Confessions of a Banana: yellow outside but white inside.

This post is a response to the report of our MM Lee's admission that our insistence on the Bilingual Policy in the early years was wrong.  

Well, at least he was big enough to admit he was wrong. Unfortunately, this realization comes decades too late. 

Lemme just say, personally, till today, I cannot look at a piece of Chinese writing (like the newspapers for example) without the sinking feeling that I'm lost and drowning in a deep deep ocean.

I am scarred for life with regards to my "Mother Tongue". Firstly, English should rightly be called my MT, since it is the language we spoke at home, and secondly, I am still very much tongue tied when it comes to speaking it.

Now, is this the fault of the policy or the methodology?
Well, I think they go hand in hand.

The "old" policy required us to sit for a written exam. And if you don't pass it, you simply get stuck at that level or get placed into a slower "stream". You can't even enter university if you don't pass your MT.

People and families have even fled the country to escape this policy... that's how bad it is.

The percentage break down then placed greater weightage on writing and reading. Hence, we did so much of ting xie (basically, spelling) and mou xie (memorize passages and write it down). *shudder*

Yes, I believe it is a brain gifted-ness thingy. It is not necessarily male or female but there is a percentage bias for girls to be better at it. Me, Suwei, very much female... well, I buck the trend. My eldest son, as I mentioned, is struggling. Cannot for the life of him remember words he read one para ago. The 7 yr old girl is reading effortlessly. 3rd boy looks like he might have hope. 4 th boy looks like he's lost in wonderland when you speak to him in Mandarin.

Well, the ministry, I think, figured out, we don't want our people to be able to go to China to read newspapers and road signs impeccably but to go there and hold business conferences, impress the socks off them China Chinese with our knowledge of chinese history and poetry and hence make loads of money!!!

So, now, PSLE aural component accounts for 70% of final grade. tink about that. You ace your aural, you're home free. 30% to be shared with all the other written aspects of the paper: cloze passage, compre, compo, etc...

Does that make it easier? Does it really? Does it mean no more memorizing 5 or 10 compositions and bleah the closest one onto the exam paper?

It means you need a wide vocabulary, knowledge of phrases, appropriate useage, good grasp of general knowledge... etc. I think I will fail PSLE if I were to take it again. I once ordered deep fried Kai Lan.. I know. It's pathetic.

(Not as bad, however, as my senior in the university hostel who admitted he thought foreigners were referred to as Goat People. "yang ren".)

Well, my eldest son is three years away from PSLE. I'm feeling like it's make or break time. He is drowning in vocab he has never heard of before, lesson after lesson, it's just snowballing.

Oh, how I want chinese to be fun and tears-free. :(

SOS!!!

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Comments

[Gerlynn]

Poor Asher. Maybe watching more Chinese dramas will help! I watched Jewel in the Palace with Chinese dialogue every night 1 month before my Chinese exams.