One may have to think of learning Chinese as an intellectual challenge. A modern world citizen can no longer rely on one language. United Nations has once said global citizens need to know a second language, perhaps a third language.
The structure of Chinese language is very different from major international languages, e.g. English or Spanish. It is not only different in characters but also in the thinking and values. Hence, it is a good tool for intellectual challenge. Mastering Chinese as a second language can help to improve the exchange of left and right brain. Chinese philosophy and values can be quite opposite to western philosophy and values. One is more emotional and the other more logical.
The era of monolingual intellectuals is gone or nearly gone, so do their advantages. USA and China have signed agreement to send thousands of their students to each other universities. They want to provide their future leaders the opportunities for intellectual exchanges and brain storming. Future leaders in other part of the world, therefore, need to have more exposures and must be willing to take up the challenges to learn a second language.
Singapore aims to be the top in the world. However, in order to achieve highest level achievements, we can no longer rely on one culture one language. Global cities, like New York, London as mentioned in the ERC report, have multi-culture and language environment. They also provide opportunities and recognised the learning of second, third languages and cultures. The success formula of the past in Singapore is not a guarantee success for the future.
We need to challenge our young talents to learn a second language. We also do not expect giving equal status for the first and second languages. The past inequality may not be the same inequality in the future. This is the changing world. Many job opportunities in Singapore are very likely created by Chinese, Indian and other Asian investors, rather than the traditional investors from the west and Japan.
The selection of core and other passages in the P6 Chinese textbook is not concentrated on teaching Chinese values. If you look at the 10 core passages, only 3 are directly related to original Chinese writings. They are
• The transformation of the yellow dragon
• Mr. Cha Bu Duo
• Thinking of something others have not
The other 7 passages teaches universal values like, forgiving, hardworking, caring, differentiating, sporting, learning, and travelling. Even the 3 Chinese passages, they are all related to common and practical values like sacrificing, seriousness and wisdom. The selection committee has tried their best to discard articles
Below are the summaries of the last 5 passages in the P6 Chinese textbook. Parents can share their experiences and perhaps stimulate the intellectual thinking of their children.
In Lesson 6, Cha Bu Duo is a very common saying in Chinese for excusing. When Chinese makes mistakes, Cha Bu Duo is used as reasons to excuse oneself. This shows Chinese is not serious in small difference.
第六课Lesson 6: Mr. Cha Bu Duo
Mr. Cha Bu Duo is careless in book-keeping. He mixes up the words “十” and ”千” and writes them wrongly. His supervisor was very angry, but he says it is only a small difference. One day, he needed to travel by sea to Shanghai. He was late by two minutes. The departure time was 8.30, but he arrived at 8.32. Another day, Mr Cha Bu Duo fell sick. He asked his servant to bring a doctor. However, a vet came. Even though he knew the mistake, he thought a doctor and a vet is no big difference and allowed the vet to treat him. In less than one hour, Mr Cha Bu Duo was dead.
In Lesson 7, the passage touches on Singapore Sports School. Besides having good sports facilities, the school also nurtures students' character and academic learning.
第七课Lesson 7: The Sports School’s Open House
Yong Kang met his junior at primary school, Zhi Ling, during the Open House. Yong Kang said the sports school specialises in training sport talents for the country. Yong Kang said that the sports school has a covered swimming pool so they can train regardless of the rain. The school also has first-class running tracks and other sports facilities; they even have a hostel. Besides sports, the school also nurtures character. They also discipline students by giving white, yellow and red cards. Red card recipients cannot participate in competitions. Yong Kang said although they have busy schedules, once they have better time management, it should be okay.
In Lesson 8, it is related to confidence building. After realising the student’s difficulty, a teacher encourages him to use both hands to solve his learning and confidence problem.
第八课Lesson 8: Thank the Left Hand
The writer was transferred from a rural school to an urban school at Primary 3. He couldn’t understand the lessons. But even then, he still put up his hand to show he wanted to answer. One day he did the same thing for the new Chinese teacher. The teacher asked him to answer, but he couldn’t, and many classmates laughed at him. After understanding the writer’s problem, the teacher suggested he put up the right hand if he knew the answer and the left hand if he didn’t. The next time the teacher asked questions, she would look at which hand he put up. She would only call the writer when he raises his right hand. Progressively, he raised his right hand more often.
