CHIJ St Nicholas Girls'
-
ricedoll\" post_id=\"1974025\" time=\"1588653724\" user_id=\"165813:
The ratio of ang mo who learn Chinese vs Chinese who learn English is 1:99999999999999 infinity. Maybe you like to go and ask Singaporeans who lived in China before, how desperate the Chinese are in learning English and getting out of China. That’s why the job of the “English teacher” is a hot one there. They are so desperate they even hire Filipinos to teach English.
Look at Jim Rogers daughters, then you will know how important it is to learn and master Chinese! -
ricedoll\" post_id=\"1974050\" time=\"1588664893\" user_id=\"165813:
I am an old girl of SN. Spent 11 years there from K2 to Sec 4.
True, but also many strong schools without affiliation like Tao Nan, Henry Park etc also hard to get in.
I think SNGS is good as in its not super religious like MGS so non catholics can also feel very much a part of the community, and good Chinese is also a bonus. Lastly, the housing options around SNGS is not as expensive as Bukit Timah so worth a try for people aiming 2C.
I believe your assessment is inaccurate.
SN is just as religious as MGS. The extent to which the religion is manifested and practiced in the school is the same. Perhaps Catholics are more reserved than Protestants so it gives off an impression to the public of lower religiosity. This is not due to the school exercising lower religiosity but more because of the nature of Catholicism. However in my experience a sizable number of SN graduates come from Protestant families, not Catholic, and a high number of the SN old girls convert to Christianity after they graduate, probably due to the religious molding they received from having the SN school background. This is more pronounced if they are old girls from primary school to O levels.
Secondly, though SN is a top SAP school, the students talk to each other in English. This is the case with all the top SAP schools in Singapore. You will find that the only rare ones who don’t talk in English to be foreigners (from China). Even in a school like Hwa Chong JC, which outsiders think is very “Chinese”, yet the truth is this is the JC that has produced some of the most “Ang Mo Pai” people in Singapore. You can ask around. Ask about the famous Hwa Chong humanities program that’s super duper “Ang Mo pai” producing many of our PSC scholars to the US and to American liberal arts colleges, and how Hwa Chong produced many Angus Ross prize winners.
In fact, it’s the neighborhood schools in Singapore that still have the remaining young people still talking in Chinese, though I’ve heard from teacher friends even then very few students nowadays in neighborhood schools talk to each other in Chinese.
I am born in the 1980s, and know Moms in Singapore from an array of different backgrounds. It is the Moms from neighborhood school background that speak in Chinese, while the Moms from SAP secondary schools especially the SAP schools like SNGS, RV, Dunman High and NYGH speak in English. Not Chinese. The whole SAP thing did not foster anything deeper in the students. It was a thing that you joined because your PSLE scores qualified and it shaved off 2 points in your L1R5 O level score. It didn’t change or impact the students culturally, and I don’t expect that it is any different now.
If increasing the chances of your children to turn out to speak Mandarin or feel culturally close to the Chinese is important to you, my advice is to enroll them in neighborhood schools rather than SAP schools. -
RockstarMommy\" post_id=\"2065052\" time=\"1650606796\" user_id=\"197911:
I thought SNGS practices alternate \"speak Chinese\" days every week such that the kids can only speak in Chinese. That was like about 10 years ago. Dunno if they continued, or maybe it was only for the primary school side.
...
I am born in the 1980s, and know Moms in Singapore from an array of different backgrounds. It is the Moms from neighborhood school background that speak in Chinese, while the Moms from SAP secondary schools especially the SAP schools like SNGS, RV, Dunman High and NYGH speak in English. Not Chinese. The whole SAP thing did not foster anything deeper in the students. It was a thing that you joined because your PSLE scores qualified and it shaved off 2 points in your L1R5 O level score. It didn’t change or impact the students culturally, and I don’t expect that it is any different now.
If increasing the chances of your children to turn out to speak Mandarin or feel culturally close to the Chinese is important to you, my advice is to enroll them in neighborhood schools rather than SAP schools. -
RockstarMommy\" post_id=\"2065052\" time=\"1650606796\" user_id=\"197911:
Oh I didn’t know SN has a K2 level? Don’t they all start at P1? Thank you for sharing!
I am an old girl of SN. Spent 11 years there from K2 to Sec 4.
I believe your assessment is inaccurate.
