Giving up Chinese?...Read on

 Common trend of students:
    25%--struggle to ---->50%

                                  ----->Lost confidence in the midst and gave up in the end 

   Already----strive for------>A1
    passing

-Sec 3 Daniel from ACS(I) IP programme

-Sec 2 Matthew from ACS(I) IP programme

             


  From my past years of teaching Sec 2 to 3 students from various traditional-English schools i.e. 5 from ACS(I/Barker Rd),few from MGS,SJI or Fairfield methodist,they have something unfortunate in common.That is most of them do not have an interest in Chinese.(no offence given)  The extremely weak ones desire to pass.The relatively strong ones from top classes would yearn for an A1 to create the perfect report card. Those are the two categories of students.

  More often than not,they will give up halfway when they do not see their fruits of labour. They confidence towards Chinese will sink to an all time low especially at Sec 3 when they are at the brink of  O levels either next yr or at the end of the year. Why did they,despite all their hard work, failed to reach their desired grade?Below are some of the possible reasons:

1.They may have "made a dash" too late
Some students only start to put in effort in the language upon reaching a crucial time such as in sec 3.Language often is unlike a Humanities or Mathematics subject where if you memorised or practiced hard enough,you can improve by heaps and bounds. Unknown to many,from my past experience,the average time needed for somebody of a B4-C5 standard to reach an A1 is 1 and a half years.Yes!it's that long.

 2.Their foundation is weak and language exposure is limited
Many of the students I have mentioned earlier come from english-speaking homes and schools,where Chinese is only applied at work. Without a firm grasp on basic linguistic techniques, they may find that Chinese just gets harder and harder everytime they study. There comes a point that he finds that no mater how hard he or she try,they're not going to make it...might as well Give UP!

 Firstly, when teaching them, i will overcome their disinterest towards Chinese. With methods like surfing the net to search for essay ideas, watching videos and using webcam, Chinese becomes a more "lively" subject that are not just constrained towards doing 课本and 作业. Only after changing their attitude towards Chinese,will they have the interest and morale to continue to srive for their targetted grades in Chinese.

Is Sec 2 Chinese Difficult?

If you are in Sec 2, you still have another 2 yrs before you complete your O levels.But what you are doing during that will have a great effect on your following years.It is a time where you need to:

1. know Interest (to choose your subjects you wanna take)
2. Consider transferring school (IP program)
3. Reconsider taking Higher Chinese or Chinese

So I could say Sec 2 is a important year indeed. Academic results play an important part in those above mentioned 3 actions. When you are asked to choose your subject combination, the first thing they will look out for is your results. Fair enough, the school might even opt you for 7 subj. combination, if they think you have difficulty managing 8.So to stand a chance for a position in your prefered stream,be it art or science,work hard in your studies.

Towards the end of the year it is a window of transition.If your child's results are exceptionally well and think that he or she will thrive better in another school, you could consider putting he or she in the IP program.This gives the child the option to bypass O levels and enter the A level Curriculum.My students like Jilian and Shu En have Chinese to owe to,helping them to get an transfer to their desired school.Jilian transferred to ACS international and Shu En transferred from MGS to SOTA. The language pulled their overall grades up hence increasing the chance of being admitted by the IP schools.Hence you can see,Chinese like other subjects deserve attention and bring you to competetive position whether for subject combi. or a place in a school.
Next most schools will set the exam papers for Sec 2 exceptionally difficult, with the aim of separating those who could not cope with the demands of higher chinese and those who can. Hence usually during Sec 2,students who perform poorly will  drop out to Express Chinese and those who did well in Express could move up to Higher chinese.At the of the Sec 4,2 bonus points off  L1R5 will be given.

Furthermore,it is advisable to build a strong language foundation in the lower secondary years. Your upper Sec years will have you trying to adapt to the heavy duty subjects like the Pure Sciences,a maths,POA,Pure Humanities etc.You would need to spend time studying the content,having a tendency to neglect the languages.So prepare early folks!

Then,is Sec 1 Chinese difficult?

    Upon reaching secondary school, everything takes a turn and academics increase in difficulty.Chinese language is no exception.

  Especially when your child is entering one of the "top academic schools" like RI and SAP schools with a strong emphasis on Chinese,he or she needs to be mentally prepared for a more intensive drilling. For example, in the latter schools i mentioned,especially for Higher Chinese, a typical topical test of Chinese may consists of like 20 to 30 challenging proverbs or idioms together with characters they have picked up from the textbook. For exams, schools combine the 100 proverbs they learnt into their exam scope.Imagine a hundred of mind-staggering proverbs(成语) all tested during exam,how stress can one be if he or she has a weak foundation or no interest in Chinese?


   Ryan is a very tenacious boy who has good work attitude. During lessons, he will not detest doing compos. Just like a normal student,he dislike the laboriousness and banalness of writing. He resort to typing instead which isn't any compromise since compo allow use of e-dicitonaries and pinyin.   Ryan takes every practice seriously and sees it as an opportunity to improve on his work. With accurate techniques taught,he is able to reap his fruits of labour in the recent year-end paper 1 exam.  This is the type of end-product i hope to produce when u send your child to my tuition.

Intensive 8 lessons for P5

Targetted at:
Students who detest Chinese,
with short concentration span
Countless of tuition do not seem to be helping
*will employ the methods for PSLE  if the student seems to be benefitting from it




17 Oct-30 Oct
17-20 Oct are marking days: 11am-12.30pm (at my place),
5pm-6.30pm,7-8.30 pm(at your place)
23,26(deepavali)-30 Oct: 930am -11am at my place
2-3.30, 4-5.30 at your place
25,27,28 Oct,
4.30-6,630 to 8pm at your place
(You can choose 6-10 lessons)
Go thru top sch exam papers,impart examination techniques and spot questions and trend