In Lesson 9, one needs to think beyond the drawing to figure out the number of horses. Students must think out of box to imagine the wisdom of the drawing. To understand Chinese philosophy, imagination is required.
第九课Lesson 9: Think of Something Others Have Not
A famous artist has three students. He gave each of them one piece of paper to draw as many camels as they can. Student A used the whole paper to draw camels. Student B drew only the head of the camels. However, Student C caught the attention of the artist. He drew a few mountains where there is one camel walking out, followed by one which only revealed half a head. The artist commented that we should think of something different. Although students only see two camels on the picture, but with many mountains, no one can tell how many camels there are. This shows the wisdom of the person who drew it.
In Lesson 10, an unusual geography is told through a travelling story. Red Sea is a tourist attraction which can float the tourists rather than sinking them. One can lie on the sea and enjoy reading a book.
第十课Lesson 10: Reading While Lying On the Waves
The writer travelled to the Red Sea in Jordan. The sea is an inland lake with a high density of salt, nine times higher than normal seawater. It makes animal survival impossible. Due to the high density of salt, one can float on the water. The writer jumped into the water and floated like a leaf. A friend passed him a magazine and took a photo as souvenir. Unfortunately when the friend tried to take the photo, a strong wave came towards the writer and he was forced to swallow the seawater, which was bitter and salty. The Dead Sea is also the pool that provides the best healing effect.
Monday 28 June 2010
Monday 21 June 2010
Applied Chinese I - P6 Textbook (family commitment)
There are too many stories about the difficulty of learning the Chinese language. The key is we do not have the environment as English has become the common language in the family. This is a general statement. There are some exceptions. Some English speaking families are able to encourage their children to learn Chinese and achieve good results.
So, this could be a management problem. If we apply the right solution, our children’s interest in Chinese language can be improved. Many a time, parents do not know what is teaching at school and leave it to the tuition teachers. The tutors teach according to the text book and repeat school lessons again. How can this root teaching generate interest, even with the latest IT support?
Family commitment is a critical success factor. Parents who do not understand Chinese can help their children by showing commitment. Leaving things to the schools and tutors is not a management solution. In stead, parents should learn together with their children in an informal way through family activities.
Singapore is a pragmatic society, so we better look at it as a management project. We already know the environment background. The current situation is whether we have options to improve the leaning of Chinese language. The SWOT analysis could be as follows:
• Strength is family commitment as tutors already engaged.
• Weakness is lack of language environment as parents don’t understand Chinese.
• Opportunity is to balance the east-west leaning, enlarging the knowledge base.
• Threat is others having advantage by mastering the Chinese language.
After analysis, the strategy is to improve the interest in Chinese learning. Scoring A should not be the KPI. For very weak students, a KPI of passing the exam may be impossible as this will create more pressure on them. Rather, the learning of Chinese should go through an informal way of family activities. The family must put in effort to engage in Chinese learning, from commitment of engaging tutors to parent’s involvement.
Education is passing basic and fundamental values to our children. There are universal values in the Chinese textbook that parents can share and exchange with their children over dinning table or even before sleep. By discussing the contents of the textbook and its values, learning interest can be improved as well as the rapport between parents and children.
Parents may need help to understand what the textbook is teaching, know the content even they don’t master Chinese language. Knowing the content in English can help parents to communicate with their children, discussing and sharing experiences about the universal and Chinese values. Take the P6 Chinese text book as an example, the 10 core passages provide a wide range of universal and Chinese values. They include forgiving, hardworking, caring, differentiating, sacrificing, seriousness, sporting, learning, wisdom and traveling.
In the first part of the Applied Chinese, summaries of the first 5 passages in the P6 Chinese textbook will be provided below. Parents can go through the summaries and then discuss the topics, meanings and values with the children.
