Bi-lingualism at school a mistake ?

[kiasimom]

My children had one to one tuition with a Native china teacher.

I specifically asked for native teacher so that they can be taught the pure chinese not the spore type of mixed chinese.

Both my children had a good headstart.

Once the foundation is there, it is easier to carry on.

[mathsparks]

Good for you, kiasimom. It’s difficult to find good and highly recommended tutors among your peers; coz ppl are generally selfish as in…why should I recommend you, your child beat mine then how? Or if tutor prefer to go to yr place instead of mine, then how? cham liao.

[kiasimom]

mathsparks:

Good for you, kiasimom. It's difficult to find good and highly recommended tutors among your peers; coz ppl are generally selfish as in..why should I recommend you, your child beat mine then how? Or if tutor prefer to go to yr place instead of mine, then how? cham liao.

Hi mathspark,

I won't mind recommending mine. Each child has different calibre.
What goes around comes around

[mathsparks]

kiasimom:

Hi mathspark,

I won't mind recommending mine. Each child has different calibre.
What goes around comes around

Thanx much for the offer kiasimom. Will remember you when time comes. I'm letting son cope without chinese tuition in Sec1. You'll soon be flooded with ksps wanting yr tutor's contact.

*dont say i din warn you*

[kiasimom]

Don’t worry. 助人为快乐之本。

[ruolei]

[quote]something struck my mind suddenly...


only if gahment were to allow China people to come here to work as domestic helpers.... wow! many kids Chinese WILL improve by leaps and bounds! [/quote]I certainly disgree. Educating children is parents'responsibility, why push it to the maid and always rely on the tuitor?Even we can not teach children Chinese ourselves, we should do our best to create a good environment for their leaning, just like what Kiasimom did.

[kiasimom]

[tamarind]

kiasimom:

Hi tamarind,

I fully agree with what you wrote in all your posts here.

I myself do not find Chinese easy to learn. But after learning Chinese in a more effective and fun way, it arouse my interests in learning Chinese.

So once you grasp the correct and effective way in learning, the route will be easier.

No doubt that all subjects are taught in English, I stll want my children to learn Chinese, not necessarily superb but at least proficient :celebrate:

I am happy to know that we share the same views on this issue

I think the same way as you too, I want my kids to be at least proficient in Chinese, not necessarily superb.

More importantly, I know many fascinating and exciting stories written in Chinese that I want my kids to enjoy. If they cannot read in Chinese, they will be losing a lot of wonderful things in life.

3Boys:

tamarind:

I myself also struggled with English all the way until I was 18 years old, but I did not complain non-stop that English is difficult to learn..

There is a difference between the 2 in the Singapore context, and your experience is proof positive. Someone in the reverse situation, of similar abiliites, would not have fared so easily. That is something the Chinese speaking camp cannot come to grips with, but thankfully MOE has.

There is nothing positive about my experience. The reason why I did not have to struggle with English past 18 years old, is because I did not have to study English as a subject after junior college. I never did well in the English subject no matter how hard I tried.

I do not agree that MOE has come to grip with anything. I bought my girl's P1 Chinese textbook last week, one look and I wanted to vomit blood. It is really very bad. The fact is that we cannot depend on MOE to teach Chinese.

[rains]

I’m just wondering if those who find Chinese difficult could share exactly what’s difficult about it.


I’ve a daughter who’s struggling with Chinese. I must confess that I had alienated her from Chinese since her babyhood becos the worrywart in me didn’t want her to be incapable of speaking and writing at least one language effectively. And I made the mistake of thinking that Chinese is the easiest thing to learn on the face of this earth, as I had many classmates who couldn’t do English, Maths or Science but excelled in Chinese. As a matter of fact, I’m one of those idiots. When it comes to Chinese, it’s always distinction, but I can’t do Maths and Science to save my life. I was even prepared to fail my O levels becos I couldn’t pass my Maths and Science. It was by a stroke of luck that I scraped thro my O level Maths with a C6.

My sec 4 Chinese teacher herself made this statement,"Tell me, which subject is the easiest to score A1 at O levels? Isn’t it Chinese?" to which the whole class was speechless, in agreement to what she said.

I’m not able to understand or appreciate the difficulty that she faces. She can’t retain the writing of the characters, or even remember that she had read the same characters in class.

It frustrates and exasperates me. At first I thought it was a simple case of not paying attention. I screamed and scolded her for not retaining what she had learnt. But now, I’m starting to feel that she really feels that Chinese is difficult, just like how I felt Maths and Science didn’t make any sense to me.

If possible, and only if it doesn’t hurt you, please share what’s difficult about Chinese.

[tamarind]

rains:

I'm just wondering if those who find Chinese difficult could share exactly what's difficult about it.

I am also hoping for someone to elaborate more about the difficulty of learning Chinese.

My theory is that they learned Chinese the wrong way. They tried to learn Chinese in the same way as they learned English, using the phonetic method that is hanyu pinyin, asking people to explain the \"grammar\", remember the character stroke by stroke, etc.

I never have to worry about the \"grammar\" of Chinese. There is no past tense, present tense, future tense, etc. So long as we read Chinese consistently, it is very easy to construct Chinese sentences.

In fact, I was very surprised when I first found out that people remember Chinese characters by the individual strokes. It was an encounter with my MIL who is Chinese, but does not know the Chinese language. When I asked her how to write her daughter's name, she said \"One stroke to the left, one stroke from top to bottom, etc\". :roll:

The correct way to learn Chinese characters is by breaking up into simpler characters. I believe that most kids between the age of 3 and 6, have the ability to take photographs of Chinese words and store them in their brains, as a result, they are capable of learning hundreds of Chinese words using very little effort (without any ting xie). I observe this ability not only in my kids, but also in many other children in their Berries enrichment class (I stand outside the classroom to observe them every week). Kids lose this ability when they grow older. That's why most adults find Chinese difficult to learn.

I don't know why people are so happy when they read what Mr Lee Kuan Yew said in the newspapers. My first thought was \"Die liao, the Chinese standard is going to be much worst\". I have a feeling that they are going to concentrate on listening and speaking skills, and the recognition of Chinese character is going to be pushed to even later, for example, to P3. At this age, kids are going to find Chinese characters even harder to learn.

10 years later, if Mr Lee is still around, he will say \"In 2009 I made a big mistake...blah blah blah\"

[quote]It frustrates and exasperates me. At first I thought it was a simple case of not paying attention. I screamed and scolded her for not retaining what she had learnt. But now, I'm starting to feel that she really feels that Chinese is difficult, just like how I felt Maths and Science didn't make any sense to me. [/quote]After the age of 6, it is more important to develop the interest in learning Chinese, so that the child will be self motivated to learn. Parents must find a way to let kids think that Chinese is fun and fascinating.

In my case, it was 小甜甜(Japanese manga translated to Chinese), 小叮当, Hong Kong TV series, especially the sword fighting ones, stories from the Chinese classics, etc. When I was older, I read as much as I could, all the 金庸 novels, all the 亦舒 novels, etc, and also listening to Chinese pop songs everyday.

I don't advise parents to do the same, but there are many excellent Chinese enrichment classes that can help.