Comparing Chinese Enrichment (Primary/Preschool)

[Imami]

I am not saying alignment to moe syllabus is not good. I am saying at preschool level, if I can find professionals who believe nurturing the love for Chinese language is the way to go and they produce results, I am all for it. 指标不如治本。如果能选择治本， 我当然要治本啦 .

[Thetrees123]

Imami:

I am not saying alignment to moe syllabus is not good. I am saying at preschool level, if I can find professionals who believe nurturing the love for Chinese language is the way to go and they produce results, I am all for it. 指标不如治本。如果能选择治本， 我当然要治本啦 .

要让孩子学好毋语，就得让她爱上母语，毫无条件、无怨无悔地爱上它，而非考完试后，就狠下心地抛弃它。功利主义地学母语只能治标，治不了本。

由于没有成绩压力，在上小学前父母往往不知孩子的进度，以为孩子会朗诵唐诗两三首便老神在在，相信孩子肯定没问题，却没想到孩子只是靠死背唐诗，根本不明其意。

到了小学，如果父母不紧跟课程，不把孩子的基本功打好，即使会朗读唐诗301首也无济于事，随之而来的考试成绩就会像武吉知马山的斜坡一样，让你目瞪口呆。

只有寓教于乐，才能达到事半功倍的效果。

我接触过太多这类学生，也碰过从小就把母语视为敌人的学生。

两种学生都令我担心，因为他们都是国家的主人翁。他们对母语的掌握能力与心态，对国家未来方向至关重大。

[lovinglife]

Imami:

lovinglife:

[quote=\"Imami\"]
Berries' classes are 12 kids per class. This is the same all the way from n1 to pri1. If I remember correctly, an in charge person told me it's 12 per class all the way to secondary level but I only have contacts up to pri 1 to verify this.

As for the two teachers, it is not necessarily a main teacher and an assistant teacher. Berries teachers usually specialise in one or two levels. That is, they don't get teachers to teach all levels. For instance, my kid's teacher only teaches k1 level. Sometimes u will see her in some n2 classes as \"assistant teacher\" and that is becos she would be taking over that particular class the following year. I like this arrangement as the young children (n1 or n2) will have a chance to get use to the teachers and the following year's transition will be smooth.

In this case, the assistant teacher is not a trainee teacher.

If there are three teachers, usually the third teacher IS a trainee teacher. Either doing industrial attachment / internship or new teacher who just joined berries and doing under study with an existing teacher).

Does this apply to all Berries branch? Hope it is. Thanks for sharing.

not sure. Maybe not since some berries branches are franchise branches.

But likely that those under the same management would be operating in the same way.

One thing to add - a new teacher who understudy a main teacher may not necessarily mean she/he is not qualified. One of My kid's childcare teacher left the childcare ctr and joined berries. When she first joined, she was the 3rd teacher (taken to be the understudy/ untrained teacher). In my heart I was thinking-wah, this teacher has a masters in early childhood education from Beijing university leh, join berries only trainee teacher ar?

It was such a happy coincidence that this teacher was attached to my kid's class. So it was sort of a happy reunion for this teacher and my kid.

I checked with the in charge admin person and got to know that all new teachers would have to under study a fellow colleague to learn \"the berries way of conducting lessons\". Not necessarily they are unqualified. True enough, three months later, this understudy teacher was no longer attached to my kid's class and I got to know she now has her own n2 classes to run.[/quote]When I requested my child to transfer from one branch to the other (due to distance), I was told all Berries branches are under same management. We can just call up and request for transfer if there is available slot in your desired branch. The management will do internal paperwork. It was quite hassle-free. So far my encounter with Berries were good.

[lovinglife]

:goodpost:

Imami:

Specializing at a particular level and not following the children up to the next level does not necessarily mean the lack of long term commitment. There are too many factors contributing to staff turn over, management style and philosophy.


At the berries my kid is enrolled in, his n1 and n2 teachers are the same ladies. The main teacher received long service award (10years) and the second teacher had been with the same branch for 7 years (this teacher was the \"second teacher\" becos she specialized in k1 and k2 and she was attached to n1 and n2 for exposure. Not becos she is unqualified).

I tend to favor having the same teacher following my kid thru. Hence I was disappointed when I realized it would be a brand new teacher teaching my kid's k1 class. I expressed my thoughts to an admin staff and here's the gist of what she said- berries teachers are trained for a particular level(s) so that they can also cater to the emotional and mental processing of the kids of that particular age. She added that different age group has different needs and response to different techniques.

Upon hearing what she said, I thought there was some truth in it. Looking at my kid's growing up, it is indeed that he respond to different techniques at different age.

I sing praises for berries becos i understand their way of doing things better (since my kid is enrolled with them) and I like their way of doing things and the explanation. But I do not think all branches are the same. There must be a reason why certain branches are forever full with wait list spanning three pages while another is never operating on full capacity. No doubt location plays a part but I believe there is more to it.

I have nothing against tx. All I got to know from tx is gathered from my initial recee with them (I was considering tx and berries back then) and what my friends with kids with tx have shared with me.

