Before I set off, I was looking forward to this nearly month-long trip to the United States, and my family had not been abroad in four years. Stepping abroad again, nervous and exciting, no less than traveling abroad for the first time in my life.
More importantly, this is the first time that the baby has gone to a serious English-speaking country after she started learning English in elementary school, starting from English enlightenment, practicing for several years, and finally being able to go out to test a little effect.
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The third grade of primary school children, the English level is average, can only keep up with the reading classes of foreign teachers at the G3 level, and can basically understand life American dramas and popular science documentaries.
Gao Zhang's original book reading, deeper writing has not begun, but his English teacher believes that it should be no problem to throw him to an American school for two summer classes.
Therefore, I think it is also very beautiful, I went to an elementary school in the United States, and the pure English environment soaked for two weeks from morning to night, and Nawa's English level must not rise suddenly!
Because we need to visit friends and relatives, the destination city in the United States must be Los Angeles and its surrounding Orange County.
There are many summer schools for local residents, and since I have not been abroad for many years, overseas information processing is currently at a low level, so I am too lazy to spend time going to each house to ask.
So let the friend over there recommend a local Chinese education agency with a good reputation, the main business is to handle domestic children to the United States for short-term transfers, by the way the whole summer school. It's okay to spend some intermediary money to buy a worry-free.
My request for this summer school is to combine the theme of popular science with outdoor sports activities on campus every day. The agency is also reliable, and according to my time and content, I recommended a high-rated private elementary school summer school, located in a traditional old American white city with good security.
The child is very excited to go to summer school in the United States, and is very confident that his English level is "absolutely fine", and it will be better after two weeks...
The day before the summer school began, I joked with a friend of my family, "Guess how many Chinese children are in a class in this school?" ”
Although the agent I contacted reported us as a baby, this is the most popular California of the Chinese, and it is the greater Los Angeles area, but where the public or private school with a higher rating, there is not a single Chinese child (Chinese who can speak Chinese) that is strange.
When I actually arrived at school, after the day's schedule, the baby came back and reported that there were six Asians in a class of 23 children, including herself, including two Japanese and one Korean, and this ratio was also normal.
There are three Chinese dolls left, one local from Taiwan, and the other from Shunyi Houshayu like us, and as expected, these three Chinese dolls have become the key point for improving English in this summer school.
Within an hour of entering the school, my baby and the Taiwanese classmate became good friends who talked about everything, and they were inseparable from each other for two weeks in school, one speaking in Beijing dialect, and the other using Taiwanese Chinese to exchange all the things that the 9-year-old boy liked.
By the end of the summer camp, my baby's Beijing accent had begun to no longer be serious, but obviously carried Taiwanese accent.
Although he has no problem completing basic communication in English at school and playing with local classmates who only speak English, who will not naturally get close to his compatriots of the same race and language, or many undergraduate students in the United States will still not be able to pass the language barrier?
It is estimated that this local student from Taiwan is also happy. For another classmate who is also from Shunyi Houshayu, probably because the babies think that they will have something to play when they come back in the future, but the communication is not as much as that of Taiwanese classmates, and they quickly added friends to keep playing in the future.
Parents want to send their babies to American schools to learn English, and children want to care which school it is, let's focus on making friends and playing.
According to my baby, this Hou Shayu classmate came to the United States as soon as the school holiday in June, and has been staying in this summer camp and waiting until the start of school to go back, which has come and gone to meet many "little fellows" who came to spend the summer vacation.
At this moment, I want to shake hands with this baby's mother the most, you said that we went around such a big circle, took a flight for more than ten hours to let the baby add friends on the other side of the world, is this "fate" or "unjust species"?
With Chinese-speaking students in the class, the English listening and speaking environment of this American summer school is at least 70% discounted.
Let's look at the basic content arrangement of the school every day, the teacher organizes swimming, water fights, football and other sports activities, watching movies collectively, learning reptile knowledge, doing crafts, going out to play electric, etc., itself is a rich and fun camp, there is nothing wrong.
