Learning Chinese has become too difficult for kids today, and that’s not okay

[Spike]

It was not always this difficult. It used to be so simple, it was laughable. It probably tickled the PRCs and Taiwanese students in our midst. There is nothing wrong with these level of difficult words. But we have forgotten that for the students to be proficient, we should get them to read and speak, something that was not emphasised and closely followed up.

听说读写are basic fundamentals in order to learn Chinese, which is woefully lacking in modern times.

 

[helloicanseeu]

Being an ethnic Chinese don't grant you an innate ability to speak Chinese.

lots of ABC cant speak chinese

 

[helloicanseeu]

agree with TS, but there is nothing we can do ... nothin at all, about the way this education system works

the people who run MOE dun care if learning chinese isnt that useful

 

[prudie]

Yeah ,they are extremely proud of their Chinese and maths .
Did the kid continue to study in sg or return to CN to study ?
If he continues to study in Sg ,I am quite sure that he would say he has wasted a lot of time to study the unnecessary subjects thus affecting his English and science results.
Mark my words ,they are good at presenting their strengths but they are even better to create excuses when they fail.

He is cn student. Came here with the mom to visit his dad’s side relatives, sg gov gave him approval to attend primary school for a month since it’s cn school holiday。 before he went back I was invited to dinner and he was there, xiaodidi passed his p5 barely touched textbooks to my daughter then as we talked he shared his experience lo

 

[prudie]

Who say music, art, social studies 没用。。dun understand social problem....grow up become smarter char siew only ....

They are hardcore. Science maths language is what brings their country to advance technologically and in scientific and medical.

 

[quirkyhill]

My kids still lower primary so I'm still at the stage of teaching radicals and finding 音母

韵母

 

[Prinsloo]

Just a Chinese thing thinking it's "cooler" to speak english and not knowing how to speak mandarin. A lot of 80s/90s parents don't speak mandarin let alone dialect. Worst is those wanna act ABC or white wash their kids by not teaching them mandarin when they move abroad.

 

[titusilvering]

Lol behkan is behkan la. Your kid lousy dont lump with others or blame the system. Ask her talk in chinese first.

借口多多

 

[GotBetrayed]

Indeed! Its quite hard!

Walao eh, I see this I don’t know 95% of the stuff here wtf

 

[Lss]

韵母

My bad.

 

[Lss]

I hope your kids can buck the trend.
Nice parenting from you and your wife ,at least both of you have the same viewpoint

Have more out there. Just takes some luck to meet them.

 

[Linguist]

Learning Chinese has become too difficult for kids today, and that’s not okay​

...

While we are rethinking how students learn and grow, surely we can also rethink how we nurture their relationship with their mother tongue – not just through grades and memorisation, but through relevance, creativity and connection.

Vivian Teo is a mum of two. She is also a freelance writer, children’s book author and owner of a parenting and lifestyle blog.

This mum hao lian lah.

Lol behkan is behkan la. Your kid lousy dont lump with others or blame the system. Ask her talk in chinese first.

Interested to see the list

Indeed! Its quite hard!

Having scored A1 easily for Chinese throughout my entire secondary school, I think this is crazy. I probably dun even learn these in JC which was the first time I found Chinese to be a bit difficult

i think the reason why it is "hard" is because some of these phrases are usually used in written form only, not really used in daily speech.
but if frequently read books from China/TW...these terms will not be alien to you

Eh, I find those words for reading and understanding still okay leh...

But if need to remember how to write then indeed quite tough... however Chinese paper (composition) can use dictionary right?

 

[arsenalfc85]

Walao eh, I see this I don’t know 95% of the stuff here wtf

Jiak kan tang spotted.

 

[DigDub]

Notice many parents want their children to be ang moh pai and speak to their children mainly in English. But their English also half past six one. In the end both languages also cannot make it.

Anyway 有边读边，没边读上下 lo.

 

[Shion]

Notice many parents want their children to be ang moh pai and speak to their children mainly in English. But their English also half past six one. In the end both languages also cannot make it.

Anyway 有边读边，没边读上下 lo.

well, even grandparents r using broken english to speak with their grandchildren...

 

[I_am_bored]

how hard are these words? Let children learn proper Chinese terms also become school’s fault.

 

[Encouragesome1]

Perhaps I should elaborate more..

This is not exactly about whether our fellow Edmwers or myself are conversant with these Chinese words.

I am confident that this word list is too difficult for the current batch of students because theres simply no good reason for them to converse, read or write in Chinese in Singapore where English is dominant, and parents can speak and understand English.

This is unlike in the past where parents were mostly Chinese educated and we converse with them in mandarin or dialects.

Might even get whacked for using an English word because a parent didn't understand and thought you were trying to be funny.

Yea v agreed and not only parent can’t understand u.. if you can’t get your point across to another human, it means you can’t play with them or ask their parent or their a mah can you let them come out to play. You can’t get the whatever thing you wanted when you go to a provision and they ask u what u want

 

[arsenalfc85]

There is no way the students’ competency level in Chinese is gonna improve

Moe should just do a major revamp for Chinese language education

make it more doable for students, get their interest back first, then look for ways to level them up

no point pushing n forcing when their standard of Chinese is already dropping rapidly . It will only drop further if moe makes it so difficult

 

[s-ghost]

听说读写are basic fundamentals in order to learn Chinese, which is woefully lacking in modern times.

you meant this?

 

[Mountainnodew]

During moi days, moi learnt Chinese from moi’s mum because we only used Chinese in our conversations. Plus no smart tv or smart hp so have to chase channel 8 programmes. Then always listen to Chinese songs played on radio and sometimes go ktv with friends. So Chinese is just a cup of tea for moi. Never aim for top scores in Chinese. Just a B3 is happy pill. Many years later heard from a friend who was a high scorer in Chinese, she said she forgot her Chinese already. Because she used to memorise all Chinese words for exams then after that totally forgotten.