Exemption from MT (Chinese)

[ruohoo97]

My take in this matter is really up to parents. Does Japanese child give up studying Japanese? or Jewish child studying Hebrew? Since we are Chinese, I am determine to teach them as long as I can.


My DSs all showed signs of dyslexia when they were young. But I never want them to give up Chinese so I never mention to them the possibility of exemption. They do struggle in learning Chinese. But they have to keep learning. I find fun ways to teach them, invent interesting games to motivate them; correcting their spelling, (they often write the right side to left and the left to right)…

I feel it is a choice we parents make. Somethings in life we will not give up no matter how difficult they are.

[phankao]

ruohoo97:

My take in this matter is really up to parents. Does Japanese child give up studying Japanese? or Jewish child studying Hebrew? Since we are Chinese, I am determine to teach them as long as I can.


My DSs all showed signs of dyslexia when they were young. But I never want them to give up Chinese so I never mention to them the possibility of exemption. They do struggle in learning Chinese. But they have to keep learning. I find fun ways to teach them, invent interesting games to motivate them; correcting their spelling, (they often write the right side to left and the left to right)...

I feel it is a choice we parents make. Somethings in life we will not give up no matter how difficult they are.

I thought you were going to mention that LKY's dyslexic kids learnt 3 languages successfully

[Gxmas]

coolbaby:

Thanks for this thread. Just want to share what we are facing...

Last year we found out that ds1 is dyslexia. It was suggested to exempt him from taking Chinese. Dh against the idea, just like all mummies here said, it's an important language, esp since we are Chinese and also considering that China is opening up their market... etc. There are soooo reasons why we should not give up Chinese.
BUT in the end he agreed and we submitted the application to MOE. It was only last week that I received the phone call from school that MOE has approved the exemption. We are kinda glad to receive this 'good' news.
In fact, before receiving the report that ds1 is dyslexia, his P3 form teacher already suggested to us this option but at that time I was also against the idea. As his form teacher wanted him to concentrate on improving his English which he also did badly. English far more important becos he needs it for his Maths and Science and also for other subjects. He doesn't need Chinese to enter to University.
ds1 can memorise well 三字经 (until 一而百， 百而千...) for his K2 solo performance, i think within 2 weeks.
In P1 he scored Band 1 for Chinese. Thereafter, P2-P4, he always failed in SA1 but somehow he managed to pull himself up for SA2. Now P4, he has totally given up his Chinese in SA1. He refused to study/revised and also refused to do Chinese homework. He said Chinese is getting too difficult for him. Despite scolding, punishment, rewards system, none of them works. Many times, he ends up crying (due to scolding/ punishment) and wasting 2-3 hrs of not doing anything. Since he didn't do/read his Chinese, he can't play (reward). There are times, I wish to tell him, instead of sitting on the floor not doing anything at least he should revise for his other subjects which he's happy to do. But if I do that, I would be encouraging him that \"it's ok not to do Chinese\". Somehow Chinese has affected our relationship with him and thus, after many months of consideration and discussion with dh, we decided to submit the application to MOE.

Gxmas, not that i'm encouraging you to exempt him from taking Chinese... I just want to share my experiences with you. Maybe your ds can do a lot better than mine. One of the main reasons that my ds1 has to give up Chinese is because his English is quite bad too. We wants him to fully concentrate on one language.

Wishing you all the best in making the best decision for him.

Sorry for the long story.

Hello coolbaby! Thank you so much for sharing! My DS's case is very similar to yours - he could memorize well and has done well in P1. This year (P2) he starts to find Chinese difficult, especially in oral, sentence making (compo) and comprehension. He has the same areas of difficulties in English as well.

We have not seriously considered exemption before; it came up during the review recently. If he could continue lessons without having to take exams, that would be great. I know of a friend's case whereby her boys become comfortable with Chinese after exemption and start to find fun in learning it, as there is no more pressure for PSLE. Learning and taking exams are two different matters right?

And you are so right that we also need to handle English which is used in all other subjects; that's also partly why we are considering exemption now.... I think we will continue to support him and see how he can manage from P3 onwards, as that is another milestone. Will monitor the situation as we move along. I'm sure when it's really time for a decision, even a hard one, we as parents will know it (hopefully lah!). You knew it right?

