Hi Daisyt and Mathsparks,


I know this may not fit this topic, but can you or your child give the following a go? I want an opinion. Do you think this is easy or difficult for Express Chinese (not HCL)?

综合填空

人人都 Q1 (渴望 向往 期待 盼望)被理解，但理解在哪儿呢?它无形无色，抽象得不可 Q2 (捉摸 思议 理喻 分析)。然而，理解对于人生又那么重要。难怪人人都希望能被理解，人人都觉得自己被人理解得太少，感到生活中更多的是误解、曲解、费解，甚至是大惑不解。人世间之所以有很多 Q3 ( 利害 隔阂 分歧 迷惑)和矛盾，就是由于缺乏理解造成的啊!

理解尽管玄妙，但却也 Q4 (掺杂 混合 渗透 出现)在我们生活之中。音乐会上的掌声，雪天送来的炭火，对走路不便的老人的搀扶，献给失败者的鲜花，Q5 (志同道合 风雨同舟 一帆风顺 同心协力)的伴侣等等，还有很多，不知道你可曾留意过。

为了 Q6 (增加 增添 补充 弥补)孤父寡母自己无法替代的感情，子女主动为他们牵线搭桥，寻找伴侣; 自己虽然被打倒了，但却赢得对手的佩服，这比同伴的 Q7 (鼓掌 欢呼 赞美 喝彩)更令人激奋。有些人相处了一辈子，彼此仍不甚了解; 有些人只需要一道眼波，双方便 Q8 (心心相印 相濡以沫 同甘共苦 温故知新)。有些人宁可要一个聪明的敌人， 也不愿意要一个愚蠢的朋友。有一些人一 Q9 (片 副 颗 套)铁石心肠，却被一声问候叩开了泪的闸门。这些，不正是理解在起作用吗?

理解事物是困难的，理解人更困难。你得 Q10 (忍受 忍心 忍耐 残忍)，探求，斗争，甚至做出牺牲。

xxjustakidxx:

MintLeaf:

...But for RV, Daisyt has shared that her DD will only take CL in Sec 4 (earlier posts in this thread). So it seems it may differ for IP schools.

And its not CL, its HCL (in HCI)

Thanks xxjustakidxx! So RV should also be doing HCL in Sec 4. So it seems in IP schools, HCL students will just skip 'O' Level CL.

blitz:

Thanks Mintleaf and S-H for the confirmation.

You are welcome. Hope all S1 parents' accounts are working now. You should be able to see the result page set up properly now. The results are already trickling in for my DS. In Studywiz, I also see lots of materials to review.

SoWoW:

sorry wat recommendations from Daisyt?

I wanted to summarise for you, but I think it's better that you read her original comments. Start from page 1 of this thread and look for all Daisyt's postings.

Hi cafelatte, thanks for the tip on dangdang. The page numbers helped a lot.

daisyt:

Yes, you are right on the tution but strong at Chinese .... hhmmm ... she is above average ... She used to have in primary sch and now in sec school, very motivating and interesting Chinese teachers.

Thanks for confirming.

daisyt:

And sorry for giving the wrong title 窗前 - 窗边 :oops:

你一直非常帮忙。谢你都来不及呢。

julongmum:

Pupils taking higher Chinese take Chinese exam at sec 3 mid yr. These were my understandings.....

I believe it's end of Sec 3 that HCL students take the CL exam. Ooptimzer did vet this statement at the Maris Stella thread (page 5). Some schools even check the students' results before giving them the green light to proceed with HCL at Sec 4. But for RV, Daisyt has shared that her DD will only take CL in Sec 4 (earlier posts in this thread). So it seems it may differ for IP schools.

cafelatte:

is it 窗前的小豆豆 or 窗边的小豆豆 ?

Well done! You spotted the difference. I searched for 窗前的小豆豆 and hit a lot of China web sites, hence did not notice the difference even when I was reading from the URL ks2me provided.

cafelatte:

Coincidentally, I ordered 窗边的小豆豆 from dangdang.

