Should My Primary School Child Take Up Higher Chinese (HCL)?
If your Primary 4 child comes home one day and says – “My teacher asked me if I want to take up HCL”. What exactly…
Category: Blog
Don’t Outsource The Learning of Mother Tongue Languages to Schools and Tuition Centres
I fully agree with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on the importance of exposing children to mother tongue languages at a very young age (DPM…
母语学习应从家里开始
副总理兼财政部长黄循则6月4日为庆祝《小小拇指》创刊10周年致辞时，呼吁家长从小就在家培养孩子对母语的兴趣，我非常赞同。 我自小生长在一个充满华文华语氛围的家庭环境。客厅一定会有华文报章，每天晚上都会观看华语电视连续剧和其他节目，还有播放华语流行歌曲及经典老歌。这些日常的接触，让我从小就自然而然地不会排斥华文，如今也能够以华文创作及欣赏不同的华文内容。除此之外，即使没有受过任何专业的训练，我也能够以华语参与商谈。这一切都得归 功于我从小在家里建立起的华文基础，让我长大后能够更独立自主地阅读与学习以华文为主的相关知识。 据我观察，一些家长有一种心态，就是把母语学习的责任完全外包给学校和补习中心，且多半是为了考试成绩。可是，如果家长在孩子进人小学之前，不尽量让他们多接触母语，在进人小学后，因为缺少扎实的基础，母语就会变成一种陌生的语言。这样一来，在学习的过程中，就会觉得很困难。 我能够理解一些家长会担心，自己的母语说得不够好，宁可让专业的教师来指导正确 的母语学习方法，让孩子从正确的管道学起。可是，这样的做法会削弱孩子学习的机会。相比之下，如果孩子每天都能够在家以母语进行日常的“听说读写”活动，学习的效益将会大大提升。 我也呼吁家长，不必太在乎自己的华文程度如何，应该积极开始以华语和孩子沟通，一起学习、一起犯错、一起成长。除了更好地掌握华语，还可以增进亲子的互动。 建立稳固的基础，能够让孩子在学习母语的道路上走得更远，帮助孩子在日后能够更有自信地自主学习，甚至能够享受母语所带来的益处。 作者：维他命M联合创办人吴颖胜 *刊登于2023年6月7日《联合早报》*
How to attain higher Achievement Level (AL) in PSLE Chinese?
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4 Things We Learnt From MOE Deputy-Director-General About Mother Tongue (Chinese, Malay, Tamil)
Recently, CNA Talking Point looks at effective learning of Mother Tongue (Chinese, Malay, Tamil). In this article summarizing the episode, Ministry of Education deputy director-general…
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At the height of Covid-19 in 2020, Singapore went into circuit breaker (aka lockdown). As an adjunct polytechnic lecturer then, the first question that popped…
“Atomic Habits” To Learn Mandarin
In James Clear’s New York Times Bestseller book “Atomic Habits”, he created a paradigm for anyone hoping to achieve remarkable results through the tiniest changes.…
5 Tips To Inspire Your Kids To Learn Chinese
Sweet-talking them to say a few words or a sentence in Mandarin? Sending them for different Chinese tuition and enrichment classes? Cajoling them to pick…