Bi-lingualism at school a mistake ?

[tamarind]

insider:

insider:

for Chinese who can read Chinese, this word

龍


sort of will give a kind of beat when you read. For this beat, I take it as 'culture' regardless of what type of Chinese one is...

Then, this character becomes

龙

Ok lah, still have about half a beat left.

Later on, for many future Sporean kids, this word may completely become

dragon


Err....my heart sort of stops beating with the thought...

That is not so bad for me.

My biggest fear is that in future, this is the only way Singaporeans know how to write Chinese :

Wo men shi xin jia po ren. Wo men bu hui xie hua wen zi.


(Translation: We are Singaporeans. We do not know how to write Chinese characters.)

[watmekiasu]

3Boys:

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.

Tamarind, take heed of those words from 3Boys.

My dd was an above 90 average scorer in HCL in P1 and 2. As it gets progressively harder, she is just clinging onto Band 1 now. Similar to your ds, mine was also a grad from Berries. Not only that, she also spent 3 years in a chinese preschool . By the time she started P1, her word recognition was around 350 characters. Being able to read and write pose different challenges. The former is easy while the latter can drive you to distraction. As you move higher up the grades, the writing (Composition) and Oral components become increasingly important. That's when you really need Chinese immersion to do well.
Eg Primary level Oral, Picture - Scene : At The MRT Station. You are supposed to use words like \"turnstile, Control Tower, ticketing booth\" etc. Honestly, unless you are a native speaker or has that enviroment, you would be lost for words during the exam.

[watmekiasu]

tamarind:

...... I was the among the top students in Chinese in secondary school and JC.

However, your situation is quite different fm 3Boys and my dd. They have no family member to give any kind of chinese enviroment which your ds do. Hence, I'm sure he'll continue to do well.

[daisyt]

tamarind:

That is not so bad for me.

My biggest fear is that in future, this is the only way Singaporeans know how to write Chinese :

Wo men shi xin jia po ren. Wo men bu hui xie hua wen zi.

(Translation: We are Singaporeans. We do not know how to write Chinese characters.)

Haha, me and dd sometimes would sms in this way. Lazy to type out the Chinese and want it fast lor.

[jedamum]

watmekiasu:

My dd was an above 90 average scorer in HCL in P1 and 2. As it gets progressively harder, she is just clinging onto Band 1 now. Similar to your ds, mine was also a grad from Berries.

time for me to start worrying.
my boy is a current student of berries and i actually have plans to stop his lessons...
OT, but when did you stop her berries?

[all.013398in.013398one]

Jedamum, what is the reason to take him out of Berries lessons? Care

to share?

[jedamum]

all.in.one:

Jedamum, what is the reason to take him out of Berries lessons? Care

to share?

costs....
wanting to start ds2 on berries.

[karmeleon]

watmekiasu:

HYPY is slowly getting less emphasis in primary edu now. P1 students only learn HYPY during the 1st 2 terms. After that, the emphasis shifts to character recognition. I undertstand it was not the case a few years back..

Not exactly true. My daughter was in p1 9 years ago. It's exactly the same system as now as far as HYPY is concerned. HYPY solely for 1st 2 terms.

[karmeleon]

[quote]Note that MOE started teaching hanyu pinyin at P1 more than 30 years ago. .[/quote]
Really? I was in p1 35 years' ago. We did not learn hypy. In fact, I barely learnt hypy in school. I did have a few lessons on hypy sometime in secondary school, that's about it.

[Wan]

I think Chinese is ‘difficult to learn’ bcos we only have 1 Chinese lesson while the rest of the subjects are in English. If u r not strong in English, u will struggle with Maths, Science & other subjects as they req some level of understanding. But if u flung Chinese, u just flung 1 subject


I took CL1 (now called higher chinese) at O levels and didn’t take Chinese again at A levels & above. I still speak Mandarin at home, at work etc, but when it comes to work-related Chinese terms, I’m totally lost. I used to be able to write articles to be published in newspapers & magazines when I was in sec school, but now, I can’t even write a paragraph without the help of hanyu pinyin, dictionary etc.

how how? how to expect my children to be good in Chinese? My N1 son told me he learnt the chinese strokes 横竖撇捺 in school. but when he wrote it, he said ‘across’, ‘down’. I was wondering if they r teaching them the chinese strokes in English too? help help!