Joy: glad to hear that you enjoyed your trip! So you'll be coming back home to Singapore next year when your son starts P1?
Tam: Thank you very much for pointing me to your URL! I think it is very useful. I'm very impressed with the tips you put on your website, will try them out someday.
Actually when I wrote that last post regarding Chinese compositions, I was only referring to quick, stop-gap measures to help pupils cram for exams...they wouldn't have the time to read so many books and pick up the nuances of the language, so the best method in the short-term would be to just memorise writing a few expressions and plug them into the essays wherever appropriate.
But I totally agree, the better way is to start them off by reading Chinese storybooks, and by getting them to read widely. Haha, I suppose I am guilty as charged- I come from an English speaking family so I always had this impression that reading Chinese books wasn't very easy. Thanks for enlightening me on that point. I guess sometimes I can be a bit too exam-focussed.
By the way, Tam- yes regarding one of your earlier posts, that many parents these days want their children to live other people's lives, I couldn't agree more- a lot of parents place unrealistic demands on their children...thanks for the reminder...I guess it is good for all of us to remember to just love children for who they are.
Anyway, being a "professor, lawyer, banker, doctor or CEO" may not be that good. I can't really speak for the other professions, but now that I am doing my PHD I realise that it is very challenging being a professor...for one, it's hard to get tenure (i.e., job security may not be there), and there is the constant stress of having to publish in the "A" Journals. Not sure if parents really want that kind of stress for their children.