I'm in Italy and have a 13 year old son, and when he was small I shared your worries about his English. I've always spoken English to him when we're alone, but the family language is Italian and he went to Italian nursery school. He was a late talker anyway (didn't really start till he was 3) and at 5 was speaking only Italian, though he understood me with no problems. So we did decide to send him to an International School. You're right, they're hideously expensive, and it's meant sacrificing other things (and there's no way we could have done it with more than one child) but from the language point of view it's worked and he's now bilingual. He moves to High School this year, and has decided he wants to move into the Italian system, but has agreed to do a bit of home-schooling with me in addition, just to keep his academic English up to the level where he'll have the choice between Italy and Britain (or wherever) for University. It's worked out well.
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Quote mesmark I live out further into the 'country' where foreigners are present |
An aside - I once spent some time in a very small Japanese village in the country where not only was I the only foreigner, but I was also the first "live" foreigner the kids had ever come across. Every time I went for a walk they'd follow me - at a slight distance - and after ten minutes I'd have this line of Japanese kids trailing behind me. I felt like the Pied Piper ...