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

[Nuclear Boy]

西兰花

I thought it is commonly referred to as 青花菜 here? I only know of 西兰花 when hearing Tiongs speak.

And I learnt the Chinese term for cauliflowers a lot later, only knowing it as 'ko leh cai huey' 高丽菜花 from my parents. Both sound similar anyway.

 

[barbaricboon]

Very high probability that the teaching material etc are formulated by PRC MOE pax.

My O lvl Chinese was considerably easier compared to the list and my O lvl was like 25-30 yrs ago?

Based on the list, I do think it is Abit overkill and tends to shift towards Chinese literature or A lvl standard.

Just like u read Lord of the rings in original british English, u can understand the story thou need to struggle Abit, but will be better off reading the same book in modern English version.

 

[ramlee]

Hasn't gotten to that stage yet. They are still keeping up.

Quite fun when we eat together. They will switch between the 3 languages seamlessly.

I also used to be rike that. I speaked mandarin to my father, Cantonese to my mum and English to my sister when we are all sitting at the dinner table

 

[ramlee]

I thought it is commonly referred to as 青花菜 here? I only know of 西兰花 when hearing Tiongs speak.

And I learnt the Chinese term for cauliflowers a lot later, only knowing it as 'ko leh cai huey' 高丽菜花 from my parents.

I thought it’s known as 芥蘭花

 

[Nuclear Boy]

I thought it’s known as 芥蘭花

Similar enough la... Just that broccoli is full-on florets on stem.

They all belong to the brassica family. Cabbage, napa, xiao bai cai, nai bai, kai lan, chye sim, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, mustard green... probably a lot more I didn't list. Turns out all are cabbage-related.

 

[Lss]

I thought it is commonly referred to as 青花菜 here? I only know of 西兰花 when hearing Tiongs speak.

And I learnt the Chinese term for cauliflowers a lot later, only knowing it as 'ko leh cai huey' 高丽菜花 from my parents. Both sound similar anyway.

Dunno leh I used this term for broccoli for quite some time. Can't recall when I picked it up. Maybe restaurant menu? 西兰花炒带子

高丽菜 is cabbage.

 

[Nuclear Boy]

Dunno leh I used this term for broccoli for quite some time. Can't recall when I picked it up. Maybe restaurant menu? 西兰花炒带子

高丽菜 is cabbage.

高丽菜 + 花 = cauliflower
In Mandarin, it is just 菜花, at least this is what I picked up from my parents. Their MT also not Mandarin.

 

[Lss]

高丽菜 + 花 = cauliflower
In Mandarin, it is just 菜花, at least this is what I picked up from my parents. Their MT also not Mandarin.

I'm starting to think the confusion could have dialect roots.

Similar to how things like potato and tomato have many names.

 

[jywy2005]

Chinese is like class 3 license. Most people chose to learn 3a coz they dont need to drive manual car. Its a must to know chinese but no need to be that pro tbh. As long u can speak/listen fairly well and do basic reading is enough.

Back then when i was a kid, i learn most chinese by reading comic and not through school except for pinyin. I had never study for chinese exam before and pass every one of them with flying colours. Its not an easy language to learn esp on writing.

During my time I learnt Chinese by reading Jin Yong Wuxia books and watching those Cantonese drama. It was the era before K-drama or J-drama became popular. It also helps that we grew up listening to Mandarin songs from Taiwan, and speaking mandarin at home.

 

[BlackWing1977]

Minimum is learn 咕噜肉，马来风光，宫保鸡丁, 炸鸡，芙蓉蛋，水蛋

Then recognise vegetable like 西兰花，花菜，高丽菜，小白菜，菜豆，苦瓜，茄子, 芥兰

菜豆 is local term for long beans... I think they have another term from China... 豆角，then another thing that looks a lot like long bean is called french bean, I know teochew is O Gui Dao 乌龟豆，but in most zi char stall is called 四季豆，got economic beehoon seller was surprised when I called out this name...

 

[ramlee]

I really enjoy Cantonese 'cursing' vocab such as

你個仆街！

There ish the indirect cursing which takes a while to sink in such as
請問令尊貴姓?

 

[Shion]

getting rid of dialects have made learning mandarin even more difficult imo

 

[ramlee]

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

“你念幾年班了？為什麼還不會講華語？”

 

[ramlee]

getting rid of dialects have made learning mandarin even more difficult imo

And the fun out of it

 

[ramlee]

Really hard. I can only recognise 黎明 cos I listen to Leon Lai. Everything else can only recognise 1 or 2 or 2 of 4

How dare they omit 劉華

 

[ramlee]

My bad,. my time was 改正错字， needed to identify and write the correct one. My kids’ era was to choose the correct word.

Rast time my teecher very evil, the 改正錯字 may not have a wrong word. If you fell for the trap and circle one word, then get no marks

 

[Rogue]

Can read and understand the words, just writing out from memory is harder. I tend to use only very simple/similar meaning words with very few strokes...

Also some of you used traditional chinese characters in your posts... lol.

 

[FORSTA]

nowadays students’ brains are all mixed up like glue — they’re forced to learn so many things at once, but nothing properly. all the other subjects are taught in english, so how can they truly learn chinese when there’s no real exposure to it? many parents think speaking english makes them look high-class, while speaking mandarin feels low-class or embarrassing. because of that, they don’t prioritize teaching their children chinese, even though they’re chinese themselves. it’s a mindset issue — when children grow up without using the language, they slowly lose connection to their roots and culture. upbringing makes all the difference.

 

[tidiii]

She is working for a UK subsidiary company in sg now and so doesnt need to 折腰 yet.

Currently work life balance is good (as in still got time to pursue hobbies and accompany me to see doctors when needed).

so lucky

Then what's the point of making the exams harder?

ask gov

No amount of chinese proficiency is going to put you ahead of their own race. Unless they need Singaporean front as facade like Tik tok. But that is only one person needed.

yup. unfortunately voters have made their choice
gov has shown their stance

 

[ninjaghost]

菜豆 is local term for long beans... I think they have another term from China... 豆角，then another thing that looks a lot like long bean is called french bean, I know teochew is O Gui Dao 乌龟豆，but in most zi char stall is called 四季豆，got economic beehoon seller was surprised when I called out this name...

they all the same? For my knowledge, 乌龟豆 look abit fat, 四季豆 look more fine and thin, both short as compare to long beans. Or i the one confused？