Chile Forum

My husband has just received a promotion and we will be moving to Antofagasta in May of this year. We have a 9 year old son who I homeschool and would like to know if there are any groups or English speaking churches that we can get involved in that would help him feel less anxious about moving. I am beginning to include Spanish in our homeschooling sessions but until we feel comfortable with the language we would like to be able to help him meet new friends who can communicate with him. We are considering the International School there but until we make that decision we would like to find other sources for him to make friends. If you have any information that would at least guide us in the right direction we would greatly appreciate it. Gracious!!!

The formula for teaching kids Spanish is as follows:

1) Insert 9 year old in to group of similarly aged Spanish speaking children.

2) extract adults

3) out comes fully fluent 10 year old with native accent.

Rinse and repeat above to maintain lifelong bilingual capabilities.

That process has 50,000+ years of product testing.

The only children of that age group among our clients that we have seen not acquire complete native fluency in a year or two were kids that did not have the opportunity to be exposed to other kids speaking Spanish. At that age it is fun, for adults it is terrifying.

One group that comes to mind might be football teams if your son is inclined towards sports or trying it.

That sounds like a great idea...we will definitely try that:-) Thanks for the advice!!!

we moved to anto in may of 2009. We were on the waiting list for The British School (spanish speaking school, with one class of english each day, and teachers who CAN speak english if required). Because we moved in May we got into the school (some kids left), but had we moved in feb for the new school year, the kids would have been at the international school. It was absolutely the best thing for our kids spanish. They did the rest of 09 in spanish, and were fluent by the end. That said, they could understand a great deal of spanish before we arrived to anto. As it turns out we left anto at the end of 09, but even if we had not, I would have moved them to the International school. Reason being, that the chilean school system is exam-intensive (over 20 assessment items per month from first grade onwards), and although the int'l school also uses the chilean school system, at least it would have been in the kids' native language, and reduced their stress levels (particularly for my eldest who was in second grade in 2009).

There is an expat group in anto, that I believe is quite active, though I am not sure as I am no longer there. They have a facebook page, PM me for further details.

Happy to help with anything else if you have some concerns, we were only there for 9 months, but we know the city pretty well. Best of luck!

Formula for making friends at 9 as experienced by me 35 years ago as 8.5 year old.
Move to Canada. Look out window and see neighbour kid. Go out and play with said kid. 35 years later Shaun is still my best friend.

Part 2. Got to school where everyone else goes. In my case English. Learn English in 6 months (Grade 3) and no accent after a year. Graduate grade 8 with highest English mark. It really is that simple.

Never underestimate the power of a fully immersed education. Spoke Spanish at home. English everywhere else. Kids pick up languages fast at that age and it will be a lifelong asset if your kids leave Chile fully bi-lingual. of course if you are planning to leave Chile within a year and do not want them to lose a year in US system then homeschooling works. But by all means immerse them at every other opportunity.

When I came to Canada in November I had to start grade 3 again as I had just finished same in Chile but had missed part of grade 4 in Canada..... In the whole scheme of things 6 months extra was neither here nor there. And as far as math and such, my Chilean education ensured that I was up and running in Canada.

My 7 year-old niece (wife's side of the family) came to visit a couple of weeks ago. She was brutal to me about my Spanish. She just bluntly one night turned to me and said, "tio why is your Spanish so bad"?

You know the kind of things no adult Spanish teacher would ever have the guts to say to a student.