I’m talking about culture and education here, not passports.
The difference I make is that Chinese and some bilingual schools will treat the students as native speakers, while schools targeting foreigners will teach “Chinese as a Foreign Language”. The same happens in the US for English.
I’ll see if I can get some numbers for Pinghe. In my son’s class, only two boys are “whitey”, but still both are half-chinese.
The Chinese curriculum is supposed to be the same in the international and in the Chinese section, but I don’t know how they compare in practice. My wife, who is Chinese and native Mandarin speaker, seems to be quite happy with the result.
On the other hand, the English level is not very good in average, the class is not homogeneous. Some kids are bilingual while others barely understand what the English teacher says.
A-roaming, my goal is the same as yours. Again, with a local school I am concerned that my son will find himself in an environment he is not prepared for. For example he can’t stand that people spit.
Nevertheless I am still investigating this option. Some local public schools also have an international section, I would expect them to be closer to Western culture, would you mind sharing the name and address of the school you are referring to?
Taiwanese or Singaporean schools might be an option, but I have not investigated this for financial reasons.
