Ok..a little background about myself. Am Chinese but have lived overseas most of my life, and recently came back to live in Malaysia with my family. First language is English, but I do speak and understand a little Mandarin.

Here's my situation: my little boy will be attending Kindergarten (1st year) next year. This year he attended pre-kindy but I put him in the English class. Next year he will be attending the Chinese class. At home we speak English to him (me, because I have no choice unless I want to teach him broken Chinese..), but dad is because of habit.

I'm wondering if putting him in the Chinese class is a good idea. We came back to Malaysia because we want him to have the 'chinese' education (language, discipline, culture etc...you get the idea). But I am worried that he will have problems in class because, well...he doesn't have a background in Chinese much. Some people have told me that he'll pick it up in no time etc, and just put him in there.

Does anyone out there have gone through this experience? Whether the outcome was good or bad, could you please share your experience? Any advice would also be appreciated. I think it's still not too late to change him to an English class...yet... But that would mean he won't be going to any Chinese school for his primary education etc.

Arrghhh!!! Anyway, thanks in advance

I am amazed with Malaysian's thinking that english is still the medium of instruction in our schools today.

In 1980 we abolish the British's MCE (Medium Cert of Education) to replace it with SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia). A Malaysian who is 47 or younger never went to "English" class. It more than half a centuary the schools hand gone malay and we are still talking about "english class".

So, your are worried about the difficulties of learning chinese. I think he will have the same problem with learning malay. Perhaps, you are thinking of putting him in an international school.