In Lesson 1, a woman forgave a girl who stole her necklace. Forgiveness is in consideration when someone makes a mistake. The girl was given a chance to correct herself.
第一课Lesson 1: The Pearl Necklace
The passage tells the story of a woman who gave her mother a pearl necklace as a birthday present, which was stolen by a girl while she visited the restroom. Her mother stopped the girl before she could leave and related the significance of the necklace to her. She asked for help to find it. The girl agreed and very soon, the necklace was found and returned to her. “Why didn’t you call for security?” the writer asked her mother. “She could be from a poor family,” replied her mother, “If I called for security, she would have lost a chance to turn over a new leaf.”
In Lesson 2, hardworking is shown by Samsui women. This is part of our history and to build a country’s development, we need to work hard and go through many hardships. Instant success is not possible.
第二课Lesson 2: Samsui Women
It tells about the history of Samsui women in Singapore. They came from China to work here so as to earn enough money for their families. They were called “红头巾” because they wore red scarves over their heads at work. Being hardworking and thrifty, they went through hard times. Their effort had also contributed greatly to the building of our country in the early years.
In Lesson 3, caring is shown by grandfather and in return, when the grandson grows up, he shows the same concern to his grandfather. One needs to assist the weak and help the old to make a gracious society.
第三课Lesson 3: The Slanted Umbrella
It tells a story of the writer and his grandfather. In one of the rainy days, the grandfather came to the school with an umbrella. On the way home, the umbrella was slanted towards the writer. The writer found it strange and asked his grandfather about it. Once they returned home, the grandfather was shivering, but still concerned about whether the writer was wet. This was repeated whenever there was a rain. When the writer grew up, he also slanted the umbrella. “The slanted umbrella” tells the story of love and appreciation.
In lesson 4, differences appear even belonging to the same category. Animals have different colours of blood. They also have their different abilities and weaknesses. One will need to appreciate and recognize the differences.
第四课Lesson 4: Little Frog and Friends
The story tells the characteristics of Little Frog, Crab and Little Cat. While walking together, the crab fell down, but Little Frog was surprised to learn that the blood of Crab is blue. Crab also told that other animals have different colours of blood. While playing on another day, Little Cat complained about the poor eyesight of Little Frog. But Little Frog demonstrated he can catch fast-moving objects like mosquitoes. Little Cat also said that his eyesight is very special, sensitive to light, so he can catch mice even in the dark area.
In Lesson 5, sacrificing has its implication and meaning. To help others, yellow dragon risks its life, fights until the end and transforms into yellow river. A Chinese legendary was told in an interesting way.
第五课Lesson 5: The Transformation of the Yellow Dragon
There was a yellow dragon who liked to help the poor. But rain was controlled by the East Sea’s Dragon King and he refused to help. Yellow Dragon went ahead to use his powers to bring rain to farmers. East Sea’s Dragon King complained to the Jade Emperor who then imprisoned Yellow Dragon. The Dragon King was ordered to stop the rain but pretended to be sick. In order to help the farmers, Yellow Dragon had to escape from prison and use up all his energy. In the end, he was transformed into the Yellow River.
So, this could be a management problem. If we apply the right solution, our children’s interest in Chinese language can be improved. Many a time, parents do not know what is teaching at school and leave it to the tuition teachers. The tutors teach according to the text book and repeat school lessons again. How can this root teaching generate interest, even with the latest IT support?
Family commitment is a critical success factor. Parents who do not understand Chinese can help their children by showing commitment. Leaving things to the schools and tutors is not a management solution. In stead, parents should learn together with their children in an informal way through family activities.
Singapore is a pragmatic society, so we better look at it as a management project. We already know the environment background. The current situation is whether we have options to improve the leaning of Chinese language. The SWOT analysis could be as follows:
• Strength is family commitment as tutors already engaged.
• Weakness is lack of language environment as parents don’t understand Chinese.
• Opportunity is to balance the east-west leaning, enlarging the knowledge base.
• Threat is others having advantage by mastering the Chinese language.
