😂To be honest, I used to think the same way before the chipmunk studied in Singapore, but that's not the case, or rather, it's not entirely the case.

If it's a three or four-year-old child, or even younger, starting to learn in an English environment overseas from this age, English can indeed develop very quickly. However, as the age increases, the difficulty rises steeply.

In Singaporean schools, taking the chipmunk's school as an example, before ninth grade, students are roughly divided into three categories: mainstream class, EAL, and PCS. The mainstream class is for students whose English is at a native level; EAL is for students who can understand the classes in English but are still not on par with native speakers; PCS is for students who cannot fully attend classes in English (determined by the WIDA English assessment).

The chipmunk started studying in Singapore in fifth grade, barely passed the interview for EAL, and is in EAL Class A, which generally consists of students with lower levels. If they fail the exams, they will be downgraded to PCS, which usually lasts only a year. If they still do not pass, they will be advised to leave. The class above A is Class B, and the chipmunk was able to move up to Class B in fifth grade. Class A often requires extra English tutoring, spending half the time in mainstream classes and the other half on English tutoring, while Class B has almost no extra English classes, with 90% of the time spent in mainstream classes, although the elective language can only be their native language.

But the key point is that the chipmunk needs to attend an extra seven English classes every week, with four of them being online classes, each lasting 40 minutes, and three offline classes, each lasting two hours, all one-on-one. It took the chipmunk a whole year to move from EAL Class A to Class B.

Many friends might think that the chipmunk has poor language talent or has not mastered learning techniques, but that’s not the case. Even in sixth grade, there are still many students in Class PCS and EAL Class A, which means that many students in Singaporean international schools, taught entirely in English, have spent years without moving into EAL Class B, let alone the mainstream class.

The proportion of students needing extra English support in Singapore from G1 to G5 (grades 1 to 5) is about 15% to 30%. Every semester, ten or more students leave school because they do not meet the graduation requirements for PCS. Of course, not studying well is a major reason, but it’s not true that “being thrown into a foreign country or international school leads to automatic learning.” In fact, after elementary school, students' emotional complexity increases sharply.

Aside from a few high achievers or kiddos with strong proactive learning abilities, most ordinary students find it difficult to establish cross-language communication in a short time, not to mention the discrimination scenarios overseas. Singapore is already one of the countries with the least discrimination among those I have assessed. Even so, the language barrier still causes students to form small, separate groups.

For instance, Korean students tend to play mostly with other Korean students, Japanese students interact more among themselves, and Chinese students communicate more with students from Mandarin-speaking areas. Of course, Indian students and Western students also get along pretty well; however, the leading group is often primarily made up of white people from the West, and Asians finding it difficult to integrate is not solely a language barrier; there are many, many other issues.

Additionally, pure English teaching can create a “negative accumulation,” where the less one knows, the less one can learn. If students do not understand something in the lower grades, they will find it even harder to comprehend in higher grades. Therefore, studying abroad is like starting from hell for students without a strong language foundation; the more they try to understand, the less they do. Language habits, pronunciation, and specialized terminology are all hurdles.

Achieving English communication in two or three months is very difficult for “just picking any child.” Without parental encouragement and without extra-curricular learning, it's likely that after two or three months, the child may completely break down. This situation can be seen almost every school year at the start. For me and the chipmunk's teachers in Singapore, it’s already rare for a student to achieve smooth communication in less than a year.

I just had a parents' meeting today, and I asked the English teacher, who is also the class teacher, about when the chipmunk might exit EAL. Basically, he needs to achieve a SLATE score of 5 or 6, with 8 being the maximum. Normally, if a non-native student comes out of EAL, it takes at least three years. For students, the hardest part isn’t the language barrier but the psychological barriers caused by cross-language issues.

Of course, I completely agree with brother Dayu that there are certain problems with English education in our country. During the chipmunk's first three years in public school, he was among the top five in English in the class. These top five friends either went to international schools in kindergarten or began learning English from a very young age. Even at this level, when they transitioned to full English teaching, they all cried during the first class. Nervousness transformed their ability to understand 30% into complete confusion.

The biggest problem with English education in our country is not memorizing vocabulary and learning phonetics. Though this approach may be outdated, it is still the foundation of English learning, which is important not to ruin, even if it’s slow. The biggest issue lies with the textbooks and the educational goals behind them. I have seen the chipmunk's textbooks in both Shanghai and Singapore, and to be honest, the gap is significantly large. The content learned in Shanghai was not designed to enable living more conveniently but rather to boost exam scores.

In contrast, textbooks in Singapore tend to focus on understanding knowledge through English and engaging with the world. How to put it, Chinese textbooks resemble a dictionary model, emphasizing vocabulary, grammar, and standard answers. Singaporean textbooks resemble a reading model, emphasizing understanding, expression, and practical application. The dictionary model isn’t necessarily wrong; it serves to build a foundation, but if one stays in this stage for too long, English will end up being only about solving problems without practical application. The reading model itself treats English as a tool, which often feels more natural for everyday communication, knowledge acquisition, and even understanding academic and professional vocabulary in the future.

Thus, even when the chipmunk could manage fine at home, by the end of the first semester in Singapore, his English level could be described as abysmal. Understanding half of the class content daily would already be commendable. He failed to answer the final application problems in math not because he didn’t know the content but due to difficulty understanding or not knowing how to respond in English. The overall grades were dismal, let alone making friends at school. In his class, there were just three Mandarin-speaking students, one whose English was worse than his (having arrived three years earlier), and one with excellent English who didn’t play with him much 🤣, leading him to feel isolated every day.

Before the first semester commenced, I had already been supplementing his English education, focusing frantically on speaking, reading, and writing. By this July, he has been receiving tutoring for a full two years, and he can barely communicate without obstacles now. However, it will likely still take another year for him to transition from EAL Class B to the mainstream class. Frankly, as long as he can successfully enter the mainstream class within another year, I will be satisfied. After all, the chipmunk isn't a top student; he's just an ordinary kid, and ordinary students need ordinary advancement time.

The language barrier is also not very easy for students above primary school; young people generally maintain an advantage in terms of acceptance. Conversely, adults, due to their mature mindsets and motivations, often find it somewhat easier. I often see that the ones who learn English quickly around me are often accompanying parents.

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