Did anyone actually *enjoy* Chinese school?

burntbread · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 37 Location: London

I certainly didn't and couldn't wait to stop going! It seemed like I would my behind off studying for 'English' school and just when it seemed like I w as getting a break it was time for a car ride and yet more lessons!

OK it was good meeting up with friends and going yum char afterwards but still... :)

The downside of that is, of course, having very bad Cantonese now which I'm sure would be better had I stuck to those damn Chinese school lessons!

hiro · Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Posts: 22 Location: London

My wife and I would like our future child to learn Chinese, but it seems to me that most children that go to Chinese school don't really enjoy it or see the point of it, and only later on realise that it was a missed opportunity to learn Chinese at an age when language learning happens the most easily.

Did anyone actually enjoy Chinese school and speak/write to a good level of Chinese as a result? Do people with experience of going to Chinese school have ideas for what could make it more interesting or seem more relevant to children?

Jeff Minter · Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 342

I really don't see the point, in effect it's promoting division between BBCs and the rest of the country. Our families have made an effort to live here, why shouldn't we completely adopt and "become" british? Not to mention childhood is supposed to be mostly fun and games, and not a time to go to two schools learning two separate and distant cultures, especially when the workload for kids are increasing nowadays.

Finally, as an euro centric country it would be more wiser to learn many of the european languages, at least the important ones - French, German before learning Chinese.

assis104s · Joined: 31 Mar 2003 Posts: 145

hi jeff,
an interesting question. why do you think we should assimilate? I tried to when I was younger, and hated Chinese school because of that. As Hiro said now I'm regretting it as I feel that I missed out on a large part of my identity and heritage.

With China becoming such a major power, surely it's more important to learn it than ever before?

hiro · Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Posts: 22 Location: London

Hi Jeff,

The reason why I would like my child to speak Chinese is that my wife is from the Mainland and her entire family (who live over there) don't speak English, and I would like for the child to be able to have a proper relationship with those family members. Nowadays it's much easier to travel back and forth to China and therefore maintaining links back to China is easier than it was back in the 60s and 70s.

Obviously being multilingual is a benefit in terms of career or future mobility, and that the Chinese language is part of the Chinese identity which my wife in particular would like to pass on, but the family issue is the main one.

Jeff Minter · Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 342

So it's just different circumstances between us then. If you feel it's more important to maintain ties with China, whether it's for family relations or just "being home", then it seems the best choice. I just don't see why a lot of Chinese families with BBC kids feel the need for them to carry on with maintaining links when they were raised up without them, in all but the occasional mention from parents.

It's interesting to see how different families are adjusting to a new generation of descendants which are native to the UK; when I grew up all my immediate family were around the UK to some extent, of course my cousin twice removed, etc were all in HK or China, but I myself never felt the need to remain ties with them.

That's not a case of shying away from roots, or shunning ancestors, but rather a case of different families, living different lives on separate sides of the world.

burntbread · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 37 Location: London

It is not maintaining links it is the very practical reason of helping kids maintain their Chinese language - the language their parents and extended families speak and the language they may need in later life if they choose to return to the family home (in HK or wherever). Every bbc I know who has less than good Cantonese regrets not learning at an earlier age.

British families who move abroad to non-English speaking countries almost without exception send their kids to English or western schools. Not just half a day a week but *every* day. In contrast a Chinese school is NOT an alternative to regular schooling, it is supplemental to it.

The question here is not should there be Chinese school, unless Jeff minter is adopting the rather odd stance of calling for all Chinese schools to be closed down (!).

The issue is how can you make them appealing to kids so that those few hours spent a week are enjoyable and something to look forward to, rather than a chore.

Otherwise, it will come down to regular TVB viewing and HK podcasts!

Jeff Minter · Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 342

burntbread · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 37 Location: London

No, of course most kids don't choose to go to Chinese school. Not many children would voluntarily choose to do an extra day of reading and writing lessons but this doesn't mean it isn't beneficial in the long run.

The point is could the 1-day a week Chinese school concept be made more fun and appealing so that kids *do* want to go and also enjoy it. I went, didn't enjoy it, then later on I chose not to go.

You 'kids should do whatever they want until their teenage years' is a little weird, to be honest.

Jeff Minter · Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 342

Isn't that a question for the teachers though? Like our school curriculum now, boys are more disinterested than girls because there isn't much "hands on" stuff in the teaching content.

burntbread · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 37 Location: London

Hello, yes I think poetry and painting also exist amongst Chinese people. I'm pretty sure the last time I looked.

What you actually said was kids should be allowed to do *whatever* they want until their teenage years. Great if they want to be painters & poets. Not so great if they want to drop out of school, smoke spliff all day, have a baby at age 10 or steal cars.

Like I said its a bit weird to think kids should be allowed to do *whatever* they want until their teenage years, which is what you said.

ling_1981 · Joined: 07 Apr 2007 Posts: 4 Location: London

Apologies for this long post but I had alot to say about my experience in Chinese school...