After analysis, the strategy is to improve the interest in Chinese learning. Scoring A should not be the KPI. For very weak students, a KPI of passing the exam may be impossible as this will create more pressure on them. Rather, the learning of Chinese should go through an informal way of family activities. The family must put in effort to engage in Chinese learning, from commitment of engaging tutors to parent’s involvement.
Education is passing basic and fundamental values to our children. There are universal values in the Chinese textbook that parents can share and exchange with their children over dinning table or even before sleep. By discussing the contents of the textbook and its values, learning interest can be improved as well as the rapport between parents and children.
Parents may need help to understand what the textbook is teaching, know the content even they don’t master Chinese language. Knowing the content in English can help parents to communicate with their children, discussing and sharing experiences about the universal and Chinese values. Take the P6 Chinese text book as an example, the 10 core passages provide a wide range of universal and Chinese values. They include forgiving, hardworking, caring, differentiating, sacrificing, seriousness, sporting, learning, wisdom and traveling.
In the first part of the Applied Chinese, summaries of the first 5 passages in the P6 Chinese textbook will be provided below. Parents can go through the summaries and then discuss the topics, meanings and values with the children.
In Lesson 1, a woman forgave a girl who stole her necklace. Forgiveness is in consideration when someone makes a mistake. The girl was given a chance to correct herself.
第一课Lesson 1: The Pearl Necklace
The passage tells the story of a woman who gave her mother a pearl necklace as a birthday present, which was stolen by a girl while she visited the restroom. Her mother stopped the girl before she could leave and related the significance of the necklace to her. She asked for help to find it. The girl agreed and very soon, the necklace was found and returned to her. “Why didn’t you call for security?” the writer asked her mother. “She could be from a poor family,” replied her mother, “If I called for security, she would have lost a chance to turn over a new leaf.”
In Lesson 2, hardworking is shown by Samsui women. This is part of our history and to build a country’s development, we need to work hard and go through many hardships. Instant success is not possible.
第二课Lesson 2: Samsui Women
It tells about the history of Samsui women in Singapore. They came from China to work here so as to earn enough money for their families. They were called “红头巾” because they wore red scarves over their heads at work. Being hardworking and thrifty, they went through hard times. Their effort had also contributed greatly to the building of our country in the early years.
In Lesson 3, caring is shown by grandfather and in return, when the grandson grows up, he shows the same concern to his grandfather. One needs to assist the weak and help the old to make a gracious society.
第三课Lesson 3: The Slanted Umbrella
It tells a story of the writer and his grandfather. In one of the rainy days, the grandfather came to the school with an umbrella. On the way home, the umbrella was slanted towards the writer. The writer found it strange and asked his grandfather about it. Once they returned home, the grandfather was shivering, but still concerned about whether the writer was wet. This was repeated whenever there was a rain. When the writer grew up, he also slanted the umbrella. “The slanted umbrella” tells the story of love and appreciation.
In lesson 4, differences appear even belonging to the same category. Animals have different colours of blood. They also have their different abilities and weaknesses. One will need to appreciate and recognize the differences.
第四课Lesson 4: Little Frog and Friends
The story tells the characteristics of Little Frog, Crab and Little Cat. While walking together, the crab fell down, but Little Frog was surprised to learn that the blood of Crab is blue. Crab also told that other animals have different colours of blood. While playing on another day, Little Cat complained about the poor eyesight of Little Frog. But Little Frog demonstrated he can catch fast-moving objects like mosquitoes. Little Cat also said that his eyesight is very special, sensitive to light, so he can catch mice even in the dark area.
In Lesson 5, sacrificing has its implication and meaning. To help others, yellow dragon risks its life, fights until the end and transforms into yellow river. A Chinese legendary was told in an interesting way.
第五课Lesson 5: The Transformation of the Yellow Dragon
There was a yellow dragon who liked to help the poor. But rain was controlled by the East Sea’s Dragon King and he refused to help. Yellow Dragon went ahead to use his powers to bring rain to farmers. East Sea’s Dragon King complained to the Jade Emperor who then imprisoned Yellow Dragon. The Dragon King was ordered to stop the rain but pretended to be sick. In order to help the farmers, Yellow Dragon had to escape from prison and use up all his energy. In the end, he was transformed into the Yellow River.
