For Chinese only:
Who needs me specifically?
They are those zealous students who have high expectations of themselves and aim to be best in their class/cohort/school.
The amount of time left to this year's examinations, is it enough?
The O level Chinese and A level chinese exam will start in about 3 weeks' time(O:4 Nov, A:27 Oct) . This equates to 3/6 lessons where the student has 6-12 hours of added preparation.
What will I teach?
1) Analyse own schools' prelim papers. After their preliminary exams, I would make them understand where did they go wrong. Develop more on their strengths for each component and reduce their weakness and common errors to prevent unnecessary loss of marks.
2)Teach them techniques to tackle components like comprehension, cloze passages and in the case of A level, summary exercise.
3)I will give them hot compo topics to analyse where the points will be taught to them so that they do not just memorise them blankly, but are able to use them in different contexts.
4) Impart proverbs, idioms and commonly used phrases, teaching the meaning and how it is used in forming sentences.
21.9.14
Is IB Chinese Curriculum easy?
There are many who think that IB Chinese is very easy to score. Is that really so in reality? Well in my opinion, compared to GCE 'A' level and 'O' level, it is definitely easier. However one needs to consider who is taking it. For most local students, having studied the Chinese Language for 13 years, it's really not difficult especially for those who passed their Chinese in Secondary 4.
Let us take a closer look at the components of the IB exam,
1) The composition segment of IB indeed I feel is not that tough in its minimum word requirement of 480.More over there is a wide spectrum of genres one may write i.e. argumentative, speech, interview, discursive and even personal recounts. Yet having said that, all these might still deem challenging to the foreign students. Their limited vocabulary of Chinese words and inability to construct coherent sentences stops them from having a thorough development of their chosen topic. Even if the student takes effort to memorise sentences by heart, for a student with Chinese standard of primary school, he or she would just give up due to the overwhelming demand of writing nearly 500 words in a stipulated time
2)In the written paper 2 where there are close passages and comprehension segments, the local students will find them easy having done them for the past 10 years. Conversely, the foreign students would not have that advantage and thus even if "give-away" segments like the comprehension MCQ are present, they would still fail the exam.
3) The Oral component is one that you can prepare very much beforehand. I find that this is one component that separates the diligent students from the average where the ill-prepared cannot score well. Just this year, I managed to spot a topic on "捞鱼生” (Prosperity Toss) for this IB student. After getting affirmation of the "hint" by the teacher, I had him practice describing the picture by reading out aloud a draft description which I have prepared for him. In order to show him the correct way to pronounce and express every word and syllabus, I recorded myself reading out my passage aloud to let him listen. And that was how he improved. Repetition after repetition, as he tried to imitate my tone and pronunciation, he managed to improve. The boy who normally lacks confidence in his speech managed to impress his teacher with his improvement in class. Subsequently the question which i have spotted indeed came out for his exam.
I would say Oral would prove to be the most challenging obstacle for a foreign student because it is hard for he or she to capture the right tone, pronunciation and expression during passage reading. Moreover, during picture description, he or she would under perform due to a failure to use exceptional words to describe scenarios accurately.
For a person who have been so used to speaking in English, it is hard for them to adapt to the 4 chinese Han yu ping yin tone. Sometimes, they have developed bad habits in pronouncing which are hard to break. However, time and techniques are what they need in order for them to change the way they speak and pronounce. As a tutor to countless of foreigners (adults and students alike) in my many years of teaching, I have the relevant experience and patience to develop their proper Chinese intonation. Hence, correcting the way they speak Chinese in their daily lives.
Yet Oral is one of the most important determinants of the overall Chinese grade. It must be prepared thoroughly.
Let us take a closer look at the components of the IB exam,
1) The composition segment of IB indeed I feel is not that tough in its minimum word requirement of 480.More over there is a wide spectrum of genres one may write i.e. argumentative, speech, interview, discursive and even personal recounts. Yet having said that, all these might still deem challenging to the foreign students. Their limited vocabulary of Chinese words and inability to construct coherent sentences stops them from having a thorough development of their chosen topic. Even if the student takes effort to memorise sentences by heart, for a student with Chinese standard of primary school, he or she would just give up due to the overwhelming demand of writing nearly 500 words in a stipulated time
2)In the written paper 2 where there are close passages and comprehension segments, the local students will find them easy having done them for the past 10 years. Conversely, the foreign students would not have that advantage and thus even if "give-away" segments like the comprehension MCQ are present, they would still fail the exam.
