I'm at a loss with my p5 son's Chinese

[janet88]

Hi picolo,

Hubby and I are so relieved we didn’t register younger one in same school as son…given her dislike for chinese and stubborn character, I would have gone bonkers if she is in a SAP school.

[Picolo]

Hi janet_lee88,


I know what you mean, cos my sons are in the same sch as your son! Hubby and I even seriously contemplate transferring only ds2 out (not ds1 cos he’s doing very well in the environment) due to his natural weakness in Chinese. The saving grace is that he does like Chinese, unlike most other kids who are not good at it, and it becomes more of an attitude problem.

[Jennifer]

I had to outsource CL coaching for my elder boy when he was in P5. Simply cant handle his forgetfulness.


Recently I talked to his new CL tutor (who was trained as a CL teacher in China).

According to her, S’pore present methodology of teaching HYPY is wrong. I agree with her. During our time, we were taught individual HYPY sound, then proceeded to the blending. But for my elder and younger boy, the teachers did not teach blending, just one pronounication for a character. That’s why when the pupil is shown another character with a different HYPY makeup, they are unable to break up whole into its individual sound. The child is just taught to memorise the whole HYPY. Very tedious as there are thousands of characters.

Next is the method to recognise character. She told me in China, each character is broken into its simplest component and then the pupil recites the components to form a character. Like times table memorising.

My elder boy does not read CL storybook and he is fully aware of his weakness in CL and is very cooperative with the tutor and I in our attempts to do sth abt it now. I finally set a strict time table for him to copy the vocabulary in the assessment books in an exercise book twice a week, revise chengyu once a week, do sec 1 and sec 2 assessment book one exercise twice a week and I read to him comprehension passages once a week.

So far, he has seen his sch CL grades improved a little which in turn motivates him to keep up with the time table.

I think the copying of vocabulary in a book helps a lot in my elder boy’s case.

[janet88]

Picolo:

Hi janet,

I know what you mean, cos my sons are in the same sch as your son! Hubby and I even seriously contemplate transferring only ds2 out (not ds1 cos he's doing very well in the environment) due to his natural weakness in Chinese. The saving grace is that he does like Chinese, unlike most other kids who are not good at it, and it becomes more of an attitude problem.

I focused so much time on son's Chinese when he was in P1, neglecting his English which I thought was no prob since we speak that at home all the time. At that time, I didn't realize group tuition doesn't work for him...a friend found out early and advised me to switch him to individual...reasons bcos once a week + group tuition is insufficient for him. In the meantime, I learnt how to coach him and buy assessment books...painful

With my younger one, I realized she cannot fit into same school as sibling...her stubborn personality and total dislike for Chinese confirmed it. Of course she is lucky as there is another school to attend.

[MMM]

I have a nephew who is sec 1 this year. He just hated chinese. Sil said that it's \"genetic\" as my bil also hated CL :? Sorry but I felt that they should have done alot more to help him cultivate the interest when he was younger rather than blame it on genes. I know at P6, they were still exploring thoughts of getting exemptions.


At P6, he would watch the news/ chinese shows and not understand a word they are saying and would ask the person sitting beside what they mean. BTW, my sil and her hubby also speak mandarin but probably not to him.

He managed to scrap through chinese but did just enough to get into express course in Sec 1.

He is now in Sec 1 and the last I heard, he failed his chinese.

For your child, don't give up, pls persevere especially if chinese is your mother tongue. I always tell the kids that they are chinese, they must know how to speak and write the language since China is the next big thing in 10 yrs time. Maybe try to explore different ways to create that interests. Eg. maybe through chinese idols? songs,etc...????

[janet88]

MMM:

I always tell the kids that they are chinese, they must know how to speak and write the language since China is the next big thing in 10 yrs time. Maybe try to explore different ways to create that interests. Eg. maybe through chinese idols? songs,etc...????

Angmohs are already learning Chinese...so we have pretty much lost the 'asset'. Watching Chinese drama shows is what teachers tell me to let kids do. I told hubby either one of us have to read some Chinese articles/storybook to kids. My kids understand Cantonese more than Chinese as hubby & I speak Cantonese & English to each other.

[Jennifer]

MMM:

I have a nephew who is sec 1 this year. He just hated chinese. Sil said that it's \"genetic\" as my bil also hated CL :? Sorry but I felt that they should have done alot more to help him cultivate the interest when he was younger rather than blame it on genes. I know at P6, they were still exploring thoughts of getting exemptions.


At P6, he would watch the news/ chinese shows and not understand a word they are saying and would ask the person sitting beside what they mean. BTW, my sil and her hubby also speak mandarin but probably not to him.

He managed to scrap through chinese but did just enough to get into express course in Sec 1.

He is now in Sec 1 and the last I heard, he failed his chinese.

For your child, don't give up, pls persevere especially if chinese is your mother tongue. I always tell the kids that they are chinese, they must know how to speak and write the language since China is the next big thing in 10 yrs time. Maybe try to explore different ways to create that interests. Eg. maybe through chinese idols? songs,etc...????

Thank you for the sharing.

My elder boy first told me he hates CL when he was just a toddler attending N2. The cc teacher really killed his interest then with her strict ways.

Luckily he has a good memory and we also found a good tutor when he needed help in P5.

I find sec 1 curriculum a big jump from P6. My elder boy's sec 1 CL results went downhill too, esp since he does not read at all. I also realise he has forgotten how to read many characters. He told me in sec, the CL teacher does not hv time to read the whole textbook passage, neither does she make the students read aloud the passage. Hence many characters are forgotten. He's in boarding now, so I cant hv him read to me daily.

Reading and writing are really helpful in remembering CL characters.

[Jennifer]

janet_lee88:

I told hubby either one of us have to read some Chinese articles/storybook to kids.

Am doing this with my P4 boy now. The CL tuition centre has implemented a compulsory reading programme.

[pixiedust]

ok, so I am not alone. Do you all think this is a boys' kind of thing ?

I hate to sterotype but I do find my boy is not as strong in languages compared to Maths and Science.

He has the same forgetfulness issue described in earlier posts.
I think there is a lack of sensitivity to the language, eg. one dot more, one dash less, one long one short etc.
It is a painstaking effort to keep in pace with school syllabus every year.

My boy reads some CL books but for entertainment only. Not much is retained as far as I can see.

I am with MMM same school of thought : don't give up, even if he remembers just 1 more word, just do it. Hopefully the kid will overcome the hurdle and pick up the language with more ease later on in life.

As for methods, I got some inspiration from the 1st book of 四五快读, it explains briefly about short term memory, long term memory and repeated work required to move the words into long term memory. Hence, don't be discourage if your child forgets after a few times, just keep working on it.

I know it is hard at P5 as I am in it myself. Here is an extract of a sentence from 四五快读 which I use to remind myself :
\".......教孩子识字。实际上是对家长的考验，你是否有持之以恒的决心和耐力......\"

[Jennifer]

pixiedust:

repeated work required to move the words into long term memory. Hence, don't be discourage if your child forgets after a few times, just keep working on it.

I am just starting to do it for my elder boy at sec 2. He has a good memory for all other stuff except CL. I strongly believe it is due to lack of repeated work.

pixiedust:

\".......教孩子识字。实际上是对家长的考验，你是否有持之以恒的决心和耐力......\"

Very true. I gave up a few times when doing it with my elder boy. Learnt a hard lesson.