Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Who’s Afraid Of Mandarin?

Me.

Growing up in what was a predominantly English-speaking family gave me many advantages. I enjoyed reading and writing and always scored highly for my English and Eng. Literature classes all the way.

However, it also meant that I struggled with Chinese all the way from Primary to even now as a working adult. The complexity of the Chinese Language. The vocabulary. The strokes of each word. The nuances. The depth. The syntax. The accent. Oh, the headache!

I managed to scrape through all my examinations in part due to MandoPop. I grew to love MandoPop singers, and soon forced myself to memorise the lyrics to their songs. Even to now, I can still remember how to sing these songs! Haha!

Do you remember this “Speak Mandarin Campaign” TV ad? When I first saw it, I was first blown away by these kids… and then I felt like I wanted to go find this hole for my head. *sigh*

From the time I was very young, I could always recall these 华人华语, or Speak Mandarin Campaigns. Do you recall any of these posters?

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Yeap, some are from ancient-of-days, but it is kinda nostalgic to see these!

And while I am thankfully out of the education system and therefore Chinese no longer has a hold on me or my future school life, it has dawned upon me.

It will soon be Jay’s turn. Oh. My. Goodness.

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My innocent little prince. No idea what he is getting into. Hahaha!

Recently, my good friend Ed & his wife Jiahui invited me to attend a Bloggers’ Forum organized by Julia Gabriel Centre of Learning.

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Along with a few other parent-bloggers, we met Fiona Walker, Principal Director and Huang Ying, Head of Mandarin in Julia Gabriel. And one of the topics we chatted on, while munching on some yummy finger sandwiches and sipping some coffee… was on the subject of our kids and Chinese.

“How can we prepare them for Chinese when they get to Primary School?”

“What should we do to instil an interest in Chinese in them?”

“Is there a preset number of hours a day to teach them Chinese?”

“Chinese words/phrases? Or speak in full sentences?”

We learnt many things and *fingers crossed* we’ll be disciplined enough to carry it through! Haha!

Check back and read more about our Chinese Language journey this week!

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The bloggers with Fiona & Huang Ying from Julia Gabriel.

1 comment:

ED said...

I love the posters...Reminds me of how old I am :)

The ang moh kids speak better than me :)