Thanks in advance!!!
We are moving to Switzerland this May and our son will be going to Kindergarten in the fall. We are choosing to have him to go to the local KG to become integrated with the Swiss rather than international school. From what I heard, the local schools have a program/extra session so that the child will spend time with a teacher to learn German. Is this initiated by the school or does the parent need to do this? I'm trying to find information online and am having no lock/
The school, but only when you have arrived and the child is registered.
Until you know which commune you will live in, you cannot determine which school you go to.
Which canton are you moving to, since the answer may well vary according to this.
In BL, it was the local school administration that initiated German lessons. They were paid for by the community.
If it’s kindergarten, I’m not even sure they’d do that at age 4-5. But don’t worry, at that age they seem to pick up languages quite quickly. Your child will probably be fairly fluent in German in about 6 months.
They do. The earlier they get the child learning German (i.e. Standard German) the easier and faster it is.
But, yes, they'll pick up dialect in the playground in no time at all.
Most gemeinde will offer DAZ classes (Deutsch als Zweitsprache) (German as second language). The age at which they offer such classes differs from village to village. I thought my eldest one was going to get enrolled in his first year of Kindergarten (KG) as is the case in schools in city of Zurich, but our local school only offered formal DAZ classes from the second year of KG! Two years on, my second one is now in his first year of kindergarten, and is already enrolled in DAZ classes.
I would not worry too much about the DAZ classes as it takes no time for kids to acquaint themselves with their new school and friends. Kids are experts at non-verbal communication and have a good ear for picking up new words. My eldest one took 3-4 months to understand Swiss German and another 3 months to utter his first Swiss German words. Now, 2.5 years later, he speaks SG fluently, and our Swiss friends mentioned that he does not have any accent suggesting SG is not his mother tongue.
Good luck in your new adventure!
It's so cool. I wish I'd been exposed to another language when I was a nipper. It's a gift. They pick it up with none of the angst or inhibitions we do as adults.
Me too. Shame it can’t be made compulsory in all kindergartens everywhere in the world. Maybe we’d all have a better understanding of others if we were exposed to the difficult cultures, languages, etc, very early on.
Just to give your fair warning, with a Swiss husband (as noted in one of your earlier posts) expect to be asked why your son does not already speak German.
Local school authorities can be very harsh on Swiss children who do not already speak the language (unless they have moved from another part of Switzerland and speak another national language).
I have experienced this with clients who returned to Switzerland from abroad.
Just giving you a heads up.....
Hi,
I just had my daughter - about to turn 6 yo - to join KG last month. I wish I had known about this book earlier: "Going Local - your guide to Swiss schooling", by Margaret Oertig. It was actually recommended on this forum. If you buy this book, you will learn that the answer to almost all your questions is "depend". Each case is diferent, each canton, each school, each teacher.
I can share my (yet short) experience:
My daughter is now at a "mixed" ages class, she goes to school all mornings, and two afternoons a week. Only two kids speak German, so, I am, at this point, a bit concerned about "picking it from the playground". She actually has made friendship with this adorable girl that only speaks Spanish - so she is now really motivated to learn... Spanish!
She does have "formal" support for the language with a teacher during school time.
All the system is very diferent from what we were used to in our country (Portugal, Lisbon).
She is very happy - I can tell you that. She loves going there...
Anyway, it's been not even a month and it's my job as a mom to worry
I cannot recommend this book more. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions...
Good luck!
My wife had a Swiss-German father, and still speaks no German at 53, despite living in Switzerland her whole life.
Tom
Switzerland is a great country for multilingual kids, and no one gets teased for being bilingual (happened to our boy back in the UK, when some kid heard him speak Dutch to his dad). Kids around us speak 2-3 languages with such ease. My 5-year old neighbour picked up English while playing with my kids, and she now speaks 3 languages fluently . Lucky kids!