Date: Feb 24, 2022

Wow! It’s been a couple of month that I have not got time to tidy up my photo album, that means, I have not been writing any blog entries. My last entry is back in Sep 2021. Since my photo album is bigger, I will need to clean it, move photos around otherwise I will have problem with my iPhoto with large diskspace problem.

Let’s talk about my younger son, Kay.

Kay is now in Secondary School. He has in Dunearn Secondary School, taking the express class. He is very happy in this school. Everyday, he will walk home from school which is about 25min walking distance for him. About 1km, which I will take about 15min. hahaha

Kay is a changed person as soon as he enters the secondary school. He is now taking full charge of his own study, homework, etc. Just like his brother Jay. That is why I don’t have to spent much time on their school work. Which explain why I can play golf sometimes up to 5 days a week. 🙂

However, there is this subject that I will need to help him with. Which is his weakness. Yup, that’s right, it is the Chinese. So, his test is coming up. And we have 6 days to prepare for this test.

There are 29 new words to learn and remember for the first chapter test.

I still find that making the FLASH CARDS for him is a nice strategies. Of course, if you ask them to write and make the flash cards, you Tang Gu Gu (wait long long)… So, one fine day, I came back from work, I made all these for him.

Wow, some words are really hard.

Behind the flash cards are the Han Yu Pin Yin.

The reason why I have the Han Yu Pin Yin is because, one section of the test is to write down the chinese word with the given Han Yu Pin Yin. Later I found out from my friend that some secondary school no longer give Ting Xie (听写). So, I am glad that the Chinese department of Dunearn Secondary school actually think this Ting Xie is important.

This is the sample of the Ting Xie portion. They give you the Han Yu Pin Yin, then, you write down the Chinese words.

Taking the Chinese Test has to be very tactful nowadays.

Know your weakness and strengthen the one you can get points.

填写词语 is the Ting Xie I am talking about. out of 29 words, you need to get 5 words correctly and score the 10 points our of 50.

The 语用（8选6）is understanding the usage of these chinese words. Usually Kay can get 60-80% correct.

完成句子 is totally based on luck. If he reads the text book and can memorise the text book, usually you can score some point. But I don’t think he can get this right. So, this is a weakness.

综合填空 is the multiple choice. so, usually he can get 60-80% correct too.

The real weakness is the 理解文。And this I also don’t know how to help him. If the passage is simple, usually he can get 20-40% right. If the passage is really hard, he probably can get 10%-20%. hahahaha And for secondary one, you have the 语文描述，外貌描述，心里描述 and 行动描述 and the 比喻句 questions. So, it is no longer like PSLE like that, copy whole sentence to score points. You really need to understand what the passage is talking about.

Luckily he brought back a last year test paper, and we are able to go thru the paper. And I know exactly how to teach him.

The test is on Wednesday. And On Tuesday, I happened to go home earlier. He was very happy. The teacher actually give Ting Xie （听写）. And he told me that 15 out of 25 classmates has to stay back to relearn the words. He says he also stay back to “help” his friends to learn the Chinese words.

Then I asked, “So, how much you score in your Ting Xie? How come I didnt know there is this Ting Xie?”

He very proud and tell me, he score 24 out of 30 words. There is an extra words the teacher gave but it is not on the word list.

That is very very good!! And he even help out other weaker students.

Today, I checked his notebook. And his handwrittings has improve by a lot!!!! The words are neat now compared to the PSLE period.

He has been practising too!

Back in the old days, usually, if you ask him to practise 5 pages, he will only do that 5 pages. But when I take a look at the notebook. He has been really practising. Even when the nights I was not around, he has been practising. That is a big plus point.

Some how he has found his motivations to learn Chinese.

So, I asked him what he feels he can get.

He confidently says, he won’t fail.

I am happy. I am happy because he has taken responsibility to learn the Chinese.

No matter what marks he gets, i am happy, because I see his efforts. That is all it matters.