How did you pay for your purchase at dangdang? Did you use a credit card issued in Singapore or ...?

cafelatte:

KSP with Secondary school children taking Chinese
Were your kids taking Chinese enrichment/tution in primary school ?
How about now, still taking Chinese tution ? If so, which center or is it private tutor ?

I supposed KSP stands for KiaSu Parents? There is a forummer named KSP. :roll: To answer yours and SoWoW's questions, we teach our kids everything except English Language. But we did put them through one year of Chinese tuition at Jiang Education when they were in primary school. DS managed to move up to B3 last year but he is pretty inconsistent as can be seen from my earlier posts.

I am trying to follow some of Daisyt's recommendations. Her DD is really strong at Chinese and I think she does not go for tuition. Daisyt, am I right?

schellen:

1. That was for uni alone. The prep course was 10 years later and only once a week. My classmates and I in uni used to complain how unfair it was that we had to go to sch everyday while our friends taking other Arts faculty subjects (who cld plan their own schedules) cld have 3-or4-day weeks.

I was really amused when I read this. If it's any consolation, many faculties our time have packaged programs and daily lessons. Some people have to repeat one whole year because of one subject. I remembered first year engineering students failing all eight subjects, re all eight (what did re stand for?) and still failed, after which they have to leave the University.

schellen:

2. We had individual headsets and recording units. Each class had about 20 students. We taped from a master which the teacher wld play from her own unit. The teacher wld also quiz us individually but she chose the settings where everyone cld hear so mistakes and admonishments were rather embarrassing.

The laboratory at the University seemed quite sophisticated for that time. We were at a holding site before moving to the brand new building at Winstedt Road but even then, the new site was not as equipped. Lessons were usually conducted in a classroom environment. But our sensei were not that fierce. I had one Indian teacher who learnt Japanese during World War 2, one Singaporean lady teacher who was a part time TV personality and a Japanese lady teacher. Were your lecturers PhD holders?

schellen:

3. I used Otsukaresama deshita, Osakini shitsureishimasu, Ittekimasu, Itterasshai, etc. Sayounara was not used and I believe you understand why.

But we did use さようなら initially among ourselves in Singapore. After all, we used to say 先生さようなら in unison. It was only during a 3-month stint in Japan that I realised I was supposed to say お疲れ様でした。Our Japanese team leader would then reply with ご苦労様でした。I know about お先に失礼します, but I seldom used it. I have not been taught いってきますthough. When we were staying with the hosting family in Sec 3, we would practise ただいま、お帰りなさい、行って参ります、行っていらっしゃい、いただきます、ご馳走様でした、etc but never お疲れ様でした。Hence, I would say, the overall program was not adequate to prepare us for the business world. And for email communication, there is another whole lot of greetings like いつもお世話になります。I did not have to write many Japanese emails. We tend to read (manuals) more than write in Japanese. You definitely have an edge over us with your training and experience.

blitz:

For the upcoming test on 26th Friday, the boys go home immediately after that right?

Yes, they do. However, on the last CA day, the schedule would revert to normal.

cyberpie:

There is a student there who is fairly disruptive and mischievous ... and I just want to know if my DS is the only victim of his antics ...

I agree with ooptimizer. You may want to probe/bring up the matter during the meet-the-parent session after CA.

skyjuice:

Anyone's boys entered MS via DSA? Applying to MS this yr with bowling for my second boy. Just wondering if there's anything we should be aware of. How many vacancies available for DSA etc?

I know of one case where the child got in through DSA, but his T-score placed him in the Normal stream. There was nothing the school could do to help him. He eventually went to Sports School.

