Monday, 10 May 2010

Lowering Weightage of Chinese language

This post was written to reflect my own personal opinion and that is I'm for status quo which is no lowering of weightage for Chinese language.

Sadly, I'm one of the many that opted for Poly tertiary education to avoid Chinese. Having not been able to learn more about the language is indeed regrettable.

Because of the standard of my Chinese, I have difficulty writing a Hammer article in Chinese! And sometimes I need English subtitles to understand Mandarin TV dramas :(

Luckily I enjoy singing and that's how I got to eventually have the chance to expose myself to more Chinese characters.

I have learnt to understand and appreciate the use of my mother tongue.

To me, lowering the weightage means lowering the significance of the language. By doing that, we are indirectly telling students that this is not so important and that to them means lesser effort. One will eventually lost touch with something that you spent lesser effort on.

Chinese is something that we use to connect to our roots and culture. Imagine losing touch with that!

With China integrating into the international community, there is no doubt that it is more closely link to the world. Hence it is now a common sight to see Singaporeans working or doing businesses there and vice versa. Without the knowledge and use of the language and it's culture, it's going to be an uphill task.

We are talking about PSLE here, which is the minimum standard one should have. Since it is the last line of defense for the language, there is no way to compromise.

Some of our dramas made Chinese teachers wore thick black glasses to emphasize seriousness and boredom. Are students getting the wrong impression here? Perhaps the perception that students have with regards to Chinese is something that can be looked into?

In conclusion, If Chinese PRC can score As for English why can't we Singaporeans, who are expose to both languages from young be it in kindergarten or through conversations with parents and grandparents, do so for our Chinese language?

4 comments:

s rajaratnam said...

I personally think there should not be any weightage for whatever MT.(mother tongue)

It is brilliant ideas and inspiring leadership that Spore needs very badly to make it a better place for Sporeans, not about MT proficiency.

Spore has more than enough straight As scholars but clueless in nation building.

Jotter Book said...

MT for different ethnic group means hold different meaning, unique to the enthnicity that one belongs to.

The legacy left behind by Confucius, Mencius and other great sage cannot be fully appreciated if one does not have a good foundation of the Chinese language.

The beauty of the language is reflected in the use of proper Chengyu, or the Chinese idioms. 4 simple characters and the entire meaning of something we want to express is clearly enshrined by these 4 characters.

In fact, my opinion is we should not even think of reducing it at all. This is a betrayal of our ancestory root. And by this, the Minister of Education has done a great disservice to all Chinese Singaporeans if the reduction of weightage were to be pushed through. It also contradict our govt's long term plan of engaging China by Singaporeans.

Anonymous said...

1SG - Why the 'Speak Mandarin','Appreciate Chinese Culture' Campaign is a monumental mistake

http://www.according2ed.com/2010/03/1sg-why-speak-mandarinappreciate.html


Mother-tongue policy undermines education and our future

http://www.yawningbread.org/guest_2010/guw-165.htm

Aqeel said...

I think chineese is a difficult language to learn.

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