3/03/2010
Lower standard of Chinese for easy learning
There is an interesting article in Viewpoints in mypaper by a Chua Chern Nee on teaching and learning Chinese in Singapore. Many parents have been so frustrated and desperate as their children just could not learn the language or find it so difficult and boring. And many fled to foreign countries where they don't have to learn Chinese.
And we have come out with a solution, lower standard of learning to fit the ability of different students. The writer quoted the case of a Korean boy who came here without any background in basic Chinese and he aced the subject after 10 months of learning the language.
How could this happened? My guess is that the Korean boy ate rice as his staple food. And for those who have difficulties learning Chinese, it must be their diet, eating too much kantang. Maybe changing their diet will make a difference.
As for those who went overseas, it may become compulsory to learn Chinese as a second language in America and Australia in time to come. Ok, it is a new myth. I like creating myths and I have a column dedicated to myths, all 200+ of them. And I am going to add one more, the Rajaratnam Myth.
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20 comments:
Interesting. Where is this "myth" column? I like myths and conspiracy theories. The latter explains all the crap that is going on nowadays.
If you are interested in a subject, you can learn anything well. Here, the problem is, we have really really third rate chinese teachers. They just drill the students in the subject without exploring its beauty. All they care about are the marks their class will score in the exam. No wonder interests wane after sometime.
Hi Wally, you can find it in redbeanforum.com under Singapore Current Affairs, The Myth.
OK. Thanks. Will go see later after checking the markets.
I understand that in Europe, students only start on their 2nd language in their Sec sch. This ensures that they master their mother tongue and that the teaching of 2nd language do not corrupt their first language. MM Lee even acknowledged the difficulty of teach 2 fundamentally different languages at a very young age. I suppose that is why some foreign students can ace our exams even with a language handicap. I observe that our youths are neither proficient in both languages even with the shock and awe methods of teaching.
I wonder whether a person being good in languages is more of an in-born thing, like being good in a musical instrument or in drawings/painting whereby learning and working hard on it helps but having a talent for it makes a big difference.
I suppose this issue of inert talent being an "advantage" in language, music, arts etc will apply to other areas like maths, sports etc as well but could it be that in certain areas/subjects, they have greater impact than others?
Just wondering...
There are many factors to learning a language. There is nature, nurture, interest and environment and many other things, like govt policies.
Many of the older folks were uneducated but could pick up some languages when they chose to. The contributing factor to the disiike in learning Chinese is its uncool nature, nothing like hollywood, nothing like angmoh language. Added to the fact that the home environment is English speaking, it makes thing worst.
The 1.3b Chinese have no problem in learning the language when it is living language. The westerners are learning them and can speak very well when they put their hearts to it. All the qweilos in Hongkong spoke cantonese, or most of them can.
I love Chinese. I love learning the language. It is easy for me to be fluent in the language.
Why?
Firstly, my summer palace is in Lijiang, secondly, I need it to communicate with the natives. Thirdly, I need it to let my harem know what I need.
When you have the interest, learning a language is a piece of cake.
Hehe.
My chinese is hopeless .... anyone listening to me speaking the language may mistake it for some gibberish instead of chinese.
Maybe I should go to Lijiang and brush up on my chinese..... Tsk! Tsk!
Robert, Please go and make yourself an emperor in Lijiang. Your Chinese will definitely improved. Our little emperors in Batam and Bintang also polished up their Bahasa Indonesia.
Language is a useful tool in times of need.
Hehe.
You bet. When I draw the curtains into my harem, I can't use sign language, can I?
Oh yeah... - sure brings to mind an old nursery rhyme(paraphrased-don't want to get into copyright issues):
Pussy cat pussy cat where have you been
I've been to Lijiang to visit the queens
Pussy cat pussy cat what did you do there
I was brushing up on my chinese under tender loving care...
Tsk! Tsk!
Double oops - I meant "innate", not "inert".
Jeez, must be getting quite caught up with this language standard "thingy" - better not get too carried away.
Hey Robert, relac willya.
We don't speak Queen's English here. No one is going to fault you as we know what you meant whether it's "inate" or "inert"
I am sure seeing lots of pussies here. The four legged variety I mean...........
Here, no worries, you can have any kind of pets you want, except Panda bears.
Thanks Willy - just wanted to be safe, lest Redbean becomes unhappy that I lower the standard in his blog.....:)
Thanks guys. I don't want to corrupt the young from the relax way of spelling if I can help. Don't want to set bad examples. But some errors inevitable and sometimes intentional in terms of expression. Yak!
Hope everyone understands: )
Pardon me should anyone finds me out of the subject. A leopard without spots or an elephant without trunk must be have been adulterated.
A language that has been and being in use for more than 5000 years by over 20% of the World human has been a problem to a few in SIN who make a lot of noises about their own inabilities to learn their mother tongue.
And worse, they blame everybody and everything except themselves ! Funny people.
With more usage it should not be a problem. But first they must remove the mindset that Chinese is a low class language, uncool.
Huh? Chinese is a "low class" language?
Maybe I agree when it's spoken by the street walkers of Geylang but most certainly not by scholarly Chinese mandarins.
To a small section of the people, they think so and acted so.
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