Choose a boarding school carefully

https://www.ft.com/content/98ed81ac-f529-11e9-a79c-bc9acae3b654
It is not uncommon for children at boarding school to call their parents and ask to come home in the first few weeks. But the German 14-year-old sent to a quiet school in the English countryside had a specific complaint.

He was there to experience the famed British boarding school education, which — despite a tarnished reputation in recent years — is still seen around the world as a defining feature of British culture.

Instead, the boy told his parents, he couldn’t make friends because he couldn’t understand what his roommates were saying. Not because his English wasn’t good enough. But because they were all speaking Mandarin. His parents withdrew him after one term...