Hong Wen

[SAHM_TAN]

hquek:

SAHM_TAN:

HW is a SAP school so it is a given that it will be very into Chinese culture and values. We speak Mandarin at home but B3-B4 standard, so going to send her to Chinese camp during the hols. If interested, there's a thread in the forum about Chinese enrichment classes.


http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

Enrichment classes are all fine and good. But remember, we are talking about a language; I feel it's important to provide an environment where our kids live in, accepts and hopefully even loves chinese.

My chinese also B3 standard. I'm trying very hard to pull my socks up. Somehow my kids do not like chinese. Have bought tonnes of books to kick start their interest and now in the process of acquainting them with those books. Not an easy process, but I like to go the hard way.

Gosh, you guys are active posters onto this thread. Sure hope to see you guys in the school. then we can yak and share more stuff about what's going on. At least the school will not stay a blackbox (sorry, but that's what I feel cos many things I still dunno about this school).

Maybe you can try translated children Chinese story book by Jap authors. Their stories and illustrations are more attractive and I like them because there is no hanyu pingyin to distract the child from learning the characters. My kids enjoy them and would ask me to read to them again and again. Although they are classified as picture books, the characters are beyond Kinder level and quite wordy too.

[hquek]

SAHM_TAN:

I wanted a school that has many Chinese cultural activities and focus on Chinese values. I could not get selected for PV at TN (my first choice), PC or NY. So although I could PV at another branded school it was too \"ang mo\" for me and I was lucky that HW still accepted PV towards the end of Jun. I believe that the first 12 yrs of a child's life is important to learn and be interested in languages. So I think the 6yrs in HW if we can get in will be beneficial to her.


Although linguistic experts think that there is no one language that is more difficult to master, Mandarin to me seems more difficult than English.

We speak Mandarin at home but when dd enter Kindergarten she became more interested in English. I wonder what is it about English that is so attactive? Maybe it is easier to write?

actually quite lucky you didn't get into pv at TN. competition at 2B is super fierce - within 1km also go tot ballot.

Jia you ba!

[hquek]

SAHM_TAN:

Maybe you can try translated children Chinese story book by Jap authors. Their stories and illustrations are more attractive and I like them because there is no hanyu pingyin to distract the child from learning the characters. My kids enjoy them and would ask me to read to them again and again. Although they are classified as picture books, the characters are beyond Kinder level and quite wordy too.

Been shopping at dangdang and gotten loads - many translated from european, japanese and even korean. the quality of reads are sooooo much better than the ones we can find locally, plus the prices are soooo cheap compared with locally published ones (sorry, but I have to think of my wallet first).

[hquek]

reiner:

saw a few Chinese-speaking Teachers, wonder are they from China yah. As their Chinese is so smooth...


read lots of chinese novel @ my sch times, 讲华语too... but now communciate in english lor when start to work... so the env is impt to speak the 语言。We set Sunday as Chinese day... 讲华语天... hope this will be a bit start for all of us... and when read chinese book... she said she wanna read those words she knows... very simple ones... her CC chinese teacher said she can communicate well w her n classmates leh... n can recongise the words. hmmmm... dh said she classifed us as english, :stupid: not chinese... true? then we are the cause yah..

we tried to set a chinese only day, only to fail abysmally...that's us. whoever is more persistent in a language wins and somehow the kids are very steadfast.

I started talking to DS2 only in chinese. to the extent that his N1 teacher feedback his english not good. Come to N2, thanks to kor kor, his chinese all but disappeared. :stupid: :stupid:

[reiner]

then how to strike a balance for english n chinese? :?

[hquek]

reiner:

then how to strike a balance for english n chinese? :?

I'm still finding my way honestly. My kids are not natural linguists - they still tend towards english, so I really have my work cut out for me.

The only thing I'm doing is to have daily readings (as much as I can) of english AND chinese books. Reading takes a lot of my time and energy in the evenings.

With DS1, the english reading has borne fruit - he's able to do independent reading; I just need to concentrate on the chinese bit now. With DS2, he's still young so my road ahead is very long.

BTW, I'm a FTWM.

[SAHM_TAN]

hquek:

SAHM_TAN:

Maybe you can try translated children Chinese story book by Jap authors. Their stories and illustrations are more attractive and I like them because there is no hanyu pingyin to distract the child from learning the characters. My kids enjoy them and would ask me to read to them again and again. Although they are classified as picture books, the characters are beyond Kinder level and quite wordy too.

Been shopping at dangdang and gotten loads - many translated from european, japanese and even korean. the quality of reads are sooooo much better than the ones we can find locally, plus the prices are soooo cheap compared with locally published ones (sorry, but I have to think of my wallet first).

I love the japanese ones, the authors seem to understand the children's world. The storylines are beautiful, the lessons/information that the author want the reader to learn is written into the story seamlessly

[SAHM_TAN]

reiner:

then how to strike a balance for english n chinese? :?

I think just have to expose them to both languages consistently. For example, even in cartoons I do not limit them to only English ones. I'm not striving for equal strength in both languages. I do not want them to hate learning either one

[simsl_sg]

hquek:

simsl_sg:

during the calligraphy class, the teacher is very strict with the kids, must greet properly, no turning of head, put the brush at correct position and strength of stroke. For a moment, i really thought i went back into the ancient times. the teacher also showed me a chinese moral education book, something like the \"san ji zing\".

not di zi gui? I think kids in school now has to recite it. SHHK introduced the recitation into their pri 1/2 classes this year I think - in line with MOE or something.

should be di zi gui as i can't recall the title of the book, only know it is published by HW for pri 1 and pri 2.

[hquek]

SAHM_TAN:

reiner:

then how to strike a balance for english n chinese? :?

I think just have to expose them to both languages consistently. For example, even in cartoons I do not limit them to only English ones. I'm not striving for equal strength in both languages. I do not want them to hate learning either one

My kids somehow steer 'naturally' to english - okto, cartoon network etc all in english. chinese cartoons not as attractive (except xi yang yang). So I'm now over concentrating on chinese by actively reading to them in chinese. This is my way of compensating for their 'slant'. Each parent has to do what fits their circumstance.