Our column is published on 早报 today. We talk about how we disagree with labelling our students and believe in educating them without any judgement. You can read the article here: http://www.zaobao.com.sg/forum/opinion/story20150208-444678
This was from MOE’s Facebook, advising parents to speak good English in front of their kids. I have a point to add. Some parents pride themselves in speaking to their children in English. Little do they realize they are really teaching their kids Singlish. Speak the language you are good at. It can be English[…]
It’s Chinese New Year in less than a week’s time. It’s the Year of the Horse and your annoying relatives will definitely ask you to spew some horse-related greetings before they give you that ang pow. Don’t worry. We are here to help! Memorise these and I guarantee that you will get a lot of[…]
A friend was feeling upset and posted this on Facebook: Life is like grass. 人生如草 We could have consoled her by saying: take care, life’s not that bad and so on. But if you were good in Chinese, you could say: 野火烧不尽 春风吹又生 Sounds more poetic, right? This means the fire can’t burn all the[…]
The Chinese New Year is approaching! When you meet your uncles/aunties/cousins in the extended family, there is one problem. There are so many different terms for them in the Chinese language. Fret not! We have created a cheat sheet for you. Maybe, if you address them correctly, you will get a bigger ang pow! Useful[…]
Do you know 巴刹 is exclusively used in Singapore and Malaysia? It is derived from the Malay word pasar. If you are chatting with Chinese from other nationalities, you should say 菜市场, else they will be wondering who you are intending to kill (since 杀sounds alike) !
Happy Dongzhi (Winter Solstice) Festival! Have you eaten your 湯圓? Do you know why it is called 冬至? If you understand Chinese, the words literally mean “the arrival of winter.” Why do we eat 湯圓? The balls of glutinous rice represents reunion. When I was a kid, I remembered having both sweet and salty 湯圓.[…]
Some students complain about how difficult the Chinese language is. I think the beauty of the language overshadows all reasons why one shouldn’t learn Mandarin. Here’s a good example. This is an English poem. You say that you love rain, but you open your umbrella when it rains. You say that you love the sun,[…]
Always, always think through what you are going to say before speaking. You may not be fluent in the language. It’s OK to have a few seconds of dead air to contemplate your answer. We are not having a radio show so the few seconds of silence is fine. This is better than saying the[…]
Fan is pronounced 风 扇 fēng shàn and not fēng shăn 风闪。 Unless the wind is trying to dodge 闪 you