foreign education vs HK education

[zhumgg]

If you want to know the name of Cara's playgroup, just check her profile. So bad that she doesn't have any running in TKO. I would have loved to place my baby in her playgroups.

sorry, I dont find any name of the child care/playgroup mentioned in Carang's profile. Absolutely nothing. Can you just tell us here??

[thanka2]

Think you may be taking Cara's posts the wrong way...she has lived here a long time and is very familiar with child- related things in HK.

Regarding HK 's international schools, it really is a big " if" you can get a spot for expat children and others. There just are not enough spots at all, with priority at many international schools being given to students whose parents employers (or in some cases parents themselves) purchase very expensive debentures, which in many cases now doesn't even guarantee a spot, just a place on the wait list.

As many have noted, there are many factors that go into where a child should be educated, and there are some good things about going to school in HK, but the unfortunate reality in HK is that options are often limited by which schools have room and how much one can afford to pay for a place in a full international school.

Zhumgg,

I'm glad that you found my post useful. :)

I do agree that you may be taking carang's words in the wrong way. I just say this because when I first started on this forum (years ago!) I did not like carang very much at all. (She knows this.) In fact, I used to have "cat fights" with her all the time. Really. But, then I guess I got over myself and then eventually I met her in person and now we're good friends. I realized we actually have a lot in common--especially personality. Yes, she is a very intense person (much like myself!) but she really does know what she's doing as far as education and kids go. She's been doing that non-stop for the past 15 years or so and has seen and experienced a lot in HK. She also understand the local culture pretty well I think as she is married into it and she works with children and their parents from the culture day-in and day-out.

I don't think that she sent her children to a more local school because they couldn't get accepted to an international school. She just chose that path for her childrens' education. There are quite a few other foreign families that I personally know that also chose to send their children through the local stream for various reasons. These children are quite successful and some have recently finished secondary school after attending a local school all of their school years! (which I find to be amazing!) Parents speak little or no Cantonese as well!

As far as the schools that carang owns and operates. I taught in both of them this summer and LOVED the experience. I also sent my child to a well-known (advertised on this website) playgroup in HK when he was small and really thought it was a good-quality program but compared to that playgroup, I much prefer carang's approach. There is a huge waitlist for both of her schools with parents pleading to get their children into the group as soon as possible. All of this is through word of mouth only--parents come, experience the group with their children and can't help but tell their friends. They do little or no professional advertising! It's really amazing, I think. cara, herself, is almost like a local "mini celebrity", I've come to find out--especially in early childhood education circles. I will seriously try to put my youngest child in her playgroup as soon as she is old enough. It was a fantastic experience.

Having said all this, I don't really know the particulars of the disagreement that's going on here. All I know is that carang is a good lady who runs a good program and there are many who can attest to that.

Thanks for reading this. :) Hope you continue to get lots of good input to your question. :)

[peachylin]

Hi zhumgg,

I think I fairly understand your concern about giving the best education to your child as any other parent in this forum want. A lot of posters have actually shared wonderful insights that are definitely helpful to you. I hope things are now clearer and the right decision is yours to make (especially with thanka's post - Thanka, I always get a LOT from your posts!).

I don't often post but I read this forum daily. It is very informative and pleasant. However, I find your later replies a little too aggressive. I can accept this happening in Geoexpat, but reading these things in Geobaby is a little too much for moms to handle. Posters here do not pick fights and they are always helpful, so stay calm :-)

If you do come back to HK, these are the very same people who can become your friends because they are a good bunch :-) I found all my HK friends in this forum.

Happy weekend, zhumgg.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using GeoClicks Mobile

[thanka2]

Hi zhumgg,

I think I fairly understand your concern about giving the best education to your child as any other parent in this forum want. A lot of posters have actually shared wonderful insights that are definitely helpful to you. I hope things are now clearer and the right decision is yours to make (especially with thanka's post - Thanka, I always get a LOT from your posts!).

I don't often post but I read this forum daily. It is very informative and pleasant. However, I find your later replies a little too aggressive. I can accept this happening in Geoexpat, but reading these things in Geobaby is a little too much for moms to handle. Posters here do not pick fights and they are always helpful, so stay calm :-)

If you do come back to HK, these are the very same people who can become your friends because they are a good bunch :-) I found all my HK friends in this forum.

Happy weekend, zhumgg.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using GeoClicks Mobile

I really LOVE Peachy's comment here. It's true. The ladies on Geobaby will always have each others' back even if they disagree on certain points. I know that on certain topics I come off as a total jerk (because of my passion mostly) but I think people have been willing to overlook certain things here and still help and care for me. This forum is actually very close-knit. Unlike a lot of online forums, Geobaby is a place where mothers in HK come to connect with other mothers--and many times those connections do materialize and become real-life friendships. Peachy and I were part of the same due-date club (our babies are only like a week or two apart in age) so we know each other in real-life.

This isn't unusual. There are a lot of women who know each other in real-life on this forum so it's not just about "picking sides" or "conspiracy theories"--in general, I would say that the women on this forum are actually friends. It's helpful to keep that in mind when commenting--just assume that everyone here could potentially be real-life friends with everyone else. No need to try to "pick sides" and get one poster to disagree with another. That's not really going to get you very far on this site. Hong Kong is actually a very "small pond," you'll find. Very easy to play "7 Degrees of Separation" here! Ha!

