Choices: Studying Chinese in high school
Yep, it’s official. I’m doing high school Chinese (albeit without the more leet literature component that some folks in my class are doing), and two lessons into it I’m thinking it’s a really good choice.
It’s with no small degree of regret that I look back on my studies back in junior high, particularly for mathematics and Chinese. Still I try to make up for it (I actually do my math tutorials now, albeit extremely painstakingly because of my inaptitude), and with encouragement (and some pressure) from my parents I have finally decided to continue Chinese studies in high school despite the rather large amount of curriculum time required (roughly 3.25 hours a week) and the necessary time investment for homework.
Somehow I feel this strange similarity between my mother (Chinese-educated and an arts student), and the two Chinese teachers with the most impact on my life (Miss Niu and my current teacher, Mdm Ong). Does studying Chinese (or perhaps arts, in general) make one a more sensitive, expressive, emotionally-developed and articulate individual? I do believe that in one way or another, the study of Chinese (or humanities subjects in a Chinese medium) differentiates one from others studying say English or humanities in English. Perhaps it’s more perceived than actual, but somehow or other the difference in attitude and for lack of a better word, ‘feel’, makes me feel somewhat reassured.
Today the teacher spent some time talking about technocrats and Kreta Ayer and stuff, and talked a lot about the lesson at hand, of course. I won’t go into details here but I spent over an hour talking to my mum about Chinatown and her childhood there. I’m really glad I had talked to her, and I guess with the thought-provoking passages in the textbook I’ll be spending more time talking to her about them in the future.
Sometimes I wonder what would it have been like had I scored an A for Higher Chinese O level. Perhaps like many others of my contemporaries who managed to do so I would have thrown the skills and education I had received over ten long years of formal schooling in the subject to the back of my mind (if not completely out of it). Gradually I would lose even the ability to make myself understood in spoken Mandarin Chinese. That is in my current view, completely tragic. What good is an A1 for a LANGUAGE exam subject if you can’t even speak the language passably? And it’s not as if we’re mute or something.
I still have a lot to learn. With luck I would be wise to see what I have yet to learn, and to keep on trying to learn it. Or perhaps it’s not luck I need but effort and a little touch of fate.
Oh and flak, do come up with some ideas. I happen to be pretty brain-dead at the moment w.r.t creative stuff. I can’t brainstorm to save my life. Please help me out. Thanks!