what language to start in at school?

[nic31600]

My daughter is on a waiting list for a bilingual international school. It's an English-French school and they said that we can start her on the first year learning reading and mathematics etc entirely in English and she can learn French for a few hours a week as the foreign language and then repeat all that she had learnt in English entirely in French the 2nd year and then study English for a few hours a week or start her entirely in French and then repeat all that she learnt that year in English the 2nd year just to adjust them to a bilingual education. I think to start off in English as it's not the language she will hear the most or often besides from hearing it from me at home since we live in France and French is all around her but my husband insists we start her in French since we live in France. Any idea which way to start?

[Mandabplus3]

I can't see it would make any difference in the long term, so stress less  I would pick the most common language first ( in your case French) purely because you can easily continue her French education at home during her second year while she learns English at school. I might change my mind if she already was reading in either language...then i would pick the weaker one. Just my humble opinion with no expert knowledge here!

[nic31600]

this is just for the kindergarten schedule and kindergarten is for 3 years in 3 different cycles. Once she starts primary school we have to decide if we want English taught as the first language and French as the second and only French taught for a certain amount of hours a week or vice versa. Then in HS she will study to sit for either the French, British or American exams depending on which language program she chose. It's hard to explain it properly but once she starts Primary school she won't be repeating everything like she had to do in Kindergarten. So I don't know which language to pick as her first language! Since we don't even know where we will be in 20 years time but French is not really that useful compared to English though it is still an important language and we don't know if we will always be living in France.

[Tanikit]

Is there no way of doing both French and English as a first language as it would be better if your child could be bilingual and speak both fluently? She should still be young enough to manage to do both as a first language.

[nic31600]

No there isn't this opportunity given so that is why I'm not sure. She will receive extensive training in the second language but not quite the same.

[Kimba15]

In Singapore the whole schooling system is done in English while all the students speak their national language at home . About 20-30 years ago a decision was made to school all children in english to make them competative in this ever increasing global environment. I personally would lean to schooling her in English because you can not guarantee you will be in France in 10-20 years time so it will help if you move to an English speaking country.

In saying that I do understand why your hubby wants her schooled in French. He does not want his daughter to not understand her language it is a huge part of him and he wants that for her to.  So to a degree I understand where he is coming from but you could still teach her to read, write and do maths in French at home. So she can still be literate in french to she still wont have that much of a language loss because you speak it at home and use it in the community. She will still end up largely bilingual.

That's my personal opinion but its up to you.

[cliffwill88]

Well, If you're living in France then, she must learn to speak French first, for a healthy communication... Then, English comes next,  She must not be pressured to learn all of the things at the same time... she can learn to speak both languages someday!

I love to learn foreign languages! I love to learn Japanese, Korean, even French! I also want my daughter to learn them, too, yeah, someday!

[nic31600]

Kimba15 that is a great response. Our intentions are to move to UK or Australia (prefer America but immigration = super strict or impossible) hopefully one day. She will learn to read, write and do maths in both languages at school and the first 2 years of Kindergarten will be completely in French then that's when we need to make the choice. I think my hubby is considering her studying in English now.

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