Finding the Best Schools for Your Children Abroad

By Elisa Bernick

Making sure you pick the right school abroad for your children is an important consideration for quicker adaption.

The biggest decision you will face regarding schooling abroad in a country where English is not the native tongue is whether to go the full immersion route and put your kids in private or public schools taught completely in another language, or whether to take the bilingual approach — where a portion of each day is taught in another language and a portion is taught in English. (Home schooling is certainly another option, but this rather drastically limits your family's exposure to the local culture.)

You may also find a variety of language classes, private tutors, and tiny private schools willing to educate your children any way you see fit. Often there are so many choices it's hard to know where to begin.

Choosing Immersion or Bilingual Schools?

If you want your kids to achieve fluency in another language, the immersion route is the best way to go. But immersion frequently backfires for two reasons. First, the kids are ill-prepared for the experience and, second, they don't spend enough time in the school to move beyond an initial transition period to actual language learning. The immersion experience can be spectacularly unsuccessful if not approached with a great deal of flexibility and an appreciation for how difficult it is to learn a second language and to adjust to a new culture.

I suggest that you not choose an immersion experience unless your kids are going to stay in the school for a period of six months or longer. Even six months is really too short and your kids will most likely only be starting to learn the language at this point. A year is much better and two is best to have your children reach true fluency.

Despite the difficulties of the immersion experience, it is certainly the best way for your children to become fluent in another language as well as to experience the richness and complexity of another culture. If they stick it out, they will ultimately be welcomed into a foreign school community and allowed to cross cultural boundaries that outsiders simply aren't. They will make potentially lifelong friendships with their classmates and teachers. And they will learn more about themselves and their strengths than they ever imagined possible.

Before You Leave

If at all possible, expose your kids to the language and culture of the country you'll be visiting before you leave. Language classes, tutors, camps, CD-ROMs, bilingual books, movies, restaurants — whatever you can find to give your kids some idea of where they're headed and what they might encounter will help a lot. Even a few months of after-school or weekend language classes can give kids a few phrases to begin with and start to develop their ear for the language they'll be hearing all around them in the months to come.

If you can afford it, consider moving to your overseas destination a month or so before the school year begins to acclimate your kids to their new home and to find a private tutor or to enroll them in language classes. Another thing that's very important to your child's success is a commitment on the part of the entire family to learning the language. The success or failure of an immersion language experience simply comes down to one thing: practice.

Tutoring Makes the Difference

No matter what kind of education experience you choose for your children, private tutors, at least initially, are a good idea (for yourselves as well unless you're already fluent). Language tutors can help your children learn a new language and work through their homework assignments, and they can also help you navigate the potentially rocky terrain of a new school culture. A language tutor can become an invaluable ally for your family, a friend to your kids and someone who eventually invites you into his or her own life as well.

You can find language tutors abroad by word of mouth, looking at ads in newspapers, on bulletin boards around town, at the local high schools and universities, through a teacher at your child's school, etc. Ask other expat families for suggestions and check the Internet as well. Don't be afraid to try different tutors, different hours, and different approaches. Not every tutor is a good teacher and certain tutors' personalities and styles will mesh better with those of your children. Language classes and camps both here and abroad can be located in a similar fashion. Depending on your children's ages and learning styles, a mixture of language classes back home or abroad before school starts and then one-on-one tutoring once school begins can help keep your child's interest and confidence level high.

Bilingual Schools

Bilingual schools are a good option if you want your kids to be exposed to a new language and culture and you aren't going to be living in one place for longer than six months. They can also be a springboard to an immersion experience if you are going to be in a place for longer than six months and your child has no previous exposure to the language.

Starting your child in a bilingual school and then moving into an immersion situation (as we did on a recent 18-month sabbatical in Mexico) can often be successful if you're going to be somewhere long enough. It can give your child the necessary foundation in a new language and the self-confidence necessary to make the immersion experience truly successful. You can meet both foreign and native kids and parents and give yourselves a leg up in socializing.

Limitations of Bilingual Schools

A bilingual school can work well as a transition to an immersion experience on a variety of levels. It can improve the child's ear for learning a new language and can teach basic classroom language skills. It can introduce cultural differences and help your child develop socialization skills gradually, and all within the familiar framework of English. By using tutors regularly your child's language skills will improve after several months.

But it's also important to keep in mind the limitations of a bilingual school. Bilingual schools abroad are aimed at teaching English to speakers of another language. They are not aimed at teaching another language to English speakers. This is a critical difference and it's why bilingual schools typically do not succeed in teaching English-speaking children fluency in another language. If both English and another language is being spoken in your child's classroom, which language do you think your child will choose to speak? If there are gringos and native speakers in your child's classroom, whom will your children gravitate toward on the playground? Who can blame kids for wanting to hang out with people who speak their language and share their culture? If you don't mind that your children will only slowly pick up phrases and words in another language, then this is a good option. They'll have fun meeting other kids from around the world and they'll learn the basics in another language.

Elisa Bernick is the author of the The Family Sabbatical Handbook: The Budget Guide to Living Abroad With Your Children, a detailed nuts and bolts guide about the how's and why's of living abroad with your children for an extended period. Topics include financing the adventure, schooling, language immersion vs. bilingual education, health care abroad, legal concerns, homesickness, choosing a location and much more. The book includes interviews with 15 other families experiencing similar adventures in Europe, China, and South and Central America. An indispensable guide.

Elisa is an award-winning broadcast journalist and writer. Her work has appeared on NPR, PBS, broadcast and cable television networks, and in Simple Living, Parents Magazine, and Minnesota Parent among other publications.