A Son's Bilingual Journey

Remembering back to when my son was 18 months old, I took him to a birthday party which had games, magic shows and other activities that were all hosted in English. My son was unable to understand the instructions as he had only been exposed to a Chinese speaking environment.

Seeing him lost and unable to interact and be part of the activities, my husband and I felt helpless. After experiencing similar situations a few times, we made a decision to enrol our son into Lorna Whiston Preschool at Winchester as a full day programme student. It was an easy decision as the preschool had a bilingual education system which enabled my son to understand the lessons while learning the English language.

During his five years at Lorna Whiston Preschool, my son’s reading ability and self-confidence had improved tremendously. When he entered primary school, my son’s performance was one of the best amongst his peers in both English and Chinese. He represented the school’s English debate team at national competitions and was awarded the best debater of the season! In addition, he achieved excellent results in his PSLE.

Even though my son grew up in a Chinese environment, after studying at Lorna Whiston Preschool, he managed to localise his pronunciation and build his Chinese vocabulary and reading ability. He went on to represent the school in the China International Bilingual Speech Contest and clinched the first prize!

While my son attended Lorna Whiston Preschool, he was exposed to their Speech and Drama Programme and he enjoyed the class so much that after leaving the preschool,he requested to continue the weekly programme at the Lorna Whiston School. I enrolled him and till date, he is now preparing for the UK’s Trinity Speech and Drama Level 7 Certification.

The Speech and Drama Programme had enabled my son to express himself more confidently in English and this has helped him in his debates. A friend once came to me and told me that her children were not comfortable expressing their feelings and thoughts in English, especially since they were not familiar with the English Language. She asked for a recommendation as she could see the huge improvements made by my son. I confidently recommended the Lorna Whiston Speech and Drama Programme to her. My friend came back to me later on and shared that her child had improved and gained so much confidence and she wished she had known about the programme earlier.

Lorna Whiston Preschool also instilled my son’s love for reading. With their reading programme, it cultivated good reading habits in my son and improved his reading skills. While he attended Lorna Whiston Preschool, my son would read a book on the sofa every morning. Even his grandmother was amazed as usually children that age would be more inclined to play with their toys rather than read a book!

It is most gratifying as a parent to see my child’s progress and growth. I am very grateful for the learning journey that Lorna Whiston has provided to my child.

记得在儿子18个月时，带他去参加一个生日派对。 派对上的游戏、魔术表演等等活动都是讲英文的，而我的孩子一出生接触的都是华文环境，所以当时儿子完全听不懂所有的指令，看得出他很迷失，干脆就站在一边，都不能融入到活动中。即使我们帮他，但孩子本能就觉得自己的不同而抗拒了，我们看到这场景，我们也觉得很无奈和无助，这样的情况出现过好几次，后来我们决定不辞路程，从义顺送他到位于亚历山路附近的Lorna Whiston Pre-School托儿所，给他报名全托服务。

非常庆幸也非常感恩，我的孩子在这儿进步很多，由于这所幼儿园是双语教育环境，儿子在没落下华文的同时，英文也取得了很大的进步。在这里5年的启蒙教育，儿子的阅读能力、自信心等方方面面都得到了最好的提升，到小学后，儿子的成绩也一直名列前茅，还经常代表学校英文辩论队去参加全国比赛，也常常得到最佳辩手的称号。当然在PSLE也取得了非常不错的成绩。

在华文方面，由于我们来自中国南方，我们的普通话难免会带有一些乡音，但儿子的普通话发音相当标准，另外华文的词汇量、阅读能力都很强，在小学里华文的造诣一直很棒！也曾代表学校参加新中国际双语演讲比赛中取得一等奖的不俗成绩。

在Lorna Whiston Pre-School上学时，儿子接触到Lorna Whiston Speech and Drama的课程（托儿所每周有一节免费的课程），就喜欢上了这个课程，所以到小学后儿子一直坚持参加每周一次的Lorna Whiston Speech and Drama课程（今年也准备考取英国颁发的Speech and Drama第七级证书），这个课程让儿子更自信地用英文表达，以致让他在辩论赛中表现那么出色。还有记得有个朋友在我们聚会交谈时，对我说：“我的孩子不大敢用英文开口表达自己的想法，特别是在人多的时候，而且口语表达进步不大，以致对英文失去了一定的兴趣，有什么好的课程推荐来帮助我的孩子呢？”我就很自信推荐Lorna Whiston Speech and Drama课程，结果过一段时间，朋友对我说他又推荐了他身边的朋友孩子去上这个课程，他还跟我说：“我朋友说为什么没有早推荐他的孩子去上这个课程呢？”孩子们在这个课程中真的是受益匪浅。

还有值得一提的是，Lorna Whiston Pre-School的阅读活动课程，它除了提高儿子的阅读程度，最重要是培养了儿子良好的阅读习惯。 一直以来每天早上一起床，儿子就会自己一个人拿着一本书在沙发上静静看书，他奶奶每次对我说：“你儿子很奇怪啊，小孩子早上一起来也不玩玩具，就坐在那儿看书。”而且每次我也开玩笑叫儿子是“书虫”呢。 我们常常说，儿子是地地道道“制造”于Lorna Whiston Pre-School，因为他没去参加任何补习课程。最为家长的，最大的欣慰莫过于是看到孩子的进步和收获，很感恩孩子在学习之旅中，他的启蒙教育是来自Lorna Whiston Pre-School，谢谢！

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