Dear Parents,
Hi!It's the most important time of the year we all have been waiting for where most of the students get their results back. Being a parent and a tutor myself i understand many of you will be worried. You want your child to reach their highest potential especially in the area of academics but he or she isn't performing. When you look at the report book, it beats you that your child's weakest subject is Chinese. When you are called to the Meet-the-Parent session, the teacher complained about your child's negative attitude towards Chinese.He or she did not hand in homework even if he or she hand in the work is sloppy, don't pay attention during lessons and even tried all means to avoid Chinese. You were fuming with rage and those things are the last thing you would like to hear. You have been asked to consider your child's options to stay in Higher Chinese or drop to Express Chinese,stay in Express Chinese or drop to normal Chinese,or in Primary School's case stay in Chinese or drop to foundation Chinese.You do not know what to do whether to give up or to stay.If he or she stay in that subject level, He or she might continue to drop in her results. If he or she drop to another level, would it be a waste?It's not like he or she didn't prepared for the examination. You signed your child up for tuition classes or home tuition, gave them assessments or exam papers and he or she also went for remedial or supplementary lessons. Does it mean that the time and money invested to help your child isn't helpful at all? You feel disappointed and helpless at what you can do for your child. If i were you i would also feel that since my child has lost interest in Chinese.What should I do? Without tuition, his results will drop
further.With tuition, he or she would not like it. You are caught in a total dilemma!
Even though i myself is a Chinese language tutor, I don't place my profit as my priority. I am more committed in helping these types of student regenerate their interest towards their Mother tongue. Nothing is more satisfying than to see my students motivated to learn Chinese in an enjoyable manner which I feel is my greatest accomplishment.Sometimes your child does not fit with traditional methods of teaching. Not that reading and memorising the textbook or just drilling into assessment book are not helpful at all but they only do so to the hardworking ones. If students are taught continuously with these methods, they will continue to dread Chinese until they reach a state of a complete abandonment of the language. They just need innovative methods using IT which give sight,sound and light so as to make learning animated. Youths and kids nowadays are in touch with technology. Is your child always smsing their friends, going on facebook,msn,twitter and updates his or her blog everyday. Or does he or she plug in to music which annoys you. Don't despise these gadgets as they can be the bridge to your child interest to Chinese. Using technology which they would prefer, they would recognise that Chinese is not as worthless as they thought it was, instead they could be applied in daily lives especially in technology. Unfortunately many parents have the misconception that typing Chinese will not allow exposure to Chinese handwriting. When your child learn how to type Chinese characters they are indirectly checking dictionary increasing their vocabulary. These are the ways i teach and the ways my program can be tailor-made.
The next thing to look out for is the chemistry between the teacher and the student. If the student hates the teacher, of course he or she will detest the subject. But if the teacher becomes sombody the student look upon and find comfortable learning under, there would be a high chance of your child excelling in Chinese. The most important thing would be to open the hearts of students and to treat them like a good friend, and young adult. They would then feel somebody cared for their feelings and thus respect what the teacher said. There would be no stress in sending your child for tuition. Under this atmosphere, your child could learn enjoyably and effectively.
I welcome you to discuss with me your child's situation if you can't send your child to tuition to my i will share 30 yrs experience teaching Chinese.You can or email me at kokhs@hotmail.com or vincentkokhs@yahoo.com.
Below are the specific details of some common situations that might be affecting your child:
Below are the main problems that might deter your child from achieving their deserved result:
- Loss of interest in Chinese
- Loss of confidence towards Chinese
- Hyperactiveness
- Difficulty in recalling what he has learnt
- Exam Fear
- Ineligible Handwriting
- Find that Chinese is useless
The types of students not able to perform as expected:
Students with short concentration span
Their concentration usually varies between 20 to 60 min. They might not be hyperactive just active and belong to the more sporty group of people. Thus they will only concentrate on the things that catch their interest. Teachers might complained that they will always be leaving their seats and be excused to the restrooms in between Chinese lessons whether in school or tuition. Signs of tiredness like yawning are shown but they are transited into students being energised and refreshed as their dreaded lessons are "finally over". They will always be late for lessons but leave early.
Students who are willing to work hard but not able to get result
They are the hardworking ones, those determined to do well in Chinese. Even if it's not much interest, they still care about their marks.They put in effort in their work but don't reap the expected results.It's understandable as the Chinese is a difficult language to embrace. And language, unlike Science or Maths which are study subjects, needs time to master from the basic foundations Soon, they start to get demoralised by the repeated failures and lose the confidence. From then on the worst thing could happen that is they might give up Chinese.
Below are the profiles of my students who have benefited from my tuition......
