Re: Learn Mandarin with fun is OK, but a F9 banning your kids from Pre-U or U is ghas
Yup, I'm one of them. Every year F9 for chinese. I'm not chinese, nobody speaks mandarin at home, simply can't pick up the language despite tuition classes, etc. If it’s simply to pass a 2nd lang, it would have been better if I took malay instead. Ironically, my parents thought I’d have a better future with mandarin.
Chinese classes were a nightmare. For some reason (see below), chinese teachers were from a different planet. It's all very fine being proud of the culture, history & achievements, but they believed that anyone who wasn't competent in the language was looking down on it. They'd pour scorn on students poor on the subject & would humiliate them in front of the class. They insist on me having a chinese name even though I do not have one, which is really stupid because I still write my anglicised name on major exams like PSLE / O'levels, etc. I've put up with that treatment in every chinese class for 10+ years and now I refuse to speak a word of it. Not that I hate the language, rather I don't want to be humiliated again.
I did rather well for O'levels. I could have gone to any JC with my grades but because I failed 2nd lang (certainly not my mother tongue), I could only be admitted "on conditional terms" - that I pass 2nd at JC. Let's face it.... 10 yrs of F9s, it is highly unlikely I'd pass. Basically the doors of local higher education had been slammed shut in front of my face. Fortunately, my parents could afford to send me abroad to further my studies and I'm very grateful towards the foreign education system that I'm given a chance to prove myself, but completely resent the local education system. Now that LKY has admitted he made a mistake in believing that mastering languages = intelligence, I am very angry with him because now I know I was labelled stupid in the eyes of the govt & not deserving of a higher education because of 2nd language even though I did well in the other subjects.
Now that I have kids, I've decided to send them abroad after their A'levels whether or not they do well in 2nd lang. Of course I want them to study hard but the pursuit of gaining entry to "branded" schools & then local U is ridiculous. I don't believe in the local education system anymore, and don't get me started on our local Unis. We need to think global these days, who in US / UK / Europe gives a rat's arse about "branded schools"? NUS? Is it globally recognised? If you had a grad from MIT & NUS applying for a job, who would you pick? Only when all president's / national scholars study locally would I send my kids there too.
Chinese teachers in the 70s/80s
Most of them came from NANTA which was shut down by the govt. Compared to the english educated grads, they had lower pay & not much job prospects except being 2nd lang teachers. Naturally, they felt sidelined & had a huge chip on their shoulder towards the english educated, students included, hence the negative attitude in chinese classes.
