Ming explains why Southeast Asian preschools teach English to young children. Private preschools, affordable mainly to wealthier families, use English instruction because parents believe it improves job prospects and earning potential. English has become a social norm in these regions, often replacing local languages.
So preschool only happens to people who can actually afford it most of the time. You might have pre K or pre nursing or whatever. It's only for those who can afford it, right? When I was a kid, I did go to preschool, but that was also private. These private preschools, they do it in a multilingual setting, of which most of the time it's in English and sometimes now in Mandarin. And these usually skew towards not talking in the local language. And I've asked some parents all over, like Southeast Asia, it seems like this is the case as well. And the reason why English is so sought after is because, to be very honest, in this culture, if you speak English and nowadays maybe even Mandarin Chinese, your prospects of becoming a higher paid person just increases because you can now talk to a lot more people. Therefore, this becomes a cultural setting where English has become a norm.
