students.
Photo: Sassy with some of her friends at primary school
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