Hi SoWoW, I have 新世纪高级汉语词典 but it's not specific to 成语。 I go online nowadays. Some URLs I use are as follows.


http://tool.httpcn.com/ChengYu/
http://www.chazidian.com/cy/
http://www.zdic.net/cy/

For the 3 URLs above, you can also check 字 and 词 besides 成语。The URLs I have given leads you directly to 成语, but just click on 字典 or 词典 at the page to check word or phrase accordingly.

For generic search, I would use
http://dict.youdao.com/
http://www.iciba.com/

schellen:

I used cassette tapes too. We had Jap lessons everyday for Reading 1, Reading 2, Conversation 1, Conversation 2 and Lab.

Wow! That was intensive. Was that during the University days or the JLPT 2 preparation you did 10 years later?

schellen:

In Lab, we had to bring tapes for recording too. We also watched language videos.

What was the lab like, as in, headset only or headset and individual recording unit? And were you recording your own reading or recording something from a master unit?

By the way, at your previous job, did you use 挨拶 like ご苦労様でした、お疲れさまでした or さようなら or was English the medium for general greetings in the office?

schellen:

I didn't touch Jap for another 10 yrs or so until my friends got me interested to take JLPT2 again. My DH, sashimi, got interested in anime and gunpla so he would often ask me to translate his hobby mags. Constant usage and a very gd teacher in the prep course for JLPT2 helped me to pass. My last job was in a Jap company so daily usage was very helpful too, although the terms I constantly used are more for business usage.

Good for you. It's hard work to pass JLPT2. My ex-colleagues at the first company I worked for, tried to get me interested then but it didn't work. These people paid for their own Japanese lessons. They didn't learn Japanese as a third language or through a course in the University.

My third language batch took the first JLPT test in Singapore. I only remembered one person passing level 2 then. She was a PSLE PM book prize winner who consistently excelled at languages but chose the Science faculty instead. We didn't have LKY award during our time. I understand she is now a teacher at Nan Hua High School.

I believed we were killed by the listening test. In those days, we used casette tapes and our teacher would read the lessons herself and record them. The teacher would then manually duplicate those tapes for us. All these effort to ensure we learn the correct pronunciation. Low cost mini compo with dual tape deck weren't that rampant then, so duplicating audio resource required access to pretty decent equipment. And we did not really have other audio reference materials besides the teacher's personal recordings. It was under such circumstances that our classmate passed JLPT 2.

Given her talent, it was ironical that she did not pursue a humanities degree or the 文部省 scholarship. A number of people went for the scholarship which provided an opportunity to study in Japan for 5 years and complete a degree course. Two of them were my classmates at some point of time. One graduated with an Engineering degree, but I could not remember what the other one, who was a PROMSHO scholar, majored in. I believe MOE still offers a number of scholarships to Japan a year.

Generally, there are a couple of changes to the system that I am puzzled by. First the requirement for prior knowledge of Chinese to read Japanese as a third language. One of my classmates did Malay as a second language and had no problem keeping up. The second thing I can not understand is the Japanese H2 course. Most people I know would simply go for the scholarship to Japan if they want to go beyond JLPT 2 equivalent.

I guess our education system is just constantly evolving.

ks2me:

Did you ask them? I remember seeing it before.


I believe this is an abridged version because it is quite short, you can get to read it here first if you still cannot get the book:

http://www.dreamkidland.cn/cpgs/xgl/index.html

I didn't ask them. Popular was quite crowded on Sunday. Many kiasu parents were there to buy assessment books for upcoming CA. I was one of them but 顺便 check out the story books. And you perceived correctly that I wanted to take a look first. Second World War stories tend to be melancholy, miserable and sad, that's why I was hesitant even though it was highly recommended.

Thanks for the URL. I read the first chapter briefly and have already found funny moments. Quite tickled by her original ambition to be a spy versus a ticket inspector.

daisyt:

Its ordered by the school for all years 1.

Thanks for the information. I will try asking Popular first, but now I have a backup plan to get DD to enlist her RV friend's assistance.