Before I went to the United States to enter the school, I felt that such camps were perfectly in line with the expectations of immersing myself in English while playing during the summer vacation.
But after two days of attending, I realized that I had completely misplanned for the summer camp to learn English!
This kind of English is too simple, for children who have attended various foreign teacher classes since childhood, understand the teacher's English instructions and requirements during the game, and cheer and shout with their classmates, which is no different from life in Beijing.
Even if it is a little more difficult, listen to the teacher's popular science and explain the reptile knowledge class, there are no obstacles, let alone do crafts, play football together, which is basically not in any language, children play together, playing is Esperanto.
So, after two days of schooling, I had to lie down in learning English - we are coming to the United States for vacation, let's have fun.
It's just that when he got up early every morning to send his baby to school, he struggled with his English, and told him three times that "in addition to Taiwanese children, don't forget to play with American children", focusing on a long but ineffective language.
This American summer school, parents and I are not very satisfied, but the children are very satisfied.
On the first day of school, he hugged his mother and thanked him for bringing him to the United States....... Children know that American schools are so cool - you can bring snacks to school, you can buy some children's favorite junk food in the vending machine, you can eat blind "white people's rice" at noon, and I heard from classmates that there is no homework when school starts...
I feel bitter in my heart and can't say that this sugar-coated cannonball of the US imperialism is "corroding" the flowers of our motherland hard enough. Well, in order to be able to come to the United States to study again, I am determined to learn English well as a consolation prize for this trip.
From the perspective of play, this is a rare team building for the whole family, and this trip to the United States was a smooth and successful trip.
From the perspective of learning English to experience culture, it cannot be said that there are no gains, from San Diego to Los Angeles to Yellowstone Park, but all the scenes of asking directions, inquiring about various tourist information, ordering food in Western restaurants, etc., I think I can't do English push the baby to do;
Going to visit the museum, all the popular science explanations, I don't use my brain to wait for the baby to translate for me;
After "forced" several times, Wa has made great progress from being timid and afraid to step forward in a foreign country to being able to act as a half-old translator for her parents.
It's just that due to insufficient experience and small vocabulary, in the car rental and hotel check-in and other complicated issues, involving insurance and credit card pre-authorization, the baby can not understand at all, can only parents themselves.
In general, the first American "English practice" confirmed that the English learning ideas in Beijing are generally correct, and children's English is much faster than that of English rookie parents like me on many occasions, and no translation process can understand in seconds.
After returning home, I received a credit card bill, which was not too small six figures, and it took a long time to fill the burning hole in the United States this summer vacation.
To sum up, as an ordinary utilitarian parent who earns hard brick money, he did not choose the tropical island he most wanted to go to this summer, but resisted the high US dollar exchange rate and nowhere to choose and expensive connecting flights to the United States for the summer vacation, that is, while playing, he had a big "idea" about the baby's English.
It's okay to spend money to go out and play, but traveling thousands of miles to learn English at a summer camp in the United States is not necessary in the future, and this mentality can be corrected.
Whether it is a domestic group to lead the team, or find a local school by yourself, as long as there is a Chinese child in the class who can also speak Chinese, this hearing environment may be lost.
Such a summer school camp is similar to the "jumping English" that was criticized earlier, and it may be better for young or younger children.
Older children with a little basic knowledge will not help much in their English listening and speaking, so let's play with an experience culture!
Of course, many parents with strong financial ability and far-sightedness, the picture of giving their children an American summer camp is not English learning, just a happy communication experience.
Ordinary parents like me want to learn English, it is better to sign up for a reading and writing class in Beijing, even if you want to go, you have to do more homework, don't be lazy to find an intermediary, an American school like this, go to a few summer schools, the direct price is actually cheap to heartbreak.
Maybe in the future, if you take your baby to the United States, you will basically not be on summer vacation.
I tend to choose to take a leave of absence from school for my baby, and go to the United States for a semester with Christmas leave in the fall semester, which may be a more effective and economical way to learn English.