Bi-lingualism at school a mistake ?
-
all.in.one:
OMG, is that all the time spent on Mandarin by a normal student? Assessment by chapter can be a 1hr a week thing.
Should only need time to
practice assessment by chapter (for Chinese) and revise spelling.
Anybody else can comment? :?:
My dd's 70% (of her time in learning Chinese) includes a 1.5hrs/wk coaching by a tutor, a 1.5hrs/wk chinese enrichment, homework on assessment books fm tutor and a few episodes of a chinese drama per week. -
Fundamentally its a discussion here between those who are from chinese speaking backgounds and proficient in the language, fighting against the gradual decay of the standards of the language, and those who are not, and have personally struggled or have children who are doing so.
If you are the former, you may never understand what a struggle it is for the latter. LKY experienced it himself, where his own sons, academically brilliant as they were, applying themselves fully, never ever excelled and even struggled with the language. I faced the same issue, and despite my best efforts, I fear the same for my children. This is the reality, Chinese is a very difficult language to learn if you are not immersed in it. English is far easier, it doesn’t even compare. As watmekiasu illustrated, its actually a competitive DISadvantage already, her DD spending 70% of her time doing ONE subject, and I believe it.
So pardon if I take a very functional view of this. Would I like to be proficient in Chinese? Absolutely, and I had taken a good hard stab at it for the better part of 12 years. And I believe the MOE has taken the same view, functional competency.
Its not as if I have no regard for chinese culture. My grandparents were immigrants from China, we spoke Teochew in the home, not mandarin, we celebrated CNY like everyone else, held weddings the chinese way, speaking Teochew all the way, so MY chinese culture had nothing to do with speaking mandarin, and I do not relate to mandarin speaking as the link to MY culture as a chinese.
Those of you who are passionate about the language, kudos to you and all the best to your efforts. However, do not use the ‘culture’ as a stick to ding others over the head with, or force the issue with MOE. There are several mechanisms in place, including higher mother tongue, for which those proficient in the language may pursue greater challenges. I will encourage my boys to pursue that dream, but I am not betting on it happening. -
all.in.one:
Not my experience, and I was good in school (except for Chinese)....with regular reading, should not need to spend so much time on
Chinese only. I think for study time, 50% for Math, 50% for Science.
Chinese and English is a ongoing thing. Should only need time to
practice assessment by chapter (for Chinese) and revise spelling.
Anybody else can comment? :?: -
watmekiasu:
Which Chinese enrichment is your dd attending now?
OMG, is that all the time spent on Mandarin by a normal student? Assessment by chapter can be a 1hr a week thing.all.in.one:
Should only need time to
practice assessment by chapter (for Chinese) and revise spelling.
Anybody else can comment? :?:
My dd's 70% (of her time in learning Chinese) includes a 1.5hrs/wk coaching by a tutor, a 1.5hrs/wk chinese enrichment, homework on assessment books fm tutor and a few episodes of a chinese drama per week.
Mine goes to Berries and that helped me reduce time to recap what is taught in school. She goes to Xuele to \"review\" her lessons and read
P2, P3 etc.. online \"textbooks\" and play with the various extra functions
like strokes and singing, Shen Guang (In-depth text).
Sigh.. can understand that your girl does not have someone to coach
her day in and day out.
-
Some traditional ways of learning Chinese is still essential. Personally against using computer to type out chinese words, will tend to forget how to write eventually.
-
insider:
Hur ? Can drop O level Chinese ? :?
PS: My son is also struggling with his Chinese (C5/6/D7 kind of results, depending on luck.) I will be giving him green light to drop his Chinese for his O level next year... At least he completes almost 10 years of Chinese education and that itself is enough for me... -
Hmm, I din score well for English and General paper, how come I dont hate english ah :?
-
Since young, me and hb speaks English to dd. My mum spoke Mandarin/English to dd. At the age of about 4, I insisted my mum to speak purely Mandrain to dd, but dd still prefer to speak English with my mum. When she was in K1/K2, she had difficult time speaking Mandarin to her Chinese background classmates. Ang Mo ascent + broken Mandarin. When she was in pri sch (SAP), her interest for Chinese only started to arise when she was in P5. And only during that time, she would speak Chinese with a couple of classmates. The breakthough is when she is in Sec School. About 1/2 of her classmates are Chinese background family and she speaks Mandarin to this group of classmates. She likes Chinese, scores A2, but still not good enough to qualify for the Bicultural programe. At least I am seeing her reading Chinese story books with enjoyment and not by force. She is listening to Chinese songs which she never never did in the past and speaking decent Mandarin to my mum.
-
3Boys:
When LKY and his sons were young, there were no enrichment schools like Berries. If he and his sons had attended Berries since 3 years old, they would have excelled in the language with ease given their intelligence.
If you are the former, you may never understand what a struggle it is for the latter. LKY experienced it himself, where his own sons, academically brilliant as they were, applying themselves fully, never ever excelled and even struggled with the language.
When Chinese is taught using the correct methods, kids from any background can learn the language with ease. The key is to start from a very young age. As I wrote earlier, start from simple character recognition from as young as possible, then gradually build on the vocabulary through repetition, which is what Berries is doing. Their methods have worked wonders for my kids who speak only English and Cantonese at home. Take a look at my boy's Chinese test at Berries K1 class :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/05/jeromes-chinese-test-at-berries.html
I have never dreamed that he will be able to read and understand all those Chinese words at 5 years old. When I saw the paper, I was so happy that I was jumping around for a few minutes
because I remember how few Chinese characters I knew when I was his age.
-
tamarind:
Exactly my point. MOE has realised the failure of the previous methods, and am trying a different tack. I think one needs to allow time for this to play out before we make a knee jerk conclusion that their current method is doomed to failure.
When LKY and his sons were young, there were no enrichment schools like Berries. If he and his sons have attended Berries since 3 years old, they would have excelled in the language with ease given their intelligence.3Boys:
If you are the former, you may never understand what a struggle it is for the latter. LKY experienced it himself, where his own sons, academically brilliant as they were, applying themselves fully, never ever excelled and even struggled with the language.
When Chinese is taught using the correct methods, kids from any background can learn the language with ease. The key is to start from a very young age. As I wrote earlier, start from simple character recognition from as young as possible, than gradually build on the vocabulary through repetition, which is what Berries is doing. Their methods have worked wonders for my kids who speak only English and Cantonese at home. Take a look at my boy's Chinese test at Berries K1 class :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/05/jeromes-chinese-test-at-berries.html
I have never dreamed that he will be able to read and understand all those Chinese words at 5 years old. When I saw the paper, I was so happy that I was jumping around for a few minutes because I remember how few Chinese characters I knew when I was his age.
Whilst I congratulate you on your son's abilities, I need to caution that current progress is no assurance of future success. I managed to be in the top 3 of my chinese class in P2 ahead of chinese speaking classmates and was near failing by Sec 2. Those from English speaking homes are at a clear disadvantage as the standards get harder and harder.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login