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Can moving to Singapore help my 18 month son learn Mandarin?

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ksl
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Post by ksl » Sun, 20 Feb 2011 6:11 pm

Eau2011 wrote:
sundaymorningstaple wrote:According to those in the know, the majority's Mandarin is as bad as their English. It more commonly called singdarin and their English is called singlish. Both are atrocious and the government has been running campaigns for years trying to correct it to no avail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singdarin
I was being a bit sarcastic to say their Mandarin is as good as their English.... :devil: because Mandarin is still my mother tongue. :)

So...which language can Singaporeans speak properly, if not English and Mandarin?
Actually those that take Mandarin serious, do not do it in Singapore, when i was in the Beijing Language Institute, i met the mother and her son, someone very high up in the National University, she told me that Singapore was a very poor place to learn Mandarin as English is the focus and Mandarin isn't really at a good standard yet, so she sent her son to China, also because the courses are much cheaper too..

My wife is Taiwanese, they still have traditional Chinese Characters there, though my 10 yr old daughter must settle for simplified Chinese. They wouldn't let her take Mandarin as mother tongue, which i wanted, as English is first language here and father is a Heinz 57 variety, :lol: British, Irish, Welsh and some Spanish I guess with a dash of Scandinavian too floating around :D

It is far too slow here to pick up anything significant in terms of Chinese Mandarin for foreigners, though as a young child talking with other Chinese kids, they adapt easy and pick it up easy, so by all means let the kids start learning. For beneficial and significant study either a course in China or Taiwan, though Taiwan use the Wade Giles system and China have adopted pin yin if i'm not wrong, its been a long long time Since i was in China, it may have changed again.

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Post by nakatago » Sun, 20 Feb 2011 7:33 pm

Eau2011 wrote: So...which language can Singaporeans speak properly, if not English and Mandarin?
oh boy...
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Post by Eau2011 » Sun, 20 Feb 2011 8:32 pm

ksl wrote:
My wife is Taiwanese, they still have traditional Chinese Characters there, though my 10 yr old daughter must settle for simplified Chinese. They wouldn't let her take Mandarin as mother tongue, which i wanted, as English is first language here and father is a Heinz 57 variety, :lol: British, Irish, Welsh and some Spanish I guess with a dash of Scandinavian too floating around :D

It is far too slow here to pick up anything significant in terms of Chinese Mandarin for foreigners, though as a young child talking with other Chinese kids, they adapt easy and pick it up easy, so by all means let the kids start learning. For beneficial and significant study either a course in China or Taiwan, though Taiwan use the Wade Giles system and China have adopted pin yin if i'm not wrong, its been a long long time Since i was in China, it may have changed again.
Yes Pin Yin is used in China.

In China they are even discussing to use traditional Chinese characters again. But I don't think it's feasible. The young generations cannot read traditional Chinese anymore...

I personally think that's one of the biggest culture crime which the communists did to China, changing the traditional Chinese to simplified Chinese.

Yes in Taiwan and Hongkong they still use traditional Chinese, I was lucky because my dad had so many books written in traditinal Chinese and I liked reading the books as a kid. So I have no problems to read books printed in Taiwan or Hongkong, written in traditional Chinese, from right to left, up-down. For my friends it was difficult. :wink:

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Post by Strong Eagle » Sun, 20 Feb 2011 9:28 pm

breedmon wrote:
ksl wrote:
JayCee wrote:Jet Li just admitted he's moved here so his kids will be bilingual (so Singlish and Spandarin count as languages? :lol: )
:lol: Singapore is the worst place in the world to learn Mandarin, you can do much better in Chinatown USA. That's no kidding.

My daughter was born in Taiwan, so we prioritize Mandarin, she is an 'A' student 5th grade in Chinese. But the tuition is shocking in Singapore unless you can find a good one on one teacher and that can be a challenge in itself.

The government is looking to bring in more Chinese teachers, not that it will help much. Singlish and Spandarin is about all they will achieve so I would stick with China Town USA.

Character learning and stroke order is the most difficult part, that you do not get enough of in Singapore.
This is entirely BS. I think it is obvious that most posters in this thread can't even speak Mandarin to begin with.

Singapore does provide a good environment to learn Mandarin since Mandarin has the most number of first language speakers in Singapore; English only the second. And the Singaporean Mandarin accent is say much better than the Malaysian or Hong Kong one for example. Half of China does not even speak Mandarin to begin with.
Speaking of BS, your post fits the description to a T. English is what the public schools use to teach at all grade levels. Have you ever been to a Singapore public school?

Instruction in a student's 'native' language happens once a day for an hour... and 'native' is something of a misnomer, since all Chinese, regardless of dialect spoken at home, learn Mandarin, while all Indians learn Tamil.

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Post by ev-disinfection » Mon, 21 Feb 2011 12:48 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMBJof3X ... re=related

My mandarin is just a bit better than the guy in the video. (above)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGNeKhtU ... re=related

This above video is from SG, i guess these children must have learnt the mandarin in China.

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Post by sgbenben » Mon, 21 Feb 2011 5:53 pm

Eau2011 wrote:
ksl wrote:
My wife is Taiwanese, they still have traditional Chinese Characters there, though my 10 yr old daughter must settle for simplified Chinese. They wouldn't let her take Mandarin as mother tongue, which i wanted, as English is first language here and father is a Heinz 57 variety, :lol: British, Irish, Welsh and some Spanish I guess with a dash of Scandinavian too floating around :D

It is far too slow here to pick up anything significant in terms of Chinese Mandarin for foreigners, though as a young child talking with other Chinese kids, they adapt easy and pick it up easy, so by all means let the kids start learning. For beneficial and significant study either a course in China or Taiwan, though Taiwan use the Wade Giles system and China have adopted pin yin if i'm not wrong, its been a long long time Since i was in China, it may have changed again.
Yes Pin Yin is used in China.

In China they are even discussing to use traditional Chinese characters again. But I don't think it's feasible. The young generations cannot read traditional Chinese anymore...

I personally think that's one of the biggest culture crime which the communists did to China, changing the traditional Chinese to simplified Chinese.

Yes in Taiwan and Hongkong they still use traditional Chinese, I was lucky because my dad had so many books written in traditinal Chinese and I liked reading the books as a kid. So I have no problems to read books printed in Taiwan or Hongkong, written in traditional Chinese, from right to left, up-down. For my friends it was difficult. :wink:
But anyway simplified Chinese have simple strokes and easy to remember specially for child.

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Post