培青学校-Students master 2000 chinese words in 2 years (

[Busymom]

Hi Charmaine_chong


Thanks for your efforts in trying to organise this. For me at least, I have learned something new from your postings here. Now, another thing to add to the already long list of to-dos... :roll:

[Poonie]

joconde:

My son is in P5 now and is doing badly in chinese. What this teacher say here is absolutely true for him :


但华文教师经常感叹学生对华文课没有兴趣，不爱看华文书。我们认为问题出在学生的识字量太低。”她说，小学生必须学的2000字分散在六年学习，小一只识116字，完成小二教育时只识600字，这样的识字量，基本上是无法让学生广泛阅读，更别说写作。

When i realize his chinese std is dropping low in p4, it's way too late. I tried to encourage him to read story books, but it's tough. There are so many characters he couldn't recognize -- strange that most words in textbooks he can recog though If i get him books that he can read by himself, the story is usually too childish, on the other hand, books with contents mature enuf for him, he couldn't understand.

I'm actally thinking if this can help him, not just for my K2 dd. Sch grades aside, my personal goal for my kids is that they should be able to read widely and gain knowledge from reading books. It would be my life regret if they can't achieve that. To me, if they can't read a chinese book, there's no difference from being a 文盲

I share your sentiments too. I feel NLB is also not doing anything about this. I noticed that the Chinese story books are mostly written by Chinese (China) authors. They may be meant for young children but the fonts are far too small. The story is usually set in some ancient days hence the vocabulary used is not the frequently used vocab. For such young children I feel they should first be exposed to stories on modern day setting so that the vocab exposure is more relevant and can be applied to their daily lives.

[Charmaine_chong]

Hi all,


Anyone care to share your experience for using 中华字经?

The child can master 4000 words within 6-12 months. Seems like having good feedback in Malaysia.

I do find it tough. Well, everything is possible, especially to pre-schoolers.

I would like to hear some voices.

[karmeleon]

Charmaine_chong:

Dear Mummies,


I called the school again after gotten good responses.

I am regret that the school decided not to sell the resources to public. The orientation is cancelled. They have their concerned.

Mummies, you may look for alternatives.

I found out that Yuquan does has the 4000 chinese words which using this approach.

《中华字经》是超级识字教材
http://www.yuquan.com.sg/zijing_chineseQA.php

http://www.hcjy.com/products.asp

This is just for sharing.

I saw this just now at a shopping centre - it looks similar? Take a look
http://www.epadlearning.com/

[Charmaine_chong]

Hi karmeleon,


Is different.

I know her. I got most of the books from her.

[Merlion]

> I feel NLB is also not doing anything about this.


Are we asking too much here? NLB is providing free books and free services for public (not just primary students). Also, if you need any book, you can make a request for it. They will order the book if they think it is good. I think Singapore NLB is pretty good, we should be more thankful.

>I noticed that the Chinese story books are mostly written by Chinese (China) authors.

Do you expect to be written by english authors? There are only a few local authors who write chinese story books - the market is just too small here.

There are a lot of good chinese story books in NLB that are for primary students. As parents, we just need to spend a lot of time to search for them. You can also do some internet search on good chinese story books and order online. Usually, the chinese teacher will give the students a book list at the beginning of the year. Those books on the list are usually very good. Parents can try to borrow or buy those books and read with the kids. It is a fun learning process for both parents and kids.

I do not think that a kid needs to learn 4,000 words. Just 1,500 to 2,500 words so that they can read newspaper and story books by their own.
What is the point of learning so many words that you can not remember or use? Cheers. :celebrate:

[hquek]

Regards NLB, I am very thankful for their service. I do not know how to search for chinese books so I’ll just scour all the shelves and grab whatever catches my eyes - have found quite many chinese readers that are simply great for my young kids.


Sometimes the branch you go to has great impact, some libraries don’t have very much chinese selection.

In any case, I Am trying to make an effort to read more chinese books to my kids; but it’s a bit trying cos my command of written chinese is fairly poor.

[Merlion]

> Anyone care to share your experience for using 中华字经?


My experience is it is not that difficult to learn (if you are willing to spend the time on chinese language) BUT it is easy to forget too. It stays in the kid’s brain for a short period of time. After 2-3 months not touching them, the kid will just forget. So sometimes you feel like it is a waste of time.

Seriously, a kid does not need to know 4,000 words in order to read story books or newspaper. He/She does not even need to know 3,000 words in order to do well in PSLE. Sometimes just a simple chinese comics book might help them to learn chinese words too.

[Charmaine_chong]

Hi Merlion,


Just to share.

My objective of teaching my son whom is now 3.5 yo is not to score PSLE.

It will be very stressful to teach him when he enters P1.

To the best i can, i would like him to read and speak fluently in both English and Chinese starting now.

Books = Knowledge. In order to gain knowledge, one needs to read well.

I personally find that《中华字经》is the best material so far. My concern is how to introduce to him and make it works?

In the past 6 months of teaching him, I learnt that flashing cards & echo reading are not effective for my son. He needs exciting books. Talk, read, touch and see real objects in order to learn well.

I have to always review and revise what works best for him.

[Merlion]

> Talk, read, touch and see real objects in order to learn well.


Pls be careful when you are teaching him animals like tiger and lion.

It is very hard for a 3.5 years old kid to learn to read and speak fluently in both English and Chinese. It can be very stressful for him. Learning a language takes time and not every kid at this age can learn 2 languages WELL at the same time. Their brain is still not fully developed.

I totally agree that 《中华字经》 is good. But my experience tells me that if a kid tries to learn the words by hard at this young age, he will most likely forget the words when he is in P1. You will feel like you wasted those time teaching him 字经. I found out that a kid can memorize words better when they are reading comics and story books. You do not need to learn 字经 before you can read story books or even newspaper. There are a lot of good articles on newspaper everyday. Just select them, cut them out and paste them in blank book and that is a very good teaching material for a young kid already. I am not saying 字经 is not good but it is not the only way. There are a lot of ways of teaching a 3.5 years old kid. Just my 2 cents.