I’m a BBC and I grew up, up north and there is not a big Chinese community in comparison to London. At English school you would find only 2/3 Chinese people in the entire school (which tends to be either my brother/sister and off course myself… LOL) and I knew I was different to the English kids.

My parents thought it would be good for my brother, sister and myself to go to Chinese school at the age of 3 to learn how to speak, write and listen the Chinese language and to meet other kids just like me.

I loved going to Chinese school every Sunday from an early age. I used to set up my own homework and I was very eager to learn as much as I could as I wanted to be able to communicate well to my family and relatives back in China. I wanted to learn how to have a proper conversation with my family without having to struggle, I wanted to learn how to write letters so that I could let my relatives in China know how we were doing etc.

I was a very bright student in Chinese school; I used to always come on top in exams. At an early age, I wanted to become a Chinese school teacher. I wanted to take the Chinese schools education to another level as I believe that the way I was taught in Chinese school was very bad. It is nothing like the French classes you would take in English secondary school. For example: you would learn to read poems, and then you would have to learn it off by heart and read and write that same poem… I did not see how reading poem like stories would help me in the real world so at the age of 13, I quit Chinese school. I didn’t want to waste any more time on a crappy Chinese school education.

I remember one time the Chinese headmistress had offered me to take the Chinese GCSE exam paper. She gave me a sneaky preview of a previous exam paper and the first questions were write the Chinese characters for Dictionary, Chopstick etc. I had no idea how to write these simple words because we were never taught them. We learnt how to read stupid poetry stories! And that was the turning point to leave!!!

I’m 26 years old now and I learnt more how to speak the language from my parents and from watching Chinese soaps/films. My Cantonese is still very bad til this day and my listening and understanding skills is much higher than my speaking which can be very frustrating when I want to say something but don’t know speak it.

My point is that I think every Chinese kid should go to Chinese school… even though I had somewhat a bad experience; I would still take my child (even if I have my child is mixed-race) to Chinese school. As I look back, I did have loads of fun in Chinese school but that was because of the friends I made who were similar to me... a BBC, parents who owned a take away etc. They had a similar upbringing to me and we had that common ground. I made 2 brilliant Chinese friends from the age of 3 and we are still friends til this day even though we are now grown up doing our own thing.

I think when your child grows a bit older (maybe during their teenage years), then you should allow them the freedom to make a choice if they still want to go to Chinese school or not….

Note:
The teachings in Chinese School were crap in my days so I don’t know if the Chinese education has changed or not… for the future of our kids I hope they have a better Chinese education then what I got…

Jeff Minter · Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 342

carolso · Joined: 26 Jun 2006 Posts: 5 Location: oxford

What an interesting topic! Indeed I am a teacher in the Chinese school so maybe I can offer some different views.

I know that many student dont really want to go to Chinese school and they are all forced by their parents. Some of them even hate the langauge because of the Chinese school, but deep inside they know that they are Chinese and they feel like learning Chinese is something they have to do.

Whether chinese kids or BBC should learn Chinese is a difficult question, and I would say it all depends on individual situation. For some of my students their extended families are still in HK or mainland China and they need to learn the langauge if they are going to communicate with their relatives. And surprisingly my students indeed love HK popular cultures and they really like listening to and singing Cantonese songs, what they dont like is wasting time in Sunday Chinese school while everybody else can have a holiday or a day out during the weekend.

I think theoretically it is nothing wrong for Chinese kids to learn Chinese, and learning a language is always useful. There is now some studies showing that multilingualism has lots of advantages and even the government encourage the use of community langauges in classroom, stating that this could help students to think and understand different issues. Learning the native language is a bit different from learning european languages, it is not only for practical use but also about one's identity. I always think that learning a language is learning a culture, and it is important for the students to learn their own culture, and also the differences between the western cultures and Chinese cultures.

In my Chinese school we try hard to integrate the practices in the mainstream schools to Chinese education, so not to confuse the students by introducing two different cultures to them. It is always difficult but I am sure the conflicts can be solved if we could handle this issue carefully.

Some parents think that now people are all crazy with learning Mandarin and if their kids dont learn their native language, soon they will loss the advantages of bilingualism. It is a shame if a non-native know more chinese culture than a BBC or native chinese.

Learning Chinese could be boring and it could occupy the most valuable time that kids should have, but we can always make lessons more enjoyable. Most of the kids are happy with the extra curriculum activities and they find learning to make Chinese papercut very enjoyable, and it is one of the way they can learn their own culture. Chinese school is not just about learning the language, it should be a point of contact and a community which Chinese people can gather together. I think most of the kids enjoy seeing their Chinese friends at school.

sandmanching · Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 1:02 am Post subject:

l enjoyed my chinese lessons immensely, reading chinese comics like master q, tony wong's tiger dragon gate and other martial art manhuas and of course the great novels of kum lung and gu lung which most martial arts soap operas are based on...but then l didn't go to chinese school.
while not many chinese like going to chinese lessons, some british schools are teaching chinese...funny old world...
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