Me Time!
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On the topic of languages... I can definitely see improvements in my kids' linguistic mastery across all languages. One, for instance, after being heavily drilled in english literature class, becomes more precise in his choice of vocabulary in daily life. Another, being surrounded by native speakers ig, can now easily speak grammatically natural, structurally more complex chinese to express opinions. Like SG_KP1 often says,
SG_KP1\" post_id=\"2121431\" time=\"1698160644\" user_id=\"188234:
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slmkhoo\" post_id=\"2121444\" time=\"1698193847\" user_id=\"28674:
History (as a subject) has changed since our time. Only half the qns require memorization now. The other half are source-based inference qns. DS has no problems with memorizing, but it is the SBQ that he really excels in, intuitively.
Not trying to change your mind - but why is it that Geog seems to have such bad press these days? It seems that there is more positive about History, and a distaste for Geog? Admittedly I only hear from a very small sample of sec school students. I've always preferred Geog (innate interest), and disliked studying Hist (terrible sec school teacher). It also helped that I was always a high scorer in Geog.
Teachers have a lot of answer for - my Geog teachers were always more reasonable and would accept answers as long as they could be substantiated; the Hist teacher required memorisation from the textbook! So although I love reading history, I dropped it as a study subject as soon as I could.
Geog, on the other hand, besides fact-based qns they also have analysis/discuss qns now. But whatever he blabs on about is struck down because he did not mention the keywords. Hence to me it looks like psle science subject all over again. Gah! -
Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=\"2121445\" time=\"1698194592\" user_id=\"195250:[quote=\"Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=2121445 time=1698194592 user_id=195250]
Do you notice that many parents speak English to their babies/toddlers? What is mother tongue to Singaporean Chinese? Supposed to be mandarin / dialect right? But why mothers speak English to their children rather than mandarin?
Is it? All kids in my family including DS and nephews are excel at Chinese. It may because last time FIL reading Lianhe Zaobao and watching channel 8 news everyday. Actually we have Chinese TV and radio channel with Chinese newspaper, it is much easier to learn Chinese here.[/quote]
One reason DH said maybe should blame the G for letting so many PRCs flood in some years back. As we do not want to be associated with them we started using English more. Recently, I pressed the lift button to hold the lift for a PRC family of 5, and none of them said thank you.
Although there are Channel 8 drama shows, SG children need to do assessment books / attend tuition. No time to watch TV or rather, they prefer to play Roblox -
Dd likes to read history but not the exam. She says it is very interesting to read.
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zac's mum\" post_id=\"2121451\" time=\"1698197163\" user_id=\"53606:[quote=\"zac's mum\" post_id=2121451 time=1698197163 user_id=53606]
Geog is more \"science-like\", which is why, in my day, science stream students took it as their humanities subject (no choice given). I do know that History has changed in the way it's taught and tested now (I've edited sec history books!) so I guess if I were a student now, I might be tempted. On the other hand, I've never really liked politics and wars! I liked Geog because it helped make sense of the natural world, as well as the economic/sociological aspects of life. I would have opted to study Geog as my university course, but was channelled elsewhere.
History (as a subject) has changed since our time. Only half the qns require memorization now. The other half are source-based inference qns. DS has no problems with memorizing, but it is the SBQ that he really excels in, intuitively.
Geog, on the other hand, besides fact-based qns they also have analysis/discuss qns now. But whatever he blabs on about is struck down because he did not mention the keywords. Hence to me it looks like psle science subject all over again. Gah![/quote]
As for keywords, I think PSLE carries it further than is appropriate for Pr school, in my opinion. But as kids move on in education, it's a good discipline to learn to use the same words for concepts as others in the same area of study. It avoids misunderstanding should make writing more concise. Or we might end up like Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean.\" -
lee_yl\" post_id=\"2121452\" time=\"1698197896\" user_id=\"17023:
The type of languages which parents speak to their kids - is their own preference. For us, me, DH, BIL, SIL and even DS's biologically mother are all speaking mandarin to our kids. My Malay neighbor speak Malay to their kids, any problems?
Do you notice that many parents speak English to their babies/toddlers? What is mother tongue to Singaporean Chinese? Supposed to be mandarin / dialect right? But why mothers speak English to their children rather than mandarin?
One reason DH said maybe should blame the G for letting so many PRCs flood in some years back. As we do not want to be associated with them we started using English more. Recently, I pressed the lift button to hold the lift for a PRC family of 5, and none of them said thank you.
Although there are Channel 8 drama shows, SG children need to do assessment books / attend tuition. No time to watch TV or rather, they prefer to play Roblox
DH's grandparents or many of our ancestors were came from Mainland China and why we do not want to be associated with them? :scratchhead: I cannot believe a Malay in Singapore do not want to associate with Malay from Malaysia. Please don't differentiation people in Singapore. We have very helpful and hardworking colleagues came from PRC.
Kids can always watch Channel 8 news when they are having dinner at home in the evening. -
sky minecrafter\" post_id=\"2121448\" time=\"1698196714\" user_id=\"130531:[quote=\"sky minecrafter\" post_id=2121448 time=1698196714 user_id=130531]
:rahrah: :rahrah: .
On the topic of languages... I can definitely see improvements in my kids' linguistic mastery across all languages. One, for instance, after being heavily drilled in english literature class, becomes more precise in his choice of vocabulary in daily life. Another, being surrounded by native speakers ig, can now easily speak grammatically natural, structurally more complex chinese to express opinions. Like SG_KP1 often says, (:[/quote]
English Lit was in my older one's second choice of subject combinations, and in hindsight I kind of wish that the class would have been taken as a second full humanities (not that it was my choice). As for E Lit vs. CL Lit, I guess it is kind of a toss-up, and again reverts to the student. Mainly, I probably just think it is nice to leverage one of the (somewhat unique) capabilities of the school you are in (not that it is absolutely mandatory or huge advantage).
As for Geo and in response to other replies, one of my kids seems to like the class a fair amount (at least talks about this subject more than E Lit or History). From what I can gather, many of the topics or concepts are around you in everyday life, and this provokes some additional thoughts. The other one thought the class was being operated as test first, teach the right answer after handing back a lot of red ink
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You do Chinese Lit, only if your command of Chinese language is there. Otherwise, is a struggle
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MrsKiasu\" post_id=\"2121330\" time=\"1698060777\" user_id=\"43981:
the $10 package is very good value - 100GB!
I got them the $10package. Supposed to check but go shopping instead.
i also give my mum this - she can watch drama on hp till \"seow\"
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On the topic of mandarin, quite laughable for me. I speak mandarin throughout my life since young and even now to my spouse and kids. My kids clearly understood and chose to reply in English their preferred language. My girls even shared that their friends were surprised why we use mandarin at home as clearly this was not how it was at their homes. I hv nothing against speaking mandarin or English but would like to say that we hv to accept that English as the official medium of instruction is too ingrained in our kids generation to see an immediate change. Having said this, I do ask my girls who do VIA how they communicate to the elderly. They said mandarin so you see, kids can code switch if required. Like I believe, understanding and simple dialogistic use of Mandarin should suffice. If need be, it’s not difficult to pick up business Chinese later.
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