Wednesday 16 June 2010
Beyond A
The meaning of learning should go beyond A. In a knowledge economy, it may be difficult to tell what useful (youyong有用) is and what useless (wuyong 无用) is. Take the learning of Chinese language, for example, is it useful or useless? Have we pre-forecasted the emergency of China, we might not change our education and language policy so drastically in the past.
We really have to look beyond “A for Uncle Ernest” (Lee Wei Ling, Sunday Times 13 June 10). The learning of GP should go beyond scoring A, but acquiring general knowledge in life. If you are only interested to score A, then A is your limit and whatever wuyong will not be in your mind. You will end up learning less and do not know the usefulness of wuyong.
It is hard to convince Singaporeans the “useless” Chinese language is in fact useful in life. The Chinese philosophy emphasizes a lot on “uselessness” and emptiness. It is because of “wuyong” then it makes the meaning of “youyong”. If an empty glass is full, it is useless. Only when it is empty, it can then contain water. Similarly, if the room is full, one will never able to put in more furniture.
There is also a debate among Chinese whether one should study books on Chinese philosophy (jingdian 经典). If you have an empty stomach, jingdian is useless. You better find a job to make a living. Jingdian is good when you have maintained a living and look for higher achievement in life or towards a meaning life. Singapore has one of the highest income per GNP in the world. If we want to progress further, we need to go beyond scoring A, and learn from the jingdian and make use of the “uselessness”. This is especially important to our younger population.
Our young and future leaders will have to think and make use of “wuyong”. There are some universal values of Chinese philosophy, thoughts, ways of doing things etc that they have to learn, be it in Chinese or English language, to make Singapore more competitive in the world. As a leader, he or she has to create “youyong” from “wuyong” just like our past achievements in solving our lack of resources problems. That was how we built our Changi airport, enlarged Jurong Island, and Marina South.
Perhaps, MOE has already recognized this. Even though the language environment is not in our favour, MOE is still trying to use English to teach Chinese. But really, the learning of Chinese should go beyond mastery of the few hundreds Chinese characters. Knowing the meaning behind the words will tell you how to make use of “wuyong” and become “youyong”.
We don’t have natural resources but we survive. For this, we thank our western friends. We learn from them how to develop our economy, build industrial estates, establish financial centre, airport, seaport, MRT, even casinos. We are now in solar energy initiatives, bio-medical, underground and nuclear power possibility. All these are “youyong”, or another word the practical consideration – the “yang” forces.
Most of the recommendations from the Economic Strategic Committed are the “yang” forces. The Committee did suggest some “yin” forces, like arts, media, cultural centres etc. Again, these ideas are generated from a western perspective. Have we considered the direction and creation of Jap wave, Korean wave and the future Han and Indian waves? Generally, it is difficult to identity the “yin” forces. Not to mention we have putting too much attentions on “yang” forces.
The world has now changed. Confucius Institute is ballooning in the world. China is spreading her soft power. One should not narrowly think that the Institute is only teaching Confucius thoughts and philosophy. The Confucius Institute covers the teaching of Chinese language, culture and traditions. In fact, Confucius is more towards “yang” forces, one has to know Laozi, Yijing, Buddhism and many others to have a full picture of Chinese ways of doing thing. Not only China is doing that. One of the 2006 Ma ying-jeou presidential election agendas is to promote the Taiwanese version of Chinese language and culture to the world.
With the help of Confucius Institute, more people in the world will know about the wuyong and youyong, the change in ying and yang, and their implication and application in business and politics. Young Singaporeans wanting to be future leaders of Singapore will have to take up the challenge of learning the wuyong Chinese. They can then use the knowledge to help others to upgrade, to improve life of Singaporeans. This is the duty of an intellectual (shi 士).
