Every day after classes are over, a group of children can be found working quietly on their Chinese homework in a room at Chiu Sheung School in Pok Fu Lam. There would be nothing unusual about this except they're among a small but growing number of non-Chinese children whose parents have opted to send them to schools in which the medium of instruction is Cantonese, or where most students speak Cantonese as a first language.
Maggie Holmes is one such parent. 'Since we live in Hong Kong, my husband and I thought it would be a shame if our children did not learn the language. But this isn't a language that you can just pick up, especially since people tend to speak to my children in English. I wanted them to learn playground Chinese,' says Holmes, whose son and daughter attend Lingnan Primary School on Stubbs Road.
'The written form of Chinese is a chore but if the kids start early, it's easier. If you try to get them to learn later, it becomes a burden.'
Similarly, Amy Jardin sent her youngest daughter to Chiu Sheung to help her fit in better in Hong Kong. 'My two older children went to English-medium schools and I found that it's hard for them to integrate with Chinese children. I also worry that it will be hard for them when they begin looking for jobs,' says the Filipino, recalling how a lack of Cantonese restricted her own career choices.
Although language is the first motivator for most parents, Marie Herrera says the discipline and structure afforded by Chinese-medium schools was also a factor for sending her two sons to the Catholic Mission School in Central.
But having your children study in a language that you don't speak presents difficulties. In Teresa Littlewood's case, it was two languages. Her kids - Axi, Abbey and George - not only attended Cantonese-speaking kindergartens, they're now studying in Putonghua at the Kiangsu & Chekiang Primary School in North Point.