mr.matey

Hola!
Here's hoping someone has some advice and information for us... we are moving to the Torrent area of Valencia later this year. We are trying to gather information regarding Spanish State Schools for our (just) 8 year old son. He has been learning Castellano (Spanish) for the last two years and has a very basic vocabulary. It looks like the only school that has a place for him at the moment teaches primarily in Valenciano with some Spanish. We are not opposed to him learning Valenciano as a secondary subject but are concerned that the whole curriculum will be taught in Valenciano. Having only very basic Spanish ourselves we really don't know the implications for him and are worried that we will 'blow his mind' with too much change all in one go.
Has anyone on this forum been through/are going through a similar situation with their children - if so we would love to hear your experiences and advice? Do any of you know which schools in the Torrent area teach primarily in Spanish? We understand that by law the schools have to offer both languages but some seem to favour Valenciano.
Thanks for reading this...

twyntub

You'll find that even as far away as Elche / Aspe / etc that most schools will teach at least 50% of the lessons in Valenciano once they get to that age. In fact at our school, they've just introduced Valenciano for the three year olds! We've even seen a trend forming where dual-language letters home to parents are having the Castellano version phased out!

Because we're so far from Valencia, even the Spanish parents seem to struggle to cope with the language - whereas their children pick it up very quickly. You will probably find that your child copes as well as any Spanish child moving into the area.

spain

Hi

we came when our son was just coming up to 7 - he went into the village school which is Valenciano with Castellano being taught as a second language. He has done very well and has not been held back a year (Yet - which I am very proud of as other Spanish kids in his class have)

Now he is almost 12, can read and write in both Valenciano and Castellano but predominantly he speaks Valenciano as we do live in a village but it still amazes me how he can switch from one to the other (wish I was that clever)

At the end of the day I personally dont see what harm it will do if our kids can speak both languages

of course homework was (and still is sometimes) an issue but we struggled through spending many hours looking through the dictionary and in our first Summer here we got private lessons for him to give him a bit of a push too

There is a verb book which is Valenciano/Castellano that might be helpful to you

And dont forget Valenciano is very similar to French and Catalan - as we found out on a trip to Barcelona last year, we could read all of the signs ! although most people we spoke to spoke English brilliantly

Its natural to worry but Im sure your son will be fine

Relampago

Rather, it is more similar to the catalan

spain

have a look at these

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/8461106520

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...688948-0962053

but its cheaper here

http://www.tirant.com/libreria/detal...+d%C2%B4angles

or order it from a book shop in Spain when you are over