Scoring A is only fulfilling the “youyong” and making use of the “yang” forces. In order to help Singapore to sustain growth, our future leaders whether in politics, culture, intellectual, or business will have to make sacrifices to learn, understand and make use of the “wuyong”, or the “ying” forces. The brightest young people in Singapore, please, take up the challenge for your country!
We really have to look beyond “A for Uncle Ernest” (Lee Wei Ling, Sunday Times 13 June 10). The learning of GP should go beyond scoring A, but acquiring general knowledge in life. If you are only interested to score A, then A is your limit and whatever wuyong will not be in your mind. You will end up learning less and do not know the usefulness of wuyong.
It is hard to convince Singaporeans the “useless” Chinese language is in fact useful in life. The Chinese philosophy emphasizes a lot on “uselessness” and emptiness. It is because of “wuyong” then it makes the meaning of “youyong”. If an empty glass is full, it is useless. Only when it is empty, it can then contain water. Similarly, if the room is full, one will never able to put in more furniture.
There is also a debate among Chinese whether one should study books on Chinese philosophy (jingdian 经典). If you have an empty stomach, jingdian is useless. You better find a job to make a living. Jingdian is good when you have maintained a living and look for higher achievement in life or towards a meaning life. Singapore has one of the highest income per GNP in the world. If we want to progress further, we need to go beyond scoring A, and learn from the jingdian and make use of the “uselessness”. This is especially important to our younger population.
Our young and future leaders will have to think and make use of “wuyong”. There are some universal values of Chinese philosophy, thoughts, ways of doing things etc that they have to learn, be it in Chinese or English language, to make Singapore more competitive in the world. As a leader, he or she has to create “youyong” from “wuyong” just like our past achievements in solving our lack of resources problems. That was how we built our Changi airport, enlarged Jurong Island, and Marina South.
Perhaps, MOE has already recognized this. Even though the language environment is not in our favour, MOE is still trying to use English to teach Chinese. But really, the learning of Chinese should go beyond mastery of the few hundreds Chinese characters. Knowing the meaning behind the words will tell you how to make use of “wuyong” and become “youyong”.
We don’t have natural resources but we survive. For this, we thank our western friends. We learn from them how to develop our economy, build industrial estates, establish financial centre, airport, seaport, MRT, even casinos. We are now in solar energy initiatives, bio-medical, underground and nuclear power possibility. All these are “youyong”, or another word the practical consideration – the “yang” forces.
Most of the recommendations from the Economic Strategic Committed are the “yang” forces. The Committee did suggest some “yin” forces, like arts, media, cultural centres etc. Again, these ideas are generated from a western perspective. Have we considered the direction and creation of Jap wave, Korean wave and the future Han and Indian waves? Generally, it is difficult to identity the “yin” forces. Not to mention we have putting too much attentions on “yang” forces.
The world has now changed. Confucius Institute is ballooning in the world. China is spreading her soft power. One should not narrowly think that the Institute is only teaching Confucius thoughts and philosophy. The Confucius Institute covers the teaching of Chinese language, culture and traditions. In fact, Confucius is more towards “yang” forces, one has to know Laozi, Yijing, Buddhism and many others to have a full picture of Chinese ways of doing thing. Not only China is doing that. One of the 2006 Ma ying-jeou presidential election agendas is to promote the Taiwanese version of Chinese language and culture to the world.
With the help of Confucius Institute, more people in the world will know about the wuyong and youyong, the change in ying and yang, and their implication and application in business and politics. Young Singaporeans wanting to be future leaders of Singapore will have to take up the challenge of learning the wuyong Chinese. They can then use the knowledge to help others to upgrade, to improve life of Singaporeans. This is the duty of an intellectual (shi 士).
Scoring A is only fulfilling the “youyong” and making use of the “yang” forces. In order to help Singapore to sustain growth, our future leaders whether in politics, culture, intellectual, or business will have to make sacrifices to learn, understand and make use of the “wuyong”, or the “ying” forces. The brightest young people in Singapore, please, take up the challenge for your country!
