Any Suggestions???

[michaelcrace]

I have a good friend from the US that is moving to Taiwan. He has a real problem and I told him I see no way to fix it here in Taipei. This is the deal. He has 2 kids from a previous marriage that have been living with his ex-wife. She passed away last month with cancer and my friend now has his kids. The ages of these kids is 5 and 10. Now these kids will be moving with him to Taipei. Neither one of the kids can speak Chinese and have both been in American schools. He was asking me about schools and when he saw the prices to go to TAS he almost passed out. His job does not pay enough that he can afford the TAS Prices.

My question is does Taipei have a school someplace for these kind of special kids. His daughter would be fine but his 10 year old son would be lost here unable to read or write or understand anything in a classroom. And shouldn't an American citizen be able to attend TAS and some kind of reduced rate?

[Puppet]

I don't have great information, and hope others can offer better info. Two things came to mind:
--A friend of mine moved here from Australia with 2 kids, who knew no Chinese. They learned it fine and I wonder if the public schools actually help with that. Since they adapted to the language well, it seems like they might be used to this. I would look at the regular schools and see what they think.

--I know some parents that decided to home school. One friend even had an online tutor from back home set up via Skype. His son had some learning difficulties that the school couldn't adjust for and he thrived in the home school. They asked the tutors to give the minimum since they also had a new language to learn. That's another option if it comes down to it.

[Gryphon]

I don't have great information, and hope others can offer better info. Two things came to mind:
--A friend of mine moved here from Australia with 2 kids, who knew no Chinese. They learned it fine and I wonder if the public schools actually help with that. Since they adapted to the language well, it seems like they might be used to this. I would look at the regular schools and see what they think.

--I know some parents that decided to home school. One friend even had an online tutor from back home set up via Skype. His son had some learning difficulties that the school couldn't adjust for and he thrived in the home school. They asked the tutors to give the minimum since they also had a new language to learn. That's another option if it comes down to it.

+1 home schooling with rigorous Chinese language studies
In about 2 years (maybe less, maybe more), they should be fine going to a public school.

[divea]

More than the language issue or academics, I'd be worried about moving children to a country, where they can't speak the language and presumably don't know anyone or anything. I mean bringing kids to China/Taiwan is a challenge in the best of circumstances. To do so, after they've just lost their Ma, is really not a good idea.

Feel bad for the kiddos who lost their mum. Hope your friend can make things work. Good vibes and all.

[Petrichor]

If they enrol in a public school in Taipei city your friend can apply to have them transferred to schools that are set up to deal with non-Chinese speaking children. Try searching on this forum under Xinsheng. It should bring up the relevant information for you. These schools will take the children for one or two years to get them up to speed with the language, then transfer them back to their local school. I agree with Divea that it will be an additional upheaval for them, though. There are also cheaper options than TAS. There have been a few threads on this.

[Borogove]

One of the international schools that I've heard is cheaper than TAS is Bethany: http://bethany.mca.org.tw/

I don't know anything about Bethany, but if you do a search on this board, you'll find some discussion of it.