On Saturday 25th June Yew Chung International School (YCIS) was a key participant in Squarefoot’s inaugural education seminar, open to the public. Mrs. Shirley Mead, Superintendent for YCIS schools, addressed parents on the benefits of bilingualism.

With the world’s dynamics constantly changing shape, and our daily and business lives being internationally intertwined, being bilingual has never been sought as much as today. YCIS brings students a learning environment that promotes the cultural gains as well as language enhancement.

Mrs. Mead stressed the value of attaining a strong mother tongue but the advantages for developing bilingualism, against remaining monolingual, are amongst:

Employability:

• 50% of UK business take language into account during recruitment (survey Business Languages)
• currently 31% of international executives are bilingual, this is expected to increase

Brain exercise:

• leading to greater attention focus
• distraction resistance
• decision-making judgment
• greater responsiveness to feedback
• better memory
• better visual-spatial skills
• increased creativity

Mrs. Mead’s presentation also gave two clips for interviews with Secondary YCIS students; listening to their own experience and advantages gained were evident. To conclude, the attendees watches a clip from a co-taught Culture lesson, whereby the two teachers (one English, one Chinese speaking) jointly delivered the lesson about traditional gardens in the west and east.

For more about co-teaching and the benefits your child can gain from the YCIS international curriculum please contact the Admissions team.