Learning Chinese (Primary/Preschool)

[sally72]

My son is P5 next year. He has done very badly for his Chinese Exams 32/100 But fairly good for other subjects.

He unable to read & recognize the characters and forget everything the next day...
I'm puzzle why he can't understand Mandarin whereby we speak Mandarin fluently...? :roll: Currently, my son is attending Chinese enrichment classes.

Looking for great advise from parents, plz share your experience with me!
Many Thanks

[ChiefKiasu]

sally72:

My son is P5 next year. He has done very badly for his Chinese Exams 32/100 But fairly good for other subjects.

He unable to read & recognize the characters and forget everything the next day...
I'm puzzle why he can't understand Mandarin whereby we speak Mandarin fluently...? :roll: Currently, my son is attending Chinese enrichment classes.

Looking for great advise from parents, plz share your experience with me!
Many Thanks

Hi sally72,

1. Do you regularly converse with your son in Chinese?
2. How often does he read Chinese newspapers, magazines, books?
3. How long has he been attending Chinese enrichment classes? Where?
4. Which aspect of Chinese is he particularly weak in? Which paper? Oral, comprehension, composition, multiple choice?

[mintcc]

the key to language learning is really practise.


From what you said, I guess he don’t have problem speaking but have issues with writing and reading?

One way that my mum(who was a chinese teacher) drill into me when I was a kid is to practise looking for the words in dictionary by the number of strokes and understanding the meaning of the "bu shou" e.g. chinese words are make up of "pian pang" e.g. words related to people have a "ren" zhi pang, words related to water have "shan dian shui"

of course frequent reading and memorising and "ting xie" is a must too but understanding the meaning of the character help with memorising and recognising the characters.

[Jennifer]

sally72:

I'm puzzle why he can't understand Mandarin whereby we speak Mandarin fluently...? :roll: Currently, my son is attending Chinese enrichment classes.

Is this a current prob that you face in P4? Or is his foundation shaky? Hv you got a chance to talk to the sch CL teacher which aspect of the exam paper is your son weak in?

I am just thinking that his oral skills should be great since you mentioned \"we speak Mandarin fluently\". In general, I feel that there is a big jump from lower pri level CL to upper pri level CL. I also saw a big dip in my elder boy's CL in P4. The prob got worse in P5 when we started to see more inferencing open ended qn in the compreh.

Did you talk to the enrichment centre teacher? Is your child able to cope with the enrichment lessons. I sent my boy for a small class size CL tuition after his disappointing SA1. The other pupil stopped tuition halfway and my boy enjoyed 1-1 sessions all the way to SA2. I find 1-1 session very helpful.

[lizawa]

sally72:

My son is P5 next year. He has done very badly for his Chinese Exams 32/100 But fairly good for other subjects.

He unable to read & recognize the characters and forget everything the next day...
I'm puzzle why he can't understand Mandarin whereby we speak Mandarin fluently...? :roll: Currently, my son is attending Chinese enrichment classes.

Looking for great advise from parents, plz share your experience with me!
Many Thanks

Hi Sally72,

It's important to identify exactly which area(s) your son is weak in, in order to help him improve.

If he is unable to read and recognize the characters, you may need to spend time to revise with him the characters daily, both reading and writing. This holiday will be a good time to help him strengthen his foundation.

Has his results been like that throughout the year, or only for the SA2 exam ?

Sometimes, you just need to write out of point for the compo component to do badly. Once you write out of point, no matter how beautiful your language is, the most you can get is 4 out of 20 for the compo paper.

[ali123]

My daughter is very poor in Chinese language. She is now attending the Tien Hsia Language school and every lesson, the teacher will complain about her ability. As this is a class tuition, the teacher may not able to pay more focus on her. I am trying to look for a Chinese tutor to coach her. She is now in Primary four. Appreciate that someone can help to introduce a profession chinese tutor. I am staying in Bukit Batok

[mummyoftwo]

ali123:

My daughter is very poor in Chinese language. She is now attending the Tien Hsia Language school and every lesson, the teacher will complain about her ability. As this is a class tuition, the teacher may not able to pay more focus on her. I am trying to look for a Chinese tutor to coach her. She is now in Primary four. Appreciate that someone can help to introduce a profession chinese tutor. I am staying in Bukit Batok

I've just engaged a tutor for my P1 and P3 kids this year. She is the chinese teacher that my girl attends in her childcare days. I noticed that my girl loves chinese after enrolling in this childcare since K1 and thought that i could try to use her after she left childcare. I cannot guarantee she is good in tution as i've just started in Jan 09. if you are keen, you can pm me.

Thanks

[shurley197323]

I got 2 kids ( k2 & Pri 3) Both are attending Chinese Tution at Froniter CC. My boy (k2) now loves Chinese and is speaking Chinese better. My girl had been under this teacher since k2 and she always got A1 for chinese but she normally hates chinese. ( we usually speak English at hme) So I think she is a good techer .

[ali123]

Thank you. This proved that the performance of our kids is depended on how good is the school teacher. My daughter hated Chinese because the chinese teacher in her school was like a wood(in chinese), no smile at all. no interactive. Conclusion, your kid performance is in the teacher’s hand. If your kid is "marked" by the teacher, he shall lose the interest and that is…

[chixchix]

Hii SHurley …whats the name of the teacher ?? Thanks !