Sunday, December 09, 2007 @11:06 am
['nita] omg, i could sue you for stalking me! very funny :p hope you're enjoy your holiday ;)[sunthai] sunny!!! long time no see/talk! harlow!!! catch up soon k! must chase all the clouds away :p[prinz] gratulieren. jetzt hast du frei! und für eine ganz lange zeit...! musst du gut geniessen! :)[guojun] tsktsk. du willst du sein aber es muss auch ein balance geben :p jede woche besoffen...also das verstehe ich nicht...es macht kein spass...lol[ly] HIHI!!! wow, haven't spoken to you in eons! i'm good and enjoy my hols loads! :D hope you're doing well yourself too![deb] you're going to egypt, whats there to roar about you lucky girl?! i know you'll miss me, but hey! its egypt! lol. enjoy! :D[yinghui] darling junior! aren't you honoured! you told me to update and here i am! well, i'm busy with some essay, with i shall write you a long long essay once i'm done with that :p ha, and ask you out after that too. save your boredom :p hols ain't meant for you to feel bored!ok, now for me to air my views and give my many pence worth on things :)Singapore drew with Malaysia, 1-1, in seagames soccer and qualified for the semifinals. Well done, but in my opinion, it was a lousy match! The referee was so kayu he denied us two penalties and conveniently ignored a number of fouls! I was pretty impressed by some players, but it very much reminded me of watching JC soccer...international soccer being compared to JC soccer? not good...lol
oh well, semis against thailand on tuesday...we've drawn with them before, they've walked off before...so I suppose we do have a chance...(:
Next - the languauge competency of school teachers.
A concerned parent wrote in to the papers and MOE after hearing a kindergarten teacher say "Can I helptch you?". And now, all pre-school teachers who scored below a B3 in English for their O levels will have to go for some 40 hour enrichment course. While its good to see that measure are being taken, its hard to teach old dogs new tricks. A 40 hour course would hardly be sufficient to make a difference to people who've been mispronouncing and misusing English words their whole life. There'll probably be a change some one or two weeks after the course, afterwhich the old dogs will decide that it is just too much effort and revert back to their old ways.
Furthermore, the problem permeates all levels of education. In my experience, teachers in Primary school can still speak good English, but its a different matter when it comes to Secondary school and JC. Somehow, HR has the idea that if you're not an English language teacher, it doesn't really matter whether you can speak good English or not. This may be true to a certain extent. I have had brilliant science and maths teachers. They were the best in their field and delivered their lessons excellently, albeit in broken English. But this doesn't do much for the language abilities of the students. It is impossible to expect students to speak good English, when the only good English their exposed to is the 1 hour of English lessons they have everyday. This is especially so for students who don't come from an English speaking family. 80% of their cirriculum is taught in English, but 70% of this is taught in broken English. How then are they supposed to be able to speak good English?
There isn't the same problem with Chinese. All Chinese teachers have degrees in the study of the Chinese language, and are thus experts in their fields. If we're serious about having a nation of people who can speak proper English, we have to first ensure that our students are exposed to good English at all times.
you know you love me