Tuesday 15 June 2010
English learning
English is my second language since primary school. Beatty is an “integrated” school, a new type of school after Singapore gained self-government from the British. “Integrated” in the sense that the school has both English and Chinese, sometimes Malay and Tamil stream students studied in one school with one common management. I was in the Chinese stream side of the “integrated” primary school.
The learning of English language was always tough as there was no environment for English learning even within the “integrated” school. Putting 2 different language stream students together under one roof did not mix them and create a melting pot. English was taught as a single subject in the Chinese stream. In addition, primary school students need to learn a third language, Malay – the National Language.
Most students in the Chinese steam did not take the learning of English seriously, so do the English teachers. Very rarely, one could find a student good in English or a good dedicated English teacher. Perhaps, this was due to the population boom as young population increased tremendously and the education infrastructure just found difficult to cope.
Learning English is just like a struggle, just to pass the examinations and tests and to avoid getting red marks. It is similar to our current students struggling with Chinese language and yet could not get the passing marks. What a reverse in Singapore education in a short time!
The situation of English learning did not improve even I entered into Whampoa. Whampoa is a pure Chinese secondary school and there were no English stream students. Whampoa was one of the pioneer Chinese secondary schools set up by the government to separate Chinese stream students from the traditional Chinese school run by clans or churches.
The government was not able to improve the English mastery in even government established Chinese schools. It did a failed experiment. New secondary one students attended Science and Mathematics lessons in English language. With a weak English foundation, both students and teachers (who used to give lessons in Chinese) could not handle well. On top of this, students also need to attend technical training (any two subjects from electricity, metal or woodwork) in the morning at another school.
The teaching of Science and Mathematics in English language finally shifted back to Mandarin at secondary three. However, the textbooks remained in English. Historically, using English textbooks for Mathematics and Science at Chinese schools (even for traditional Chinese schools) is a norm. This provided a great help for Chinese school students when studying engineering or science in the university. Chinese stream students scoring poor marks in English but getting distinction or good honours for B.Sc or B.Eng degrees were not uncommon. Perhaps, a little like students from China getting outstanding performance at our schools or universities now.
I only put in effort to seriously study English language when I was in pre-university, mainly because I wanted to go to university for further study. This was the first time in my life I was attending a tuition. I also began listening to BBC, a habit that I keep till now. The English tuition helped to strengthen my English grammar, vocabulary, written and comprehension. However, as there was a lack of speaking environment, the mastery of oral English was still poor. Only until I was enlisted into the Army, mixing around with ACS, RI boys then slowly, I saw the improvement of spoken English.
Despite of a better and improved command of English, English is always my second language. I have difficult in pronouncing some English words, understanding and spelling some English words (for example, science, history or literature terminology). It could be simply because I don’t have this domain knowledge in my data base!
The learning of English language was always tough as there was no environment for English learning even within the “integrated” school. Putting 2 different language stream students together under one roof did not mix them and create a melting pot. English was taught as a single subject in the Chinese stream. In addition, primary school students need to learn a third language, Malay – the National Language.
Most students in the Chinese steam did not take the learning of English seriously, so do the English teachers. Very rarely, one could find a student good in English or a good dedicated English teacher. Perhaps, this was due to the population boom as young population increased tremendously and the education infrastructure just found difficult to cope.
Learning English is just like a struggle, just to pass the examinations and tests and to avoid getting red marks. It is similar to our current students struggling with Chinese language and yet could not get the passing marks. What a reverse in Singapore education in a short time!
The situation of English learning did not improve even I entered into Whampoa. Whampoa is a pure Chinese secondary school and there were no English stream students. Whampoa was one of the pioneer Chinese secondary schools set up by the government to separate Chinese stream students from the traditional Chinese school run by clans or churches.
The government was not able to improve the English mastery in even government established Chinese schools. It did a failed experiment. New secondary one students attended Science and Mathematics lessons in English language. With a weak English foundation, both students and teachers (who used to give lessons in Chinese) could not handle well. On top of this, students also need to attend technical training (any two subjects from electricity, metal or woodwork) in the morning at another school.
