Does Afrikaan's Teanagers find it hard to adapt?

[CTColette 15]

Hi Everyone,

I am new to the forum and have some questions concerning children. How many people went over with their children being around the age of 12 - 15 and how did their children adapt?

We are Afrikaans speaking and I am concerned that it might be a difficult time to make the move since my son is 12 and daughter 8.

I know there is no perfect time but i'm thinking that my son is about to go into his teenage years and that is a challenge on it's own. So I really want to know if Afrikaans children find it much harder to adjust since school will be all English and are they often pushed aside by the kids in school because they are immigrants?

What are the discipline like in schools? How do they enforce discipline? Do they simply have detention for bad behaviour? Are the kids respectful of adults?

A couple years back we moved to NZ and found the children almost out of control and had a total lack of respect for older people and it seemed that the Schools had no way to enforce discipline. Children had so much freedom of speech to the point where it became hard for us to raise our kids to be hard working, responsible adults with respect and good manners.

Thanks for a great forum!

[Jules 1,391]

What you saw in NZ might be similar in Canada. The respect SA kids have towards adults isn't very prevalent in Canada. But I wouldn't say canadian kids are out of hand - just not overly friendly towards adults.

As for adapting: teenagers are difficult at the best of times. Emigration isn't as easy for them as it is for a little child. We landed with a 15 yr old and a 5 yr old. The little one assimilated very fast. Our teenager cried every single day for a year. Second year was marginally better.

But LONG TERM it was the best thing we did for our kids and a gift.

[MaryJane 2,816]

Our experience was slightly different (reversed) from Jules.

My 17 year old had the best transition out of us all, making lots of new friends. She actually appears like she's been in Canada all her life.

My 9 year old (at the time) had a hard time adjusting. School helped a bit but she had bouts of missing her SA friends and became a bit withdrawn. Time helps though, with the adjustment in the end.

We're not Afrikaans, but immigrants nonetheless. I don't think your child will have issues being singled out as an immigrant because most schools here are culturally diverse.

I feel that they teach "respect for others" in school quite well. The kids are taught "respect other's personal space" and "respect other's things". There is of course the element of being in the right environment (dependent on the school), but at least half of this would be dependent on the kid.

[canuck nick 301]

Welcome to the forum

Our kids were 6 and 8 when we arrived and both had no problems in assimilating in Canada at all. A lot of their adaptation comes from the parents' adaptation and behaviour, so if you are very positive and comforting, it will rub off on them.

Remember, Canada is made up of immigrants from all over the world, whose first language is not English and they adapt and survive.