October 16, 2004
Do not disappoint them anymore
You know the thing about MOE's new direction in the teaching of chinese language? The new syllabus and the new emphasis in reading and recognising and not so much writing. The one saying that in order to teach the language, the textbook has to contain passages and words that students can identify with in their daily life, not fancy-beautiful-prose words.
I absolutely regret that they realise this only now.
I had tuition earlier this evening. My boy hates writing. He is not motivated to write. However, when it comes to reading, he enjoys it and he can read relatively well. He practically turned a deaf ear to me when I asked him to write.
I wanted to tell him,' you are born 4 years too early.' He does not have a choice. Right now, the expectation is still writing prior to reading. That's why oral exam only takes up 20% of the final grade.
Another thing that I was thinking while showering just now. Why don't we adapt the traditional chinese characters into the syllabus? Chinese language is actually one of the few existing languages in the world that balances the use of both the right and left hemisphere of the brain. And it's an iconic language. Hence, children have reasons to find the language easy because it's akin to drawings. The problem is, the evolution of the language is such that the simplified characters we are using now is so not iconic. Some, sadly, feels more functional than symbolic. the traditional characters, on the other hand, are lovely classics.
In fact, from my experience with my tutees, the characters that require complicated strokes are the ones they remember the best. The ones with many complicated strokes are the ones that look most like art pieces by themselves.
Think about it. No harm. At the end of the day, they still learn how to use the language. We may even have more keen calligraphers who can revive the dying trade of writing couplets at Chinatown before CNY.
Posted by 杏 cy （Jancy） at 01:28