Mandarin & PSLE

There is some debate on how Mandarin has been taught in primary schools and the proposed changes to be made, to keep up with today's needs.

Parents have also written to the Press and commended the new proposal + sharing their problems their kids were facing that led them to uproot their family to overseas so that the kids can avoid learning Mandarin.

Similarly, for having to take PSLE exams too.

Jason has 2 primary school classmates that have taken that move; one went to Perth and the other to Geelong in Australia. Both are doing well and really enjoying the education system there.

Jason was also having difficulty with his Mandarin and was not motivated to learn it. Initially, he even said that he was not Chinese too....... so why learned Mandarin when he speaks English daily....?

So what did I do?

Well, before I share with you my experience, I want to state that those family who have chosen to emigrate or migrate, have their reasons and I am not saying that they are wrong.

Sometimes there is no perfect or right answer but it is a choice or decision that you choose.

As you know, I did my 'A' level and degree in Melbourne and I have a brother and a sister living there too. So it should not be too difficult for us to migrate there too.

But we feel that Singapore is a great place to have an education and a safe place too, It is tough, no doubt but my wife and I feel that it is better to try to overcome the problem instead of uprooting the family to another foreign place to start all over again.

Some of the things that we did to help Jason in his Mandarin were ....
- tuition, of course!
- we watch TV8 Chinese series
- we tried to converse in Mandarin as much as possible though not very successful at times
- etc....

It was a family effort and since my wife is bilingual, she also read with Jason in the evenings too.

You know, I actually improved my Mandarin too as I was a Malaysian so Mandarin was not compulsory and not my 2nd language.

Jason passed his Mandarin exam. for 'O' level in Jun 09 and we are so happy for him.

However, he still does not like learning the language and does not realise the importance of it, with China progressing and opening up these days.

Well, one step at a time......

Happy parenting......

David