SN is just as religious as MGS. The extent to which the religion is manifested and practiced in the school is the same. Perhaps Catholics are more reserved than Protestants so it gives off an impression to the public of lower religiosity. This is not due to the school exercising lower religiosity but more because of the nature of Catholicism. However in my experience a sizable number of SN graduates come from Protestant families, not Catholic, and a high number of the SN old girls convert to Christianity after they graduate, probably due to the religious molding they received from having the SN school background. This is more pronounced if they are old girls from primary school to O levels.
Secondly, though SN is a top SAP school, the students talk to each other in English. This is the case with all the top SAP schools in Singapore. You will find that the only rare ones who don’t talk in English to be foreigners (from China). Even in a school like Hwa Chong JC, which outsiders think is very “Chinese”, yet the truth is this is the JC that has produced some of the most “Ang Mo Pai” people in Singapore. You can ask around. Ask about the famous Hwa Chong humanities program that’s super duper “Ang Mo pai” producing many of our PSC scholars to the US and to American liberal arts colleges, and how Hwa Chong produced many Angus Ross prize winners.
In fact, it’s the neighborhood schools in Singapore that still have the remaining young people still talking in Chinese, though I’ve heard from teacher friends even then very few students nowadays in neighborhood schools talk to each other in Chinese.
I am born in the 1980s, and know Moms in Singapore from an array of different backgrounds. It is the Moms from neighborhood school background that speak in Chinese, while the Moms from SAP secondary schools especially the SAP schools like SNGS, RV, Dunman High and NYGH speak in English. Not Chinese. The whole SAP thing did not foster anything deeper in the students. It was a thing that you joined because your PSLE scores qualified and it shaved off 2 points in your L1R5 O level score. It didn’t change or impact the students culturally, and I don’t expect that it is any different now.
If increasing the chances of your children to turn out to speak Mandarin or feel culturally close to the Chinese is important to you, my advice is to enroll them in neighborhood schools rather than SAP schools.
Strangely, my experience with my circle of friends from the SAP school is very different from yours. Most of the children and parents speak Chinese/English, they are equally bilingual in both languages, and I can feel the Chinese culture ingrained in them, with some exceptions. Perhaps you are one of the few exceptions..
SAP schools do have more funds to promote our Chinese culture and have more programs that children get to participate in. So I am in doubts that your experience, speak for the majority..
I also want to clarify that, MGS belongs to the Methodist family. -
Zeal mummy\" post_id=\"2065194\" time=\"1650696979\" user_id=\"58173:[quote=\"Zeal mummy\" post_id=2065194 time=1650696979 user_id=58173]
St Nicks had a pre-primary cohort (K2 age) in some years, very cute uniform. I was in the 1983 batch.
Oh I didn’t know SN has a K2 level? Don’t they all start at P1?
……
I also want to clarify that, MGS belongs to the Methodist family.[/quote]
And…Methodist is a subset of Protestantism. So the forummer RockstarMommy was not incorrect. (Neither js your statement wrong.)
“A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of Protestant denominational families: Adventists, Anabaptists, Anglicans/Episcopalians, Baptists, Calvinist/Reformed, Lutherans, Methodists, Nondenominational, Charismatic, Independent, and other churches are on the rise, and constitute a significant part of Protestantism.”
Source:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism -
zac's mum\" post_id=\"2065202\" time=\"1650707334\" user_id=\"53606:[quote=\"zac's mum\" post_id=2065202 time=1650707334 user_id=53606]
Yep, I made an edit to my original post to correct that, although I didn’t remove it entirely.. as I still don’t think we should compare oranges with apples, even though they are both subset of fruits. They are not the same.
St Nicks had a pre-primary cohort (K2 age) in some years, very cute uniform. I was in the 1983 batch.
And…Methodist is a subset of Protestantism. So the forummer RockstarMommy was not incorrect. (Neither js your statement wrong.)
“A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of Protestant denominational families: Adventists, Anabaptists, Anglicans/Episcopalians, Baptists, Calvinist/Reformed, Lutherans, Methodists, Nondenominational, Charismatic, Independent, and other churches are on the rise, and constitute a significant part of Protestantism.”
