Comparing Chinese Enrichment (Primary/Preschool)

[Belle]

My daughter is in nursery now.


Lately, her chinese teacher has commented that she needs to improve her chinese. Well, she can speak relatively well but not too good in recognising the chinese characters. I wonder whether I should enrol her for chinese enrichment class?

She is attending music class and I have considered enrolling her for english speech and drama class a few months ago. If I enrol her for any mandarin class, I am sure if it is too much for her.

Just out of curiosity… How many of you gals/guys send your child to more than 2 enrichment classes at this age??

[googaga]

hi jedamum, actually berries is not bad. I sent my elder boy only start of this year (k1) and younger one(N1) too. I realised i start my elder one too late on chinese enrichment n initially was quite tough for him. Cos a lot of very basic words which my N1 can read but he couldn’t cos most were already taught at N1 level. But thankfully, the elder one still manage to catch up. So far i like berries cos it makes it fun for them, some of the stuff they do to help the kids understand the words are rather creative and my younger one esp enjoys his lessons very much. But not all teachers at berries are from northern china, so pronunciation-wise might not be as good. Hence, the tot of switching to Molin cos all teachers are fm northern china.

[jedamum]

Belle:

Just out of curiosity... How many of you gals/guys send your child to more than 2 enrichment classes at this age??

what would be the reason for you to consider speech and drama? is it to build up confidence level or for english? if it is the former, maybe you can consider mandarin speech and drama? My boy had no enrichment during Nursery....guess i'm a pretty laid back mum. :oops:

hi googaga,
My boy joined Berries when he was in K1 too. I almost fainted when I learnt of what his pcf teachers taught him in class. During my enquiry visit to Berries, I nearly fainted when I see the words in the 'small book'. I was actually prepared for my boy to join the Nursery class as he can't recognise any basic chinese words and speak limited chinese back then. But luckily he also manage to catch up (with home reinforcement). He loves the teacher....they are all pretty young....pretty and young too. :lol:

[Belle]

Thanks, jedamum for the idea.


So do you know of any good mandarin speech and drama class?

I find it quite difficult to coach chinese. Noted that the words the school thought were quite tough these days. Words with so many strokes. Not like the simple words we learnt in our young days.... :oops: How to make it easy for our children to remember?

[2galsmum]

Both Hua and Tien are competitive…I withdraw my gal from Hua cos’ have a Tien Hsia’s branch nearby. Initially tot Hua’s is a bit too ‘easy’ then I realise they are both competitive…


Actually Hua did a good job…my gal’s han yu pin yin is better than mine now…(obviously, my foundation is no good…hee)

[Bufferona]

I found it thank you


Hi where is this Jiang Lao Shi place?

TIA

[cornucopia]

Anyonre heard of Beijing Language Sch? Heard from colleague who switched from Tien H to Beijing Language school said his child improved heaps!!

[cornucopia]

Bufferona:

*I found it thank you*


Hi where is this Jiang Lao Shi place?

TIA

Middle Road.

[Joy]

Hi


Can I just check, is there one enrichment centre offered just training on chinese oral skill?thanks

[tamarind]

jedamum:

My boy joined Berries when he was in K1 too. I almost fainted when I learnt of what his pcf teachers taught him in class. During my enquiry visit to Berries, I nearly fainted when I see the words in the 'small book'. I was actually prepared for my boy to join the Nursery class as he can't recognise any basic chinese words and speak limited chinese back then. But luckily he also manage to catch up (with home reinforcement). He loves the teacher....they are all pretty young....pretty and young too. :lol:

jedamum is right.

Berries standard is very high. Kids should start attending Berries no later than 4 years old. If they enter at K1, they will not be able to follow up.

Checkout my blog about the standard of Chinese in Berries N2 and K1 class.

http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2008/05/learning-chinese.html

I have also included the Chinese words my girl was learning in her PCF K1 class.

Their standard is so much higher than the time when I was in K1 !

I also want to highly recommend Woodlands Berries branch. The center head is a very nice lady and she is very accommodating. Both my kids' teachers are very caring. I consider myself a very fussy mommy, but I have no complains about them