Comparing Chinese Enrichment (Primary/Preschool)

[hquek]

Hi all,


Hokkien Huay Kuan has a arts & cultural centre where they conduct a lot of chinese courses, including a new type called 乐乐华语班 that’s supposed to be fairly similar to Berries.

Has anyone tried that out?

[ChiefKiasu]

Pen88n:

... they only offer the idiom and the word recognition classes at their head office. That is what I think ChiefKS's son is attending. These are not tuition class per say, but rather beyond textbook enrichment classes.

Hi Pen88n, you are absolutely right. Thanks for clarifying!

[MMM]

Ljas1370:

Hi ChiefKiasu


I noticed that you've sent your P3 son to Molin. Is it good? Which is better Molin or Tien Hsia? Any particular reason for choosing Molin instead of Tien Hsia??? Many thanks.

My kids has been attending Molin from preschool. My girl only started in K2 and she is in P1 this year. I am a parent who swears by Molin. I feel that it's all thanks to Molin that my P1 girl's chinese std is good and also she is in the best chinese class in a SAP school. Her Molin classmates who also attends the same pri school is also in the best class. That sort of speaks of Molin std I suppose.

Yes, it's academic. But there are fun moments too. They play games during classes so my girl seems to enjoy it. In fact, she didn't appear to have such strong interest in the language prior to Molin. But she now loves the language and at one pt (probably in K2), she said she wants to be a chinese teacher!

My no. 3 (pre-nursery currently) is set to start molin in 2009. I hope that she has a early and stronger foundation as compared to her siblings.

[VooVoo]

MMM:

Ljas1370:

Hi ChiefKiasu


I noticed that you've sent your P3 son to Molin. Is it good? Which is better Molin or Tien Hsia? Any particular reason for choosing Molin instead of Tien Hsia??? Many thanks.

My kids has been attending Molin from preschool. My girl only started in K2 and she is in P1 this year. I am a parent who swears by Molin. I feel that it's all thanks to Molin that my P1 girl's chinese std is good and also she is in the best chinese class in a SAP school. Her Molin classmates who also attends the same pri school is also in the best class. That sort of speaks of Molin std I suppose.

Yes, it's academic. But there are fun moments too. They play games during classes so my girl seems to enjoy it. In fact, she didn't appear to have such strong interest in the language prior to Molin. But she now loves the language and at one pt (probably in K2), she said she wants to be a chinese teacher!

My no. 3 (pre-nursery currently) is set to start molin in 2009. I hope that she has a early and stronger foundation as compared to her siblings.

Hi MMM,

I also signed up my kiddo in the N2 class in 2009!

I really hope it would help to strengthen my child's weak Chinese...

[MMM]

Hi which time slot are you in? My girl is on monday 4.45pm i think.

[VooVoo]

MMM:

Hi which time slot are you in? My girl is on monday 4.45pm i think.

Sun class!

But I have no idea how this class will be conducted! Do you know?

BTW, how many kids per class?

[MMM]

I can only relate from my son’s K1 experience. There is less than 8 in a class …sorry recently my memory is failing me. But definitely not a big class.


I think the teaching is based on theme for that age group. So they learn about the names of various items say within the living room,etc… They also does some art & craft kind of stuff that relates to the topic they are learning. Typically in a molin class for pre-school, teachers expose them to the chinese words, chinese rhymes and those er ge. So the kids are usually able to "memorise" the rhymes and songs. They also have performances for the parents on a regular basis.

Teachers are all native speaker, Principal is a local and so far the teachers that my kids have are pretty loving type and is able to connect with the kids well. My observation is that the teachers will also use simple english to translate to the kids. BTW, all the teachers seem ok so far.

Similar with other courses, if you want to see vast improvements in your child’s chinese, I would suggest that you revise what the teachers taught. One mum that i met told me that her dd started from nursery and she is able to recognise chinese characters in the P4 sister’s textbook.

Prior to molin, my kids (nursery and K1 at that pt) were attending children arts theatre at kembangan plaza. It was featured on the papers before as they have non chinese speakers attending their classes and went on to speak the language. It’s alot more fun but I felt that it wasn’t serious/ "academic" enough particularly when my kids are bilingual and uses both languages well enough. The teachers include people like zhao jin (some guy who appeared on tv saying those xiang seng). So they speak the "perfect" mandarin.

[VooVoo]

Thanks for your detailed info!

[ChiefKiasu]

hquek:

Hi all,


Hokkien Huay Kuan has a arts & cultural centre where they conduct a lot of chinese courses, including a new type called 乐乐华语班 that's supposed to be fairly similar to Berries.

Has anyone tried that out?

Hi hquek, are you referring to the centre in Toa Payoh? My son attended a Sunday speech and drama course there. The courses there are very popular.

[Irene66]

Hi, I am hesitant as to which to send my girl, who is 4 yrs old this yr. She can speak little Mandarin and I hope she can learn through fun.


I called up Eduplus just now and the teacher at Toa Payoh Safra sounded very nice, from her speech, guess she must be a Chinese National. However, they only have one Sunday class for age 4.

Berries is another of my option as it is nearer to home and they have more time slots to choose from.

From the past thread, ChiefKS has suggested Berries for age 3 onwards as it is more fun. Anyone else has advice which one to choose?