Chinoi Chinoi
There's an article on news lately abt revamping the chinese syllabus. suddenly MMLee says that not everyone has the abilities to grasp 2 languages competently. i'm puzzled. We've coped in the past, why is it so bad now?
The Lao Shi used to lament that the government is always sympathetic towards the english speaking kids, because they come from more prestigious backgrounds. It woke me up to what i saw around me. Just as there are many kids struggling with mandarin, there are also many struggling with english. and the latter ends up much worse as almost every subject is taught in english. if they persist and struggle hard enough to get to university, they almost always inevitaby end up in engineering. (not out of choice)
the compulsory history/national education module we took even had MCQ tests because they "understand that engineering students are not good at writing". Jen was like "i've never heard of a history MCQ test in university!"
the ultimate shocker came when one of my project mate refused to vet through our draft report because "i failed GP. I cannot read this chim chim stuff." (i suspect that's only a half truth after recovering from my shock, but i believed him for a while)
anyway my question is this. why isn't there anyone revamping english/GP for the students weak in english? i'm pretty sure there're many families out there where chinese is actually their first language. spare a thought for them.
------------------------------------------
still remember how i tunnelled my way thru chinese. Mom knows only basic chinese, she likes spewing cheng yu that only she has heard of. Dad knows more malay than chinese.
Poor mom had to sit next to me in the early primary school years to give me ting xie. she would often fall asleep and add in words from her dream.
*chinese word* *chinese word* *chinese word* robinson sale *chinese word* *chinese word*
it became quite apparant soon that she couldn't cope with the syllabus. so began my tedious task of giving myself ting xie. i would write out sheets and sheets of hanyu pinyin covering all the words in the textbooks then use the sheets to give myself ting xie. Very tedious and time consuming, but it was fun with the radio for company. Linnet once commented how i could sing along to almost every song on the radio.
i was lucky that the PSLE higher chinese paper's passage was on football. i can still remember the passage vaguely. describing how a stiker shot at goal and the keeper saved it. the cloze passage was always the cause of my downfall, but this time it was on soccer and kept me awake.
dad very wisely decided not to make me do higher chinese in RGS. "Just take chinese in JC. why cram it all in 4 years?"
it's strange how things turned out cos my all time favourite teachers turned out to be my lao shis in sec 2 and 4. Learning chinese was tedious and boring, and my sec 2 united nations class made no effort in hiding our boredom. The lao shi decided to split us into groups and made every lesson a comepetition. Suddenly chinese period was wartime, all of us tensed up and alert, taking every opportunity to score points and blast the other groups for cheating. the lao shi on several occasions had to calm the class down.. "it's only a game!! Don't scream so loudly!"
it was also under them that i wrote some of my most creative stories, stories that still make me laugh when i dig my essays out now. and simply cos they encouraged it. everytime the lao shis and the class enjoyed my story, i tried to make my next one better. I could never compete with others on chim phrases and chinese vocabulary (i always get full marks deducted for wrong words), but what i lost out in knowledge, i tried to make up in creativity. i think it works. (not that i'm very creative)
(think Pink flamingos/Birds. zero substance/talent, all we had was uniqueness.
the creation of the act:
"let's sing"
"we can't sing for nuts."
"dance?"
"you gotta be kidding"
"can't sing can't dance, spoof la! just need to gyrate."
"yah! cool!"
)
but most importantly, i enjoyed myself during chinese, knowing that my work was appreciated. Chinese isn't my favourite subject, but i've never hated it.
i think watching chinese drama serials help too. what better excuse to watch tv. Tzo Ai used to do it to improve her chinese. her mom made her watch channel 8 and covered the subtitles. Mom never made me watch, i just watched for fun.
"Mom what's the meaning of bei1 bi4"
"what bei1 bi4"
"that guy on tv scolded another guy bei1 bi4"
"bei1 bi4 means baby la"
"why is baby a bad word?"
"...."
------------------------------
another long post with no meaning nor purpose.
i'm glad i didn't have tuition. The chinese tuition teacher used to shout "LEARN YOUR TING XIE!!!" to my brother so loudly the whole house could hear her.
it's fun thinking back on how i learnt my subjects back then.
i loved studying at the balconey window where strangers can walk by just outside. I'd be standing there, reciting what i've learnt. (so if it was history i'd be there doing some dramatic story-telling.) i've shocked a few passers-by, all in good fun. Ms Leow happened to live at the block just behind mine, and we'd see each other every evening when she walked her dog.
"talking to yourself again yvonne?" she would ask with much amusement.
Ms Leow is another grand one. i dun actually remember what she taught, but she has a great sense of humor, again stimulating my restlessness. Our project on KKK had little cartoons all over the place to spice it up. i couldn't draw, so i cut cartoons out from newspapers and added my own speech bubbles which were usually irrelevant. In the middle of the book displaying KKK costumes we suddenly stuck one slimming centre poster girl saying "Hi!". Then there was the assignment where we had to form sentences with verbs or sth like that. I gave her stuff like "Spain decided to start a new sport where women can fight with cows".
it's pretty much a waste of time, but she enjoyed it, and so did i. makes the work interesting for both parties.
------------------------------------------
i dunno where this post came from. just wrote and wrote and voila. feel like writing tonight. i think there'll be a few more posts tonight.
