"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."- John Dewey.
From the job market to tertiary education, from UPSR to A-Levels, Education in Malaysia focuses on bringing you the latest news and analysis on our nation's best bet on the future.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Quick update from Kian Ming
So many things to talk about, so little wireless access. I've got quite a few things on my blog list including the decision to get rid of UPSR and PMR exams (generally positive), the decision to raise the allowances for teachers in rural areas (generally positive), a quick update on Jeffrey Sachs and what he's doing as the Royal Ungku Aziz Chair of Poverty Studies (very negative). But unfortunately, I don't have streamyx at home and have been too busy catching up with friends and family to spend many hours at Starbucks or Coffee Bean. Apologies for the lack of posts but hopefully I'll have some time at the end of next week!
Hi...
ReplyDeleteI read some of your previous post and read about the comments u gave on chinese school students. ha, I guess u dun really remember it bcoz it was posted last year.
Me myself was a chinese school student for 11 years. The last year, I mean the form 5, i transfer to the SMK bcoz of transport problem. My secondary school is Chong Hwa Independent, the Ipoh Road 1, i guess u knw???
I admit that mayb a big quantity of chinese-ed students cant really speak good english, u must understand, speaking chinese for over ten years inside school and outside school, so it's hard for us to manage our english well too. But, I have to say, there are many, when i say many, it's really many, students in my school can speak good english too.
I also saw that someone said that the chinese-ed students dont speak english with others bcoz of some stupid reasons. Hmm, maybe its true, but dun u think the way that woman says is really irrespect to the chinese students. I believe, when chinese is with chinese, we should speak in our mother-tongue language, y speak in other language? And how u want us to speak english with those ppl when these ppl are keep on laughin at our english? And i also found that ppl have a bad thinkin with the chinese education too...
Sending ur child into any school is not the main problem for her english, the most important is you should speak with ur child in english and let her read more english books, school doesn't really matter, it's true, many SMK students even have worse english than the chinese school 1. And please be noticed, the reason of y some of the SMK's student can speak fluently english is bcoz their family is english-ed, they speak english at home, not bcoz of school.
p/s- chinese school punishment may be tougher but it's just for better discipline. Dun believe it, try to compare one day.
-_-. chinese school product memang.
ReplyDeleteInteresting response by 1st Anon. Indeed the overgeneralisation of Chinese educated students do not speak good english is irrelevant. I agree that most of us speak to our friends and co-workers using our mother tongue or the "first language" we used when we first met (still seeking empirical evidence).
ReplyDeleteEnglish may be the 2nd, 3rd or even the 4th language for a Chinese educated student. Being a multilingual does not mean having the ability to master all languages well. On the other hand, English could well be the mother tongue for most of the proficient English speakers. Such comparison is indeed irrelevant. On the other hand, could the English speakers speak fluently in Chinese as well if they had gone through the similar process as the Chinese educated students. I wonder.
Bear in mind the notion of mutli-intelligences...Not everyone is inclined towards verbal-linguistics. Moreover, the purpose of language is for communication not to create prejudice. Constructive suggestions may be well received compared to conviction.
Anyway, I am proud to call myself a Chinese educated person (from pre-school to pre-U) and most of my friends (from secondary school) have good English proficiency. At least, I had the opportunity to learn Mandarin, an additional language that is worth acquiring.
HOW COME EDUCATION MALAYSIA BLOG NOW SO QUIET?
ReplyDeleteNO NEWS?
DONT LETDOWN YR READERS!