Bi-lingualism at school a mistake ?

[mrswongtuition]

skunk:

i think it's more than that. I know of many ppl who grew up in Mandarin-speaking homes, watch Mandarin shows, speak Mandarin everyday, yet they fail their Chinese.....and English as well LOL

My parents speak to me in Mandarin at home. I watch Mandarin drama serials since young. I read the Chinese Bible from young. Yet I still failed chinese (except in P1, PSLE & 'O' Levels). I can speak & read, but I can't write.

Reasons:
- Speaking & listening helps in my oral skills but I also rely on the English subtitles on TV!
- Lazy to practise writing, you can't guess Chinese words like English words. Ask me to write a compo in Han Yu Pin Yin & I can do it very quickly. Ask me to type a compo on the computer & I can do it quickly too.
- Turned off by a very feirce Chinese teacher in Primary school who hit & pinched me. She even threw my spelling book out of the window because I failed (my mum did not scold me because she knew that I was sick the past week & did not have the energy to study for that particular spelling).

There are alot of factors, not only your genes. My mum always say that I have good genes but I'm too lazy to put them to good use.


By the way, my son can't speak Mandarin although he understands. But he's starting to pick up now & is picking it up FAST. It's amazing how one can pick up a new language easily with exposure.

[sashimi]

skunk:

Personally, i think linguistic ability is something u r born with. The amount of education/training u get, can only maybe help 10%....90% is hereditary.

.....

Maybe this is only anecdotal evidence, but it shows that academic ability has little to do with language ability, ditto for intelligence level, though it might help a little, but not much.

.

Besides, I often dream in French, even though i only use it when watching TV5 sometimes.....a further evidence that language ability has to permeat to a subconscious level, not something mere training can achieve easily.

Anyone thinks so too? Feel free to disagree, i'm not an expert on this, just sharing my experiences

I'm with you on the above.

I always liken language to music - you are good at it when it comes naturally to you, and for it to come naturally to you, you have to either have an inborn talent for it, and/or you have to reach a level of reflexive use with it. I.e. when you sing a song, you don't have to purposely will yourself to do it - it just comes to you. I.e \"reaches a subsconsious level\".

Of the 90% of inborn talent for language, I would say that 50% comes from understanding how language \"works\". Eg. the logic (and lack of it) of grammar, one's capacity to capture the \"sounds\" and \"music\" of a language.

I am a lazy student, but I was born with a damn good ear. So, I can mimic accents well, and I can adopt non-English pronunciations easily. Eg. the Japanese \"tsu\", \"su\", \"hu\" and the \"r\" - for that matter the French \"r\" as well. My boss is French and he says I pronounce French words pretty good, even though I have never learnt it. I just copy it like a tune.

My DD remains terrible at Mandarin. Her English is good but continously hampered by Singlish grammar, thanks to school life. What we find queer is that she pronounces Japanese words more accurately than Mandarin.

DD2 is currently fed a constant diet of Japanese.... we'll see how she goes.


BTW I hated Chinese in school because I felt the examination methods then were utterly stupid. The day my classmate, whose Chinese is several notches below mine (which is bad enough) scored higher than me at the AO levels written paper (she flunked oral iirc) was the day I completely gave up. That was not the way Chinese should be learnt.

[skunk]

mrswongtuition:

There are alot of factors, not only your genes. My mum always say that I have good genes but I'm too lazy to put them to good use.


By the way, my son can't speak Mandarin although he understands. But he's starting to pick up now & is picking it up FAST. It's amazing how one can pick up a new language easily with exposure.

yes, many factors, but genes first n foremost....your son has confirmed it isn't it? lol

anyway i've never met a mother who'll say their children have bad genes....it's like slapping yourself lol

[mrswongtuition]

skunk:

anyway i've never met a mother who'll say their children have bad genes....it's like slapping yourself lol

But I'm constantly worrying that my son will get bad genes.
Especially since my hb is handsome or smart (but I still love him alot of his stupidity).

[skunk]

mrswongtuition:

But I'm constantly worrying that my son will get bad genes.
Especially since my hb is handsome or smart (but I still love him alot of his stupidity).

we all got some bad genes, no human is perfect.

Like i'm physically strong, got an affinity for languages n academic studies in general, but i've got terrible myopia n i also suffer from bipolar depression.....im always scared my kids will get it too n go IMH one day

what to do? this is an imperfect world, we just got to face up to it

[xuanting]

i agree with skunk too. it’s like singing, i guess.

[schellen]

Hmm...if language learning is like learning to sing and my DH, sashimi, says that he learns cos he has a good ear....what does that make me? I speak English, Mandarin and Japanese, and very broken Hokkien and Cantonese. However, I am tone deaf. So I'm wondering....how come I can do relatively well or top the class? :?

[xuanting]

sashimi:

I am a lazy student, but I was born with a damn good ear. So, I can mimic accents well, and I can adopt non-English pronunciations easily. Eg. the Japanese \"tsu\", \"su\", \"hu\" and the \"r\" - for that matter the French \"r\" as well. My boss is French and he says I pronounce French words pretty good, even though I have never learnt it. I just copy it like a tune.

sashimi, just curious – would u consider yourself a good singer?

[xuanting]

skunk:

Like i'm physically strong, got an affinity for languages n academic studies in general, but i've got terrible myopia n i also suffer from bipolar depression.....im always scared my kids will get it too n go IMH one day

i kind of feel the same way too. am a sahm partly cos i want to be as close to my child as possible. other part is that i cannot handle stress well. my biggest wish for my child (apart from being healthy) is that she'll be positive and well-adjusted with zero or little hang-ups.

[xuanting]

schellen:

Hmm...if language learning is like learning to sing and my DH, sashimi, says that he learns cos he has a good ear....what does that make me? I speak English, Mandarin and Japanese, and very broken Hokkien and Cantonese. However, I am tone deaf. So I'm wondering....how come I can do relatively well or top the class? :?

schellen, i think the singing comes in with the spoken part.