Comments on: I do not regret sending my child to a Chinese School

By: KittyCat

KittyCat — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:46:05 +0000

Good to know your girl is doing well! I was rather apprehensive too esp as my boy STOPPED talking Chinese or watching his Chinese VCDs when we came back. It’s because the preschool was all English here.

Now that he’s 4, they have included Chinese sessions 3 times a week. And I’m really happy because he can recognize the Chinese characters like big, small, mountain, parts of the boy and even read combined characters e.g. small mountain.

Because he’s got an excellent memory, his Chinese teacher says he can remember many characters. He also finds writing the “heng”, “pie”, “shu” etc fun!

And he’s telling me in a reassuring voice (when I said I don’t know how to read Chinese), “I teach you Chinese, ok, Mummy?” LOL Keeping fingers crossed!

By: limchee

limchee — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:49:59 +0000

We should raise the voice we don’t want so much home work in chinese school, let them enjoy their childhood. Govt shd include more handwrk - wooden handwrk, sewing may be cooking , gardening which is more hands on rather than so much teory need to read.I still think that UPSR shd be removed as this create so many tuisyen and teacher also not teach well in the class but they will teach well in their tuisyen centre. if upsr can remove, teacher will more focus on child behaviour, attitude, moral like last time old time teacher. nowaday kids cannot excel in exam is consider as terrible . But my opinion is the kids have more exploration, hands on , they will know what they will be in future.please share your opinion

By: Alice Law

Alice Law — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:49:20 +0000

Going to send my kids to Chinese School too. Apparently learning Chinese is getting more crucial these days, I wish to build a strong foundation in Chinese for my kids, which I foresee China is going to “stand out” in the near future!

By: Ann

Ann — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:24:34 +0000

Good read. Thanks for sharing. IN fact read all the comments as well.

I also believe it depends on the child and it is the parent’s ‘duty’ to balance his lifestyle up.

But wah….your little girl really has very little sleep during the weekday. Never mind….catch up during the weekend ya!

By: anony-mouse

anony-mouse — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:07:11 +0000

Why is it ever too late to correct a decision? Decades ago, a few of my siblings attended chinese primary school, then switched to english for secondary school. And that was actually planned, as my parents wanted them to be bilingual. Sure they had to attend additional year in “Remove Class” to help the language transition. But they are all the better for it. Wish my parents had done the same for me!

In those days, everyone switched in secondary school. Switching midway through primary school is harder but you are right it is not too late. I know many people who have done it. It is not easy though. You worry about your child’s ability to readapt and question whether you are doing the right thing. My sister has 3 kids whom she wanted to pull out of chinese school from std 3 onwards for each and every one of them. She never did. They are all doing well secondary school now.

By: bengbeng

bengbeng — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:13:27 +0000

i regret bitterly

And too late to change now…but you don’t have to worry that much. Beng Hui is a good boy.

By: Charmaine

Charmaine — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:04:50 +0000

An interesting read. My eldest daughter (who is in Yr 6) is in school from 8:30am to 3pm, so she must be in bed by 8:30pm or latest 9pm to ensure she has enough sleep. I agree with your point that we shld ‘listen’ to our children, something I don’t think parents do. We are happy with her school, it’s small and there many support teachers to help the students with their work. They do get homework, but I don’t think as much as the ones in Malaysia. Sometimes, the homework is research based, where they have to find info, read and write about a specific topic, e.g. natural disasters and pick one of the natural disasters to write about and present later to her class.

Researched based homework sounds much more interesting than straight out of the workbook type of work.

By: health freak

health freak — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:46:25 +0000

I still don’t know if I’ll regret or not sending Alycia to a chinese school. Right now, her homework is quite heavy and she has not much time to rest and relax on school-going days. I am worried that Alycia would not catch up in her Mandarin as that’s her weakest subject.

I don’t remember my girl’s homework as being that heavy for Std 1. Is her Mandarin that weak? I saw from your postings that the Mandarin at the kindy she attended was rather tough.

By: rachel

rachel — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:57:45 +0000

I’m Happy that u r happy………
continue to get friends for ur daughter who can become buddies…

By: michelle

michelle — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:17:26 +0000

It depends on the child and not the parents. If the child like your gal enjoys it, then she should stay. If the child find it hard to cope, maybe parents need to think of alternatives or go to another school.

Sometimes parents overlook that the child cannot cope and end up going no where. I have a friend whose child has so much difficulty in Chinese school and drag into it year after year.

You are right there. We must always “listen” to our children by observing them even in non-verbal communication to see if they are coping and happy.