The teaching of Science and Mathematics in English language finally shifted back to Mandarin at secondary three. However, the textbooks remained in English. Historically, using English textbooks for Mathematics and Science at Chinese schools (even for traditional Chinese schools) is a norm. This provided a great help for Chinese school students when studying engineering or science in the university. Chinese stream students scoring poor marks in English but getting distinction or good honours for B.Sc or B.Eng degrees were not uncommon. Perhaps, a little like students from China getting outstanding performance at our schools or universities now.
I only put in effort to seriously study English language when I was in pre-university, mainly because I wanted to go to university for further study. This was the first time in my life I was attending a tuition. I also began listening to BBC, a habit that I keep till now. The English tuition helped to strengthen my English grammar, vocabulary, written and comprehension. However, as there was a lack of speaking environment, the mastery of oral English was still poor. Only until I was enlisted into the Army, mixing around with ACS, RI boys then slowly, I saw the improvement of spoken English.
Despite of a better and improved command of English, English is always my second language. I have difficult in pronouncing some English words, understanding and spelling some English words (for example, science, history or literature terminology). It could be simply because I don’t have this domain knowledge in my data base!
Past learning
Many old boys and girls of Beatty Integrated Primary School (培德) may not know the meaning of their school name in Chinese. Beatty (Peide) in Chinese is in fact very meaningful. Pei is to nurture and De even has a greater meaning. De is a very important Chinese philosophical concept emphasized by both Confucius and Laozi.
Confucius taught people to have De. Ones need to practice and spread De. Leaders must be good to their people and practice good policy (德政). De refers to kindness, good attitude, doing good things, considerate…..
In Laozi’s published book of Dao De Jing (道德经), De is the second part of the book. Human beings need to practice and study De so that they can have the right way (Dao) forward.
To make things more complicated, Confucius and Laozi interpreted and gave different meanings to De. But we really cannot go further here. If you are interested, you may read books on these two great philosophers to have better understanding of De.
Although the primary school named Beatty is no more in existence, the secondary school next to it (at Beatty Road) carried the same name has moved to Toa Payoh. However, these are two different schools, except those students continued their education at Beatty Secondary after Beatty Primary.
As for Whampoa, you may view www.whampoasecondaryschool.sg for more details.
Even the school was closed in the 1990s, it is glad that graduates still remember their school and held a reunion in 2009.
The site of Whampoa is now occupied by Bendemeer Secondary School. Whampoa is named in honour of a famous Chinese, Mr. Hoo Ah Kay. However, in China, Whampoa Military Academy was an important institution in the 20th century. The Academy produced leaders for both the Nationalists and the Communists.
What a coincidence! The first principal of Whampoa Secondary School happened to be a graduate of the Academy. He built up the school in the 1960s with the “Whampoa Spirit”.
Confucius taught people to have De. Ones need to practice and spread De. Leaders must be good to their people and practice good policy (德政). De refers to kindness, good attitude, doing good things, considerate…..
In Laozi’s published book of Dao De Jing (道德经), De is the second part of the book. Human beings need to practice and study De so that they can have the right way (Dao) forward.
To make things more complicated, Confucius and Laozi interpreted and gave different meanings to De. But we really cannot go further here. If you are interested, you may read books on these two great philosophers to have better understanding of De.
Although the primary school named Beatty is no more in existence, the secondary school next to it (at Beatty Road) carried the same name has moved to Toa Payoh. However, these are two different schools, except those students continued their education at Beatty Secondary after Beatty Primary.
As for Whampoa, you may view www.whampoasecondaryschool.sg for more details.
Even the school was closed in the 1990s, it is glad that graduates still remember their school and held a reunion in 2009.
The site of Whampoa is now occupied by Bendemeer Secondary School. Whampoa is named in honour of a famous Chinese, Mr. Hoo Ah Kay. However, in China, Whampoa Military Academy was an important institution in the 20th century. The Academy produced leaders for both the Nationalists and the Communists.
What a coincidence! The first principal of Whampoa Secondary School happened to be a graduate of the Academy. He built up the school in the 1960s with the “Whampoa Spirit”.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)