Learning Chinese, My perspective (English)
Learning Chinese—My perspective by Alice Chan (C5A Teacher)
When I was still young, I had the opportunity to visit the early Ottawa Chinese Language School held in a house. OCLS has been serving the Community faithfully for the past 40 years. In the early days, a group of enthusiastic and dedicated parents would like their children to continue to learn and speak the Chinese Language after immigration to Ottawa, and also to maintain their Chinese traditional culture.
When it’s time for my children to enter school, I have no hesitation to send them to this prestigious Ottawa Chinese Language School. My 3 children are educated with English and French during weekdays same as most school aged children. As parent, we are likely to face the same problem: the children think learning Chinese is too difficult, useless, and it’s so hard, why bother? The complaint turned to become power struggle between parent and children which affects the parent-child relationship.
We have set some guidelines for our children for attending Chinese School:
Advice: explain to them –
(1) China is one of the four ancient civilizations, embodies the essence of the five thousand years of civilization through the process of development. The ancients formed the Chinese characters from shape, sound, and logic to express the meaning, and to integrate ethical standard into the font for its formation. That is why each Chinese Character has rich cultural connotations. Chinese characters are the only remaining texts still using in modern days since its creation. When we are willing to learn Chinese characters and Chinese culture, we are taking the baton to pass on the five thousand years of Chinese Culture to the next generation.
(2) Scientific discovery, we are using both sides of the brain when we are learning to read and write Chinese, which help the brain’s cognitive ability, improve the individual’s IQ, and strengthen the learning ability, thus enhancing the learning of other disciplines too.
(3) Through learning to write and speak Chinese, my children would be able to communicate with grandparents.
(4) When grown up, my children would be able to arm with a 3rd language, English, French, and Chinese. In the future, one would not only limit to work in North America, but may have an opportunity to work in Southeast Asia with the language advantage.
Rewards: Should they attend Chinese school and complete their homework willingly, they will be rewarded with extra trip to visit their beloved McDonald for lunch.
House Rule: Anyone of our children must be seriously to study Chinese up to sixth grade, before they are allowed the opportunity to choose not to continue to learn Chinese. In fact, the reason behind this rule is to help the children to develop perseverance and seriousness towards learning and work ethics, so that when they encounter difficulties, they don’t give up easily. Poet Li Bai had thought of giving up learning while he was young. One day he saw an old lady bending down on the ground trying to turn an iron rod into a needle by rubbing it against a rock. This old lady’s action inspired Li Bai to continue studying with perseverance. In the end, Li Bai became a great poet of the dynasty.
Doing well for the marks is not the most important thing on my agenda. But I required my children to try their best and completed all the homework that the teacher entrusted them.
On the day of my eldest son’s graduation from the sixth grade, I said to him: “Congratulations! You have been working hard in the past, and graduate today. Dad and Mom are proud of you. Now you have a choice to continue in the seventh grade or not to continue learning Chinese. ” He thought for a moment and told me that Chinese is not that difficult after all, he wanted to continue for one more year. Since then, year after year, and finally completed the tenth grade curriculum. All three children completed tenth grade curriculum, but they had to stop due to heavy workload of day school homework. They continue to practice Chinese at their leisure. Even though they speak Chinese with a slight foreign accent, they are able to communicate with others in Chinese without much problem. It is because they were willing to learn Chinese which laid a foundation for them. Because of that, they didn’t encounter as much difficulties as they taught English in China, and work on summer jobs to gain work experiences in Hong Kong during their university years. Every time they communicate with the grandparents in Chinese, the grandparents are excited.
Parents, you have an important responsibility, do not give up, perseverance, and encourage your children to learn the language and the 5000 years of Chinese heritage. Your children will thank you some day
Students, continue to work hard, have perseverance, do not give up but make efforts to learn Chinese, the traditional Chinese characters, and the 5,000 years of culture. Hope you can pass on the Chinese heritage to the next generation and let the Chinese culture flourish.
Times flies, I have been teaching in Chinese schools for fifteen years already. Every time I see the students’ eagerness to learn, my heart is excited. In fact, teaching students to know everything from the textbooks is not difficult at all, the difficulty is how they apply it from their learning. It’s even more difficult for us who are living in this democratic society, everyone advocates about their own human rights and personal interests. How can we help our students to understand to live their life with balance and truthfulness.
If you pay attention to the OCLS school crest, there are 4 words in the middle—(樂群) enjoy being with others, (尚學) eager to Learn. Here’s the meaning from the web:
“Eager to learn” is derived from the Old Tang book saying: “The people do not learn, do not know.” “Learning” can be interpreted as knowledge and learning. “Eager to Learn” advocates one should love to learn, respect knowledge, the pursuit of knowledge for understanding, and thus to contribute to society. Today, “Eager to Learn” requires us to pay attention to learning, learning to learn, but also to learn to live, learn to be a good and noble people of character in this modern society.
“Enjoy being with others” Enjoy learning, working and living in harmony with people. It is a viewpoint in life of social ethics focus on peace and kindness. Teachers are members of the civilized society groups, be gracious to others, respect others, have integrity and to establish three images:
(1) “Be literate”– to consciously study and learning, and constantly improve your own literacy, to be intellectuals in modern times;
(2) “Noble person”– open-minded, willing to work together, act the best in our role, deal with all kinds of social relations, to show our good qualities.
(3) “Unity-keeper”– to treat the school as your family, to love the school, to maintain a good education system, and actively promote school reputation. Advocated love and unity, work truthfully together, encourage others, teamwork, humble, kind, and demonstrate teachers’ Good Deeds and Words
Hope that OCLS students enjoy being with others and eager to learn the Chinese Language through the encouragement from the teachers and parents. May the students be able to learn diligently, mature in making decisions, work well with others and be a contributor to the society. l have a wish hoping one day to be able to see one or two students be back to OCLS to teach the next generation of students the Chinese Language and the five thousand years of Chinese culture!
Wish a Happy 40 years of anniversary to the Ottawa Chinese Language School and every success in the future!
Posted in For Parents 給家長的話, For Students 給學生的話 by lotus2015 with comments disabled.