Friday, April 18, 2008

How students view Chinese?

I am now in the computer lab with a bunch of students, trying to drive me crazy. So I asked them this question: Do they like Chinese?

Hmm, they gave me a list of answers, and extortions.

1. It is boring. Why is it boring? I do not know. Maybe my lessons are not interesting enough. But, haha, this is what I assume, is it true? Students, pls comment.

2. Next I asked them if my CT, Zhang Laoshi taught better, they tried to extort me by asking me to treat them to Mocca, and then they will be nice to you, and remember you. haha.. Will I succumb to threats? What do you think, students?

3. Do they like to type their Chinese Blog? Hmm, I think not, they dislike to write out in Chinese, cos they dislike to write out the "一笔一划”(quoted by student E). They also do not like to type it out cos they think it is difficult to spell out the hanyu pinyin, and a waste of time typing out word by word.

4. My question is: why do they think it is not a hassle to type in English? That is because they have adapted themselves to typing out English, and they have mastered enough vocabulary and Singlish to type out a so-called posting on a blog. The main distinction between myself and my students is that I have mastered more words than them over the years, so I do not experience as much difficulty as them, having to go through word by word to identify the correct word. That is also why you would have realized that most of their Chinese blogs under my link have many vocabulary mistakes. And as there is no online dictionary to their knowledge that they can utilize. and due to laziness to check a hardcopy Dictionary, it is difficult for them to be able to type out a good post, unless they have mastered a good command of Chinese vocabulary.

5. Chinese characters is one of the most difficult language and writing system worldwide, but I always believe that if "Angmohs" and "Africans" can master Chinese, as their 2nd Language, then I have confidence that my students will have the ability to master this language if they put in enough effort. Jiayou bah, students. That's all, folks!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

feel that chinese is interesting :) dun worry,most of ur lessons r interesting :) jia yous! u can do it~~~