I hope all's getting better at your end now. All the best! :rahrah:

[verykiasumummy]

Gxmas:

Hi, I'm afraid that is not how agg T-score is calculated. There is a thread in this forum that discussed it and schools have published this info. The agg T-score of 4 subjects is the total individual T-score of each subject, and not 75% of each subject as illustrated above.


However no info is given for the agg T-score of only 3 subjects if exempted from MT. That's the so-called mystery....... :scratchhead:

It can't be just adding up the T-scores of 3 subjects when students taking 4 subjects have their 4 individual T-scores added up..... :?

yes gxmas, that is not the way t-score is calculated.. nobody knows exactly how..

having 75% is just a close estimation.

so if MT is the worst subject, it does pull down other subjects.. but if MT is not, it does not justify the reason to drop it...

hope u get what i meant..

[Gxmas]

verykiasumummy:

Gxmas:

Hi, I'm afraid that is not how agg T-score is calculated. There is a thread in this forum that discussed it and schools have published this info. The agg T-score of 4 subjects is the total individual T-score of each subject, and not 75% of each subject as illustrated above.


However no info is given for the agg T-score of only 3 subjects if exempted from MT. That's the so-called mystery....... :scratchhead:

It can't be just adding up the T-scores of 3 subjects when students taking 4 subjects have their 4 individual T-scores added up..... :?

yes gxmas, that is not the way t-score is calculated.. nobody knows exactly how..

having 75% is just a close estimation.

so if MT is the worst subject, it does pull down other subjects.. but if MT is not, it does not justify the reason to drop it...

hope u get what i meant..

Got it, thanks! no matter how T-scores are calculated, so long as MT is the worst subject, it will impact the T-scores negatively. If not, it might just help. But for my DS, quite likely MT will continue to be his weakest subject....

I think cohort average score and SD are used in the formula calculating T-score

[ruohoo97]

phankao:

ruohoo97:

My take in this matter is really up to parents. Does Japanese child give up studying Japanese? or Jewish child studying Hebrew? Since we are Chinese, I am determine to teach them as long as I can.


My DSs all showed signs of dyslexia when they were young. But I never want them to give up Chinese so I never mention to them the possibility of exemption. They do struggle in learning Chinese. But they have to keep learning. I find fun ways to teach them, invent interesting games to motivate them; correcting their spelling, (they often write the right side to left and the left to right)...

I feel it is a choice we parents make. Somethings in life we will not give up no matter how difficult they are.

I thought you were going to mention that LKY's dyslexic kids learnt 3 languages successfully

Yes, that was a good example. The sad thing is that the current exam-driven educational system has blinded the eyes of people from seeing long term.

[Gxmas]

ruohoo97:

phankao:

[quote=\"ruohoo97\"]My take in this matter is really up to parents. Does Japanese child give up studying Japanese? or Jewish child studying Hebrew? Since we are Chinese, I am determine to teach them as long as I can.


My DSs all showed signs of dyslexia when they were young. But I never want them to give up Chinese so I never mention to them the possibility of exemption. They do struggle in learning Chinese. But they have to keep learning. I find fun ways to teach them, invent interesting games to motivate them; correcting their spelling, (they often write the right side to left and the left to right)...

I feel it is a choice we parents make. Somethings in life we will not give up no matter how difficult they are.

I thought you were going to mention that LKY's dyslexic kids learnt 3 languages successfully

Yes, that was a good example. The sad thing is that the current exam-driven educational system has blinded the eyes of people from seeing long term.[/quote]Exemption from MT does not necessarily equate to giving up learning the language...

[verykiasumummy]

so if MT is the worst subject, u can now plan his path to be exempted… ask the teachers for assistance…


but of cos, continue to speak mandarin since it is still our mother tongue…

[ruohoo97]

Gxmas:

Exemption from MT does not necessarily equate to giving up learning the language...

I have a friend, whose daughter is exempted, but she didn't tell her daughter about exemption and continued to let her be in MT class. It worked for a while till her daughter found out by the time of exam. Guess what she refused to go to MT class any more.

Kids are extremely smart.

Unless there is no exam at all, it will be harder for children who dropped MT at primary school stage to pick up if they see no purpose of learning, and don't forget even if they get to be exempted, it is still required to set for MT B syllabus for \"O\" level.

[phankao]

Gxmas:

Exemption from MT does not necessarily equate to giving up learning the language...

Actually a lot of kids do continue learning MT, even in Secondary school, altho' they don't take exams bc they are exempted. So they enjoy the lessons more.