# Schooling for my children



## tmueller (Jan 9, 2013)

Hello everyone,

My wife and I have adopted two children from Thailand four and six years ago respectively and have been living in Canada since. We would like to spend one school year in Thailand so that our chidren learn their mother tongue. Both our son who is eight and our daughter who is six still seem to have some passive vocabulary but no real active one from their first few years in Thailand.
We are very hesitant to send them to a Thai Government school with their limited Thai and we also don't want to send them to a typical international school where Thai instruction seems very limited. 
We have found a school on Koh Samui (OONRACK) who teaches the students in both Thai and English. Does anyone know of a similar school in Thailand where our children would be able to learn their mother tongue?
Thank you!


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## yumi (Jan 8, 2013)

tmueller said:


> Hello everyone,
> 
> My wife and I have adopted two children from Thailand four and six years ago respectively and have been living in Canada since. We would like to spend one school year in Thailand so that our chidren learn their mother tongue. Both our son who is eight and our daughter who is six still seem to have some passive vocabulary but no real active one from their first few years in Thailand.
> We are very hesitant to send them to a Thai Government school with their limited Thai and we also don't want to send them to a typical international school where Thai instruction seems very limited.
> ...


Have a look at the Thai walen school website we are going to enrol it seems very good they teach lots of different languages and are located all over Thailand we are going to enrol at Phuket
Hope it helps
Have fun ;-)


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## cnx_bruce (Feb 2, 2010)

hi, firstly don't think for a moment that if you had your kids in thailand for one year then they would have Thai language with them forever. In reality they would pick it up at that age, but within months of moving back to Canada it would have gone again. Even if you pushed them into regular/frequent practice they would probably resist as kids get both shy and disinterested about speaking a foreign language back in an english-speaking country.

google on "bi-lingual school thailand" - they are all over the place now. in fact it's become a bit of a marketing handle - like the term "ecotours" in the tourism industry. Many bi-lingual schools have a couple of token farang teachers around and a couple of hours of instruction in english ... but are basically overpriced Thai schools. On the other hand there are bilingual schools that are very good and a reasonable compromise between the cost of international schools and the patchy mainstream Thai alternative.


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## joseph44 (May 4, 2011)

bruce is right, it doesn't make sense to put a lot of effort on getting the kids into the Thai language. 
Maybe it is better to wait a few years and spend a few months in Thailand traveling around and give them the taste of Thai culture in general.


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## cooked (Jan 30, 2011)

I don't think you ever really forget a language that you have learned, especially when you are young. It will be there, lurking around in the back of the brain until the moment comes to jump start it again. We didn't understand why my (ex-) wife's great grandmother had started talking French on her death bed. Turned out she had spent two years in Geneva up to the age of 4. Same with me, after 27 years not speaking french, I 'picked it up' quickly.
However, coming back from time to time, if that is an option, would help increase the vocabulary and grammar skills of your kids. Is this desirable? Maybe the kids will go into culture shock and refuse to learn. People learn a language easiest when they are young.


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