mathsparks:Yen715:The school and myself have been encouraging ds to read widely but still not much enthusiasm shown by him. Always told him that reading really helps in his English subject, he will agree with me but no action shown. I guess its too late for him (sec 1) to pick up the habit of reading?Hi Yen,Does he like watching movies? If he does, find out which movies are scheduled to be released and get those books for him. Or, do it the other way around, like after watching sherlock holmes, go borrow the entire series of sherlock holmes. If he prefers short stories, try the reader's digest or national geog. If he doesn't read the daily news, you can cutout interesting newspaper articles for him. Good luck!Will definitely try out the above-mentioned options for him to read. I guess time mgt is also impt, must squeeze some time out to read (seems llike time not enough).

poohandtigger:so how? must go tuition? have time meh? does the tuition teacher re-teach what was taught in school or coach homework?Agree, really no time for tuition. Maybe the most is one tuition. Weekends will be the days to relax and recharge and prepare for the coming week.

I went to yishun town today and really surprised by the canteen, school etc. I hope to enrol my gal to this school in future :rahrah:

It’s not just when the events are one "happy" and one "sad"; it also applies to 2 "sad" events, according to my elders. My paternal great-grandmother passed away some years ago. Within a month or so, sashimi’s grandmother passed away but I was told by my parents that I could not attend as it was considered "pang tang" to both parties.

amylqf:Actually, learning language shouldn't depend on whether particular language will be dominate language in the future of not.People who chose to study chinese, most likely are 'Chinese'.In third party (foreigner)'s eyes, as a chinese, that would be a shame if you don't study your own language well.This view has often been expressed and is not new. The fact is that kandangs that know nuts about chinese have been doing very well in the past and probably still doing well now. How many highly paid civil servants in our government belong to this class?No matter how much emotional values you want to attach to a language and culture, the fact is that they are just tools that help people to survive. If people find certain language or skill helps them survive better, then he/she will naturally pick up the skills. Culture is also just an evolving concept and the way people live. Even the term chinese is rather vague, China and Asia are made up of so many ethnic groups and the nuance in cultures and languages is so vaious that it is actually hard for you to define what is chinese precisely.In short, I am not propagating a chinese imperialistic view. I am just making known a practical situation that will be even more pronounced as the trend accelerates.