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[Smiler Brian]

Good idea or bad. Child of 13, no Greek, will she be OK?

[SSBubbles]

Good idea or bad. Child of 13, no Greek, will she be OK?

It depends on the child and how fast/willing she is to learn, though personally I think it may be a tall order. You have heard how fast Cypriots talk, making it more difficult to understand. (this is a fact and not a derogatory statement!)

Can the girl (your daughter?) start learning Greek now before coming over? She will have a few months (before starting in September) learning behind her and maybe you could gauge how well she fares before making the final decision.

OR,

The girl could always start off in a private school and then if she does learn Greek very quickly, transfer to a Cypriot school.

Hope this helps.....................

[Smiler Brian]

She is willing to "give it a go" and we have set an initial period of 3 months to gauge how well she does. We have visited the school and they are not expecting her to do any more than pick up the language in the first year. Our main concern is how well she will be received by the other children. In Britain we of course have many other nationalities in the same situation. I know some get on very well but other struggle.

[SSBubbles]

She is willing to "give it a go" and we have set an initial period of 3 months to gauge how well she does. We have visited the school and they are not expecting her to do any more than pick up the language in the first year. Our main concern is how well she will be received by the other children. In Britain we of course have many other nationalities in the same situation. I know some get on very well but other struggle.

Bravo!
My concern now would be the lost education the child may experience if she does only learn Greek in her first year! Extra tuition does not come cheaply!

Private school over here are multi-national too and as far as I am aware, mix as well as any other country. I am sure that Cypriot schools do likewise.

[Hatter]

She is willing to "give it a go" and we have set an initial period of 3 months to gauge how well she does. We have visited the school and they are not expecting her to do any more than pick up the language in the first year. Our main concern is how well she will be received by the other children. In Britain we of course have many other nationalities in the same situation. I know some get on very well but other struggle.

I would expect that she will be well received by the other children. I would be more concerned about the impact at the educational level. Throwing a child in at the deep end is one thing, but IMOH it would be irresponsible to place a 13-year old in a school where the teaching language is completely unknown to her. Many, if not most, of the private schoools in Cyprus use English as the teaching language. At least during the transition stage she would be better off at one such school.

[Smiler Brian]

We did investigate and visit several schools around Limassol but the pupils appeared to think that they were somehow superior to Cypriots and "looked down their noses" at locals. In GB we could almost call this racism and I cannot bring myself to put my child in such schools (quite apart from the costs). We also spoke to some Cypriot friends who warned that the private schools are a bit of a hotbed of drug taking. Their opinion is that she should be reasonably fluent linguistically within 4 to 6 months and in reading/writing within a year.

Unsure of the teaching/academic standards of the Cyprus schools so we may be looking into extra tuition.

[Oracle]

Good idea or bad. Child of 13, no Greek, will she be OK?

The problem we faced Smiler, is that too many of the children resorted to speaking to my son in English, because even by the age of 11, they are fairly bilingual in Cyprus.

The other problem was the preference to watching English programmes on TV; and the third problem was him using the computer which of course ... is all in English!

You would need to invest in daily, maybe half an hour, lessons for at least a few months, on top of the school tutorials to make quick headway.

Can you/partner speak any Greek?

[Get Real!]

You have heard how fast Cypriots talk, making it more difficult to understand.

I never realized we talk "fast"... I'll bet Cypriots think the same about the English when they're in the UK...

[Smiler Brian]

You have heard how fast Cypriots talk, making it more difficult to understand.

I never realized we talk "fast"... I'll bet Cypriots think the same about the English when they're in the UK...

Yes, it does seem very fast. I can get by to an extent if the speaker knows I do not understand and thus speaks slowly but at normal speed 90% goes straight over my head.

[Smiler Brian]

Good idea or bad. Child of 13, no Greek, will she be OK?

The problem we faced Smiler, is that too many of the children resorted to speaking to my son in English, because even by the age of 11, they are fairly bilingual in Cyprus.

The other problem was the preference to watching English programmes on TV; and the third problem was him using the computer which of course ... is all in English!

You would need to invest in daily, maybe half an hour, lessons for at least a few months, on top of the school tutorials to make quick headway.

Can you/partner speak any Greek?

The computer bit is easily solved as we intend to have one for English and another loaded as Greek. The daily lessons (in Greek I assume) sound an excellent idea. A friend of ours moved to Crete last year and before he left was lucky enough to have his daughter go to a school in Great Yarmouth with a large Greek Cypriot contingent where she picked up the language very quickly - and she was 16.