For example, I know nicolejoy from church where I met her when we both first moved back to HK and I know purpleflower because I took pilates from her and nicolejoy and purpleflower know each other because they were part of the same due-date club and their oldest children are close in age. I know another lady (can't remember her username) because I was giving her advise and being a sounding board about hiring a helper and that lady actually knows nicolejoy as well. I met lalligirl when we both had to do a long professional development course together last year for our work--but I didn't know she was on Geobaby. Then when I got pregnant again I joined a due date club and found out that my classmate from real life was actually lalligirl in the due date club. I met Koan in a restaurant in Yuen Long when both of our babies were about 6-months-old and then I met nashua852 through Geobaby and talked with her on the phone preparing for a meet-up and realized we both knew Koan in real-life. My son ended up going to nashua852's house for a weekly informal playgroup for probably about a year! In conversation, we realized that we both used to work for the same company, only in different divisions! I met onogirl through work and then realized that she and Koan were essentially neighbors in real-life. When Shenzhennifer was moving from Shenzhen to Hong Kong I tried to help her and her husband find a good place to live--ended up loaning her my Baby Bjorn and a Baby Sling and we met up for dinner when she got here. She ended up attending my son's birthday parties for the past two years and she was one of my top "gossip buddies"--we would always chat about the drama on Geobaby! We would get our boys together for playdates at her place in Tsuen Wan. She and nicolejoy met up to go strawberry picking out here by our place--a place I had suggested. I miss her a lot as she left for Canada in July. :(

So, in general, we ladies, no matter what our opinions or feelings are or how much we get on each others' nerves are all like sisters on this forum. Sometimes sisters make us angry but at the end of the day we still care for each other.

Love you, ladies!

[carang]

Zhumgg,

I'm glad that you found my post useful. :)

I do agree that you may be taking carang's words in the wrong way. I just say this because when I first started on this forum (years ago!) I did not like carang very much at all. (She knows this.) In fact, I used to have "cat fights" with her all the time. Really. But, then I guess I got over myself and then eventually I met her in person and now we're good friends. I realized we actually have a lot in common--especially personality. Yes, she is a very intense person (much like myself!) but she really does know what she's doing as far as education and kids go. She's been doing that non-stop for the past 15 years or so and has seen and experienced a lot in HK. She also understand the local culture pretty well I think as she is married into it and she works with children and their parents from the culture day-in and day-out.

I don't think that she sent her children to a more local school because they couldn't get accepted to an international school. She just chose that path for her childrens' education. There are quite a few other foreign families that I personally know that also chose to send their children through the local stream for various reasons. These children are quite successful and some have recently finished secondary school after attending a local school all of their school years! (which I find to be amazing!) Parents speak little or no Cantonese as well!

As far as the schools that carang owns and operates. I taught in both of them this summer and LOVED the experience. I also sent my child to a well-known (advertised on this website) playgroup in HK when he was small and really thought it was a good-quality program but compared to that playgroup, I much prefer carang's approach. There is a huge waitlist for both of her schools with parents pleading to get their children into the group as soon as possible. All of this is through word of mouth only--parents come, experience the group with their children and can't help but tell their friends. They do little or no professional advertising! It's really amazing, I think. cara, herself, is almost like a local "mini celebrity", I've come to find out--especially in early childhood education circles. I will seriously try to put my youngest child in her playgroup as soon as she is old enough. It was a fantastic experience.

Having said all this, I don't really know the particulars of the disagreement that's going on here. All I know is that carang is a good lady who runs a good program and there are many who can attest to that.

Thanks for reading this. :) Hope you continue to get lots of good input to your question. :)

thanks for the kind words, thanka.

i do think it's funny that we disagreed about so many things in the beginning, because as you know we actually agree about so many things now!

as i said, i NEVER intentionally am rude. i am straight forward, candid and yes, opinionated (who could ever have guessed?). i do not accept any form of racism and i think that after i commented on the original post regarding the racism evident in it, the OP has decided to throw the baby out with the bathwater and not consider anything that i have written.

sometimes, the problem with forums is that we are not professional writers, so what we write can convey a different feeling to what is meant.... i honestly try to "take the feelings" out of it when i read many posts, because i may attribute feelings that are not actually being expressed. however, racist comments are NEVER acceptable... no matter what.

[carang]

i actually forgot that we went to the norwegian school... it was such a long time ago. it was the only international school that we looked at(we looked at it as much for ourselves as for friends of ours who were considering relocating here and that was the school they wanted)... but like i said, we decided solely based on language acquisition that we wanted for our kids... i never said that we hadn't considered other options, i just said what we decided. and yes, it IS expensive to send kids to international schools... i never said it wasn't....

in the end, i felt it would be easier for our kids to learn chinese if they were schooled in that language. they would have english at home, so that wasn't a concern for me.... however, if we had sent our kids to an international school, we would have had an extremely difficult time trying to teach the kids cantones. they would not have gotten it at school or at home... which only left employing tutors. i didn't believe that my kids would become fluent by learning from tutors.

[thanka2]

sorry, I dont find any name of the child care/playgroup mentioned in Carang's profile. Absolutely nothing. Can you just tell us here??

I think if you just do a little bit of digging on the site, you'll be able to find it but it's not likely that anyone is going to come out and tell you because you seem very hostile toward carang and it seems like you might use that information to try to libel her and her business which is unfortunate.