Hi kchia


Welcome to Singapore. Our whole family was posted a country for 2 yrs, when my daughter was in Primary Two and my son was in Primary 5.

Due to demanding international school schedule and we were also trying to revise the challenging Maths and Science of Singapore on almost every weekend. We totally gave up teaching mandarin to my children.

My daughter rejoined the school in July (Primary 4) and the chinese Head of department gave her the Pri 2 text to read to access her chinese level. She could not read a word and I need to apply for 2nd language exemption via MOE.

I discussed with her chinese teacher and to let her join the class as per normal like doing homework, spelling, test and exam. But I ensured the teacher that I will help her. Daily I used Pri 4 A/B Handbook (reading word by word with her the word book, giving her spelling and translate each character into english meaning and pin yin.

We did two types of work book (1000 questions Hua Wen & Qiang Hua Nian Xi) and I sent her to Berries World of Learning School (tuition).
I discussed with her teacher monthly on her progress and also how to help her especially her oral and composition. Her chinese teacher recommend to use oral and composition at Pri 2 level. She failed in her CA2 test and was able to pass with 68% for her SA2 (final exam).

I managed to convince her to do chinese for PSLE and wrote to MOE to withdraw the exemption. We restudied Pri 1 - 3 handbooks during holiday of Nov & Dec 2008. This year prelim (Pri 6 final exam) she scored above 80%. As the secondary level will not be easy for her, she needs to continue her good work by revising those words she does not know during this holiday.

I could not read and remember 50% of the chinese character but with the help of BESTA electronic dictionary … I was able to translate and write the pin yin on each character on the comprehension passage to make study easier for her.

Don’t give up on chinese, it is a important language. Jia yu!

** As for my son, he did higher chinese till Pri 5 and he did not do PSLE.
It was difficult for him to study chinese in Secondary level so we decided to withdrawal him. He is still learning chinese on his own like listening to chinese songs, drama, movies and also speaking to us. He still can read simple chinese passage and we try to converse with him using chinese at home.