There's an article on news lately abt revamping the chinese syllabus. suddenly MMLee says that not everyone has the abilities to grasp 2 languages competently. i'm puzzled. We've coped in the past, why is it so bad now?
The Lao Shi used to lament that the government is always sympathetic towards the english speaking kids, because they come from more prestigious backgrounds. It woke me up to what i saw around me. Just as there are many kids struggling with mandarin, there are also many struggling with english. and the latter ends up much worse as almost every subject is taught in english. if they persist and struggle hard enough to get to university, they almost always inevitaby end up in engineering. (not out of choice)
the compulsory history/national education module we took even had MCQ tests because they "understand that engineering students are not good at writing". Jen was like "i've never heard of a history MCQ test in university!"
the ultimate shocker came when one of my project mate refused to vet through our draft report because "i failed GP. I cannot read this chim chim stuff." (i suspect that's only a half truth after recovering from my shock, but i believed him for a while)
anyway my question is this. why isn't there anyone revamping english/GP for the students weak in english? i'm pretty sure there're many families out there where chinese is actually their first language. spare a thought for them.
------------------------------------------
still remember how i tunnelled my way thru chinese. Mom knows only basic chinese, she likes spewing cheng yu that only she has heard of. Dad knows more malay than chinese.
Poor mom had to sit next to me in the early primary school years to give me ting xie. she would often fall asleep and add in words from her dream.
*chinese word* *chinese word* *chinese word* robinson sale *chinese word* *chinese word*
it became quite apparant soon that she couldn't cope with the syllabus. so began my tedious task of giving myself ting xie. i would write out sheets and sheets of hanyu pinyin covering all the words in the textbooks then use the sheets to give myself ting xie. Very tedious and time consuming, but it was fun with the radio for company. Linnet once commented how i could sing along to almost every song on the radio.
i was lucky that the PSLE higher chinese paper's passage was on football. i can still remember the passage vaguely. describing how a stiker shot at goal and the keeper saved it. the cloze passage was always the cause of my downfall, but this time it was on soccer and kept me awake.
dad very wisely decided not to make me do higher chinese in RGS. "Just take chinese in JC. why cram it all in 4 years?"
it's strange how things turned out cos my all time favourite teachers turned out to be my lao shis in sec 2 and 4. Learning chinese was tedious and boring, and my sec 2 united nations class made no effort in hiding our boredom. The lao shi decided to split us into groups and made every lesson a comepetition. Suddenly chinese period was wartime, all of us tensed up and alert, taking every opportunity to score points and blast the other groups for cheating. the lao shi on several occasions had to calm the class down.. "it's only a game!! Don't scream so loudly!"
it was also under them that i wrote some of my most creative stories, stories that still make me laugh when i dig my essays out now. and simply cos they encouraged it. everytime the lao shis and the class enjoyed my story, i tried to make my next one better. I could never compete with others on chim phrases and chinese vocabulary (i always get full marks deducted for wrong words), but what i lost out in knowledge, i tried to make up in creativity. i think it works. (not that i'm very creative)
(think Pink flamingos/Birds. zero substance/talent, all we had was uniqueness.
the creation of the act:
"let's sing"
"we can't sing for nuts."
"dance?"
"you gotta be kidding"
"can't sing can't dance, spoof la! just need to gyrate."
"yah! cool!"
)
but most importantly, i enjoyed myself during chinese, knowing that my work was appreciated. Chinese isn't my favourite subject, but i've never hated it.
i think watching chinese drama serials help too. what better excuse to watch tv. Tzo Ai used to do it to improve her chinese. her mom made her watch channel 8 and covered the subtitles. Mom never made me watch, i just watched for fun.
"Mom what's the meaning of bei1 bi4"
"what bei1 bi4"
"that guy on tv scolded another guy bei1 bi4"
"bei1 bi4 means baby la"
"why is baby a bad word?"
"...."
------------------------------
another long post with no meaning nor purpose.
i'm glad i didn't have tuition. The chinese tuition teacher used to shout "LEARN YOUR TING XIE!!!" to my brother so loudly the whole house could hear her.
it's fun thinking back on how i learnt my subjects back then.
i loved studying at the balconey window where strangers can walk by just outside. I'd be standing there, reciting what i've learnt. (so if it was history i'd be there doing some dramatic story-telling.) i've shocked a few passers-by, all in good fun. Ms Leow happened to live at the block just behind mine, and we'd see each other every evening when she walked her dog.
"talking to yourself again yvonne?" she would ask with much amusement.
Ms Leow is another grand one. i dun actually remember what she taught, but she has a great sense of humor, again stimulating my restlessness. Our project on KKK had little cartoons all over the place to spice it up. i couldn't draw, so i cut cartoons out from newspapers and added my own speech bubbles which were usually irrelevant. In the middle of the book displaying KKK costumes we suddenly stuck one slimming centre poster girl saying "Hi!". Then there was the assignment where we had to form sentences with verbs or sth like that. I gave her stuff like "Spain decided to start a new sport where women can fight with cows".
it's pretty much a waste of time, but she enjoyed it, and so did i. makes the work interesting for both parties.
------------------------------------------
i dunno where this post came from. just wrote and wrote and voila. feel like writing tonight. i think there'll be a few more posts tonight.
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