Chinese

Many of us students always complain that Chinese sucks (well most of the English-educated do). But instead of always complaining, why not look at the root of the problem?

I recently read an article about an American teaching English in Taiwan. When he first started, he found it very easy to teach, since the students there were well-behaved and quiet, so interaction with the teacher was frowned upon. He later found out that it was because they were used to rote learning, just copying down notes and then using it in the exam.

He had to make the learning environment less formal, in order for the students to become less inhibited.

I think we can also use this in our context. With the MOE initiative of "Teach less, Learn More", Singapore's education policy has steered away from rote learning, to interaction based learning. However, this is not reflected in Chinese, since most teachers come from overseas, mainly China, whose education policy compared to ours is somewhat backward, though improving quickly.

Furthermore, these teachers do not know much about Singapore. Our unique culture is world's apart from what they experienced in China, hence this accentuated gap between teacher and student. I remember enjoying Chinese in p5 and p6, because the teacher that taught me was a local-born one, and was able to mould the lessons to meet our needs.

Foreign talent is a cornerstone to our rapidly growing economy. However, education of the young is also extremely important, and I feel it would be much better if locals would be left to handle this heavy responsibility.