Source:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism[/quote]
So you’re a SN too! Hm, are you more Ang mo pai, like she says? I feel you are very much bilingual and that you have a good feel of Chinese culture in what you say. -
Zeal mummy\" post_id=\"2065205\" time=\"1650709316\" user_id=\"58173:[quote=\"Zeal mummy\" post_id=2065205 time=1650709316 user_id=58173]
I’m definitely from the Ang Mo pai group, since my own mum is Nonya and could not speak a word of Mandarin. My dad was very bilingual but he wasnt the one directly helping with our studies.
Yep, I made an edit to my original post to correct that, although I didn’t remove it entirely.. as I still don’t think we should compare oranges with apples, even though they are both subset of fruits. They are not the same.
So you’re a SN too! Hm, are you more Ang mo pai, like she says? I feel you are very much bilingual and that you have a good feel of Chinese culture in what you say.[/quote]
I recall my classmates preferring to converse in English among peers, but in Mandarin with their parents.
I have similar observations with RockStarMommy, ie after meeting more people post-graduation, it is the friends from non-SAP schools who prefer to converse in Mandarin, whereas when we have casual alumni gatherings, we all speak in English (though we all had excellent Chinese grades). -
zac's mum\" post_id=\"2065209\" time=\"1650709812\" user_id=\"53606:[quote=\"zac's mum\" post_id=2065209 time=1650709812 user_id=53606]
Learnt something new about you today, ZM!.. good sharing! I guess it is very family dependent as well, since your mum is a Nonya, it is not just influence purely from the immersion of school culture.
I’m definitely from the Ang Mo pai group, since my own mum is Nonya and could not speak a word of Mandarin. My dad was very bilingual but he wasnt the one directly helping with our studies.
I recall my classmates preferring to converse in English among peers, but in Mandarin with their parents.
I have similar observations with RockStarMommy, ie after meeting more people post-graduation, it is the friends from non-SAP schools who prefer to converse in Mandarin, whereas when we have casual alumni gatherings, we all speak in English (though we all had excellent Chinese grades).[/quote]
Amongst my circle, the SAP-school kids are the ones who speak the best Chinese, probably write the best too, although we still converses primarily in English. I’m not from a sap school but I would converses in Chinese if I see the other person is more mandarin-educated or from a sap school. However I would converse in English, once I get a feel that the person might prefer that. -
ChiefKiasu\" post_id=\"2065073\" time=\"1650624771\" user_id=\"3:
This program wasn’t in existence when I was there. I doubt its effectiveness as it’s a program that essentially can’t be policed.
I thought SNGS practices alternate \"speak Chinese\" days every week such that the kids can only speak in Chinese. That was like about 10 years ago. Dunno if they continued, or maybe it was only for the primary school side.
From what I know of my alma mater and my friends and husband who graduated from various SAP schools, these schools try their best to promote Chinese culture within the parameters of a MOE directive of English medium of education, but the students themselves speak English to each other.
Also…why they need to have a “speak Chinese” day, if the girls are already speaking Chinese on their own to each other? -
Zeal mummy\" post_id=\"2065194\" time=\"1650696979\" user_id=\"58173:[quote=\"Zeal mummy\" post_id=2065194 time=1650696979 user_id=58173]
Methodists are Protestants.
Oh I didn’t know SN has a K2 level? Don’t they all start at P1? Thank you for sharing!
Strangely, my experience with my circle of friends from the SAP school is very different from yours. Most of the children and parents speak Chinese/English, they are equally bilingual in both languages, and I can feel the Chinese culture ingrained in them, with some exceptions. Perhaps you are one of the few exceptions..
SAP schools do have more funds to promote our Chinese culture and have more programs that children get to participate in. So I am in doubts that your experience, speak for the majority..
I also want to clarify that, MGS belongs to the Methodist family.[/quote]
I believe that as an alumni of 11 years, just based on that, which means my own immeasurable first -hand experience of a SAP school, and not to mention all the people I must have known from school and also my husband’s who also graduated from a SAP school, our assessment trumps your anecdotes you got from a few people you know. So probability wise, it is your “friends” who are the exception, not mine.
Moreover since you do not have the experience of having been in a SAP school at all, all those encounters of “friends” were likely a recent affair, something you started looking out when you embarked on this school-hunting journey. Generally parents of toddlers would try to speak some Chinese to their children hoping in vain that their kids pick up some in this English dominated society.
I know because I’m at this life stage so I started to notice a few people at the same stage doing that, even though they only speak English to their spouses and adult friends.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login
Online Users
Statistics
Popular Topics