I think the main and most consistent different between tx and berries is that one is very aligned to moe syllabus/geared towards primary one education while the other is working towards nurturing the love for Chinese language. Between these two, I believe nurturing the love for the language is more important for preschoolers (if it is a secondary three student, then I think align with moe more impt becos by teenage, it is a little too hard to do anything about Chinese. By then u either love it or hate it as a subject). Nd it is this reason that berries won my vote becos I feel that if the love for Chinese language can be nurtured during the preschool years and then sustained through the child's growing years by reading widely, I believe there is no need to be enriched by a framework which is aligned to moe syllabus.

:goodpost:

[sembgal]

The love for Chinese has to start from young. It doesn’t matter which enrichment you send your child to, what matters is how much your child can learn from the teacher in the enrichment centre. I have heard of children who attends branded enrichment centres but made no progress. Parents are affluent and can afford to send children to any enrichment centres they deemed is the most developmentally appropriate for their children.


How do we measure how good a teacher is? There is no definite way to measure how good a teacher is. So, some schools will give out their own recognition awards to teachers whom are outstanding in their own eyes.

Chinese Language teachers who have undergone the Early Childhood Education diploma, degree or master, are guided by their lecturers to teach children of different age groups and different levels.

It’s time to think is it really good as what others say? Or just because of its brand that make you decide which to choose?

[vinegar]

my kid speaks english at home. He prefers to write chinese compo n so resist in writing english compo.


He told me he prefers his chinese tutor than english one…the power of getting the tutor??

[Imami]

lovinglife:

When I requested my child to transfer from one branch to the other (due to distance), I was told all Berries branches are under same management. We can just call up and request for transfer if there is available slot in your desired branch. The management will do internal paperwork. It was quite hassle-free. So far my encounter with Berries were good.

I thought berries is privately owned and under one management too. Until I spoke to one parent whose relative bought the franchise rights for running a tampines berries branch. While researching on berries and tx, I also came across a page on berries about buying their franchise rights.

In any case, berries or other industries, there bound to be differences when different people run different branches. We can only keep our eyes open.

[Imami]

vinegar:

my kid speaks english at home. He prefers to write chinese compo n so resist in writing english compo.


He told me he prefers his chinese tutor than english one.....the power of getting the tutor??

Vinegar, if I had not been reading your posts, I would hv thought u are a tutor yourself trying to sell your own services

Your kid is quite different, usually English speaking kids also don't like writing Chinese compo. Even those who speak Chinese may not like writing Chinese compo. I guess his Chinese is quite strong, despite speaking English at home?

U lucky, got a good tutor for Chinese. From the way I see it, seems like Chinese is harder to learn (let alone like). Good for your boy.

Chinese is a beautiful language. It's sad that these days many kids dont really appreciate it, are struggle with it and hating it.

[Imami]

Hi loving life,


On second thoughts, I thought u were still deciding between tx and berries? lazy to scroll back and read, pls remind me - how old is your kid?

In any case, it is your (or anyone’s) choice to choose which provider they prefer. Both tx and berries command the largest share in the preschool/ primary school chinese enrichment class industry. So either should be a good bet.

There are separate tx and berries threads (check under the language section) in which you could read through to find out more.

The one which suit your kid and you (you hv to like it too since u are the one who arrange for payment, make up classes etc) the most, is the best. Which is why, I hardly penalize trainee teachers. A qualification is needed so that one gets the necessary knowledge to deliver the job but it doesn’t say much about a teacher’s passion, style of handling and student management. For younger children, I think trainee teachers are welcome. Extra pair of hands are good in most instances since young children has shorter attention span.

[Imami]

Thetrees123:

要让孩子学好毋语，就得让她爱上母语，毫无条件、无怨无悔地爱上它，而非考完试后，就狠下心地抛弃它。功利主义地学母语只能治标，治不了本。
由于没有成绩压力，在上小学前父母往往不知孩子的进度，以为孩子会朗诵唐诗两三首便老神在在，相信孩子肯定没问题，却没想到孩子只是靠死背唐诗，根本不明其意。
到了小学，如果父母不紧跟课程，不把孩子的基本功打好，即使会朗读唐诗301首也无济于事，随之而来的考试成绩就会像武吉知马山的斜坡一样，让你目瞪口呆。
只有寓教于乐，才能达到事半功倍的效果。
我接触过太多这类学生，也碰过从小就把母语视为敌人的学生。
两种学生都令我担心，因为他们都是国家的主人翁。他们对母语的掌握能力与心态，对国家未来方向至关重大。

 哦您是老师？  你好。一般上，我对老师都有比对一般人来得更尊重。
以您的看法，五六岁的孩童应该有怎样的程度才算是拥有好的起步？

我没有上小学的孩子，所以对小学华文教育不是很了解。父母一定要跟进课程吗？广读多读不够吗？

对于现代父母让孩子背诵唐诗，三字经等，我有另一种看法。在右脑训练方面，有种说发是让幼童背诵诗经来开阔他们的右脑以便日后大脑能在短时间内迅速的记得大量资讯。只背诵就期待孩子能理解诗经的原意有点牵强。但不背诵就很难记进心里。我觉得能背诵之后，一定要讲解诗经背后的故事才能有更深入的了解。