3) The Oral component is one that you can prepare very much beforehand. I find that this is one component that separates the diligent students from the average where the ill-prepared cannot score well. Just this year, I managed to spot a topic on "捞鱼生” (Prosperity Toss) for this IB student. After getting affirmation of the "hint" by the teacher, I had him practice describing the picture by reading out aloud a draft description which I have prepared for him. In order to show him the correct way to pronounce and express every word and syllabus, I recorded myself reading out my passage aloud to let him listen. And that was how he improved. Repetition after repetition, as he tried to imitate my tone and pronunciation, he managed to improve. The boy who normally lacks confidence in his speech managed to impress his teacher with his improvement in class. Subsequently the question which i have spotted indeed came out for his exam.
I would say Oral would prove to be the most challenging obstacle for a foreign student because it is hard for he or she to capture the right tone, pronunciation and expression during passage reading. Moreover, during picture description, he or she would under perform due to a failure to use exceptional words to describe scenarios accurately.
For a person who have been so used to speaking in English, it is hard for them to adapt to the 4 chinese Han yu ping yin tone. Sometimes, they have developed bad habits in pronouncing which are hard to break. However, time and techniques are what they need in order for them to change the way they speak and pronounce. As a tutor to countless of foreigners (adults and students alike) in my many years of teaching, I have the relevant experience and patience to develop their proper Chinese intonation. Hence, correcting the way they speak Chinese in their daily lives.
Yet Oral is one of the most important determinants of the overall Chinese grade. It must be prepared thoroughly.
23.8.14
SJI O level Testimonial Joshua Tay
Joshua Tay
Prior to the tuition sessions with Mr Kok, Chinese and I weren't the best mix. I couldn't really grasp the language well, much less speak or write well during exams. In fact, I actually started to alienate the language.
However, when I started attending Mr Kok's lessons, one could say it totally changed my perception of Chinese. No longer did I view it as a foreign language that I couldn't master. I started seeing it as a friend, something I can better relate to with the help of Mr Kok. I started reading Chinese and subsequently, I could speak the language fluently.
I have improved my oral skills through the voice recording method that he takes to teach his students. It has surely boosted my confidence to speak up during discussions in class and with teachers. The skills that have been imparted to me have truly upgraded my speaking ability.
In this year of being guided through the languge, I found that I did not just learn new words or how to write well, but also the esential moral values that the laguage upholds. One can truly say that Mr Kok has done a wonderful job in inspiring his students to do well.
A Sec 4 from SJI '14一
16.8.14
2014 PSLE Chinese Oral Picture （游乐场）
Picture of a Playground（游乐场）
At the bottom left of the picture, there is a boy at the sand pit playing. He accidentally kicked some sand into a little girl eyes. The girl's mother is running over to the girl and looks very concerned.
At the bottom right of the picture, there are two children playing on a toy horse. Their father is taking a photo of them.
At the top right corner of the picture, there are two children on a swing set. The older girl is pushing one of the children.
On the top left corner of the picture, there is an old couple taking. Beside them, there is a young girl throwing her rubbish into the rubbish bin.
8.7.14
4.6.14
How a Sec 2 CHIJ student Improve her Chinese from C6 to B3?
Hey! I am Sandra and I have been under Mr Kok for two years and his teachings are very useful. When i was in Secondary 1, I was not used to the new syllabus of Chinese so I suffered a lot and my results started to drop
tremendously. Secondary 1 was a new level for me and the standard of Chinese indeed became harder, to the extent that I actually failed one of the exams. That was when I started to panic and I went over to ask Mr Kok for help. Under his guidance, my Chinese gradually improved and my results started to improve bit by bit. For the year end Chinese paper, I only scored 52 marks and I was not really that proud of it because I felt that I could have done better. When I turned 14, my CA1 Chinese results was 52 marks and I was literally shocked. Mr Kok started to teach me in a way which is easier to understand We went through many months of practice especially on cloze passages because that is my weakness and I am not too good at that so I eventually got a lot of confidence in that section. But I guess hard work paid off because I scored a 7/10 for my cloze passage and I was really on the moon. Because of
this new method together with my improvement in cloze passage, I scored a 67 for my Chinese in the recent SA1 test and I was the top two in my Chinese class. My mum was surprised because she never thought that I could have done so well and improved so much. I do not really study well just on books so when I heard that Mr Kok would start teaching through the internet or on the computer, I was literally stunned because most teachers would ask us not to use our electronic devices but Mr Kok allowed us to and I was really happy.(for work purposes) When I learned new vocab words, because it was hard to remember them or their meanings, Mr Kok would use the word and form a statement with it till I understood. Through his teachings, I definitely was able to learn more vocabulary words and I believe that every child would able to do well under his teachings because the way he teaches is really different from other Chinese tutors.
3.6.14
1.6.14
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