Teaching My Son Bahasa

[cup1981]

Hey all. So, we are set to land in Indonesia (for good this time) on May 23, and my son will be attending school there. We are debating between living in Banding and sending him to an independent school or living in my wife's hometown and sending him to either a blended or public school there (there are no fully independent schools in her town). e debated online homeschooling but are leaning away from that for the sake of socialization.

Anywho... regardless of what direction we go, my 8-year-old son needs a serious brush-up on Bahasa Indonesia. He spoke it exclusively in younger years but remembers only a small bit of it now.

Has anyone had experience teaching their kid Bahasa before going to school?
How did you pull it off?

I am thinking for the last three months in the U.S., we can speak only Bahasa Indonesia at home, but I fear that will not be enough.

 

[dafluff]

If he's only 8, and spoke Indonesian when he was younger, he'll be fine. Kids pick up languages very quickly. If you get here in May, the school year is almost over anyway, so by the time it starts again in August he should be fluent in BI.

 

[jstar]

Esp. kids between 6 and 12 are amazingly flexible and pick up fast.

I remember we sent our son to Berlitz for language courses before we left (that was for another country). It was a big struggle, he didn't pick it up and I was not very positive for a good outcome.

So we moved. After 2 months in the local school and having friends, he was fluent. And and that age, unlike us, they don't get a 'foreign' accent.

So don't worry. Just total immersion.

 

[cup1981]

Awesome! thanks for putting my mind at ease. I feel much better now.

Now I just have to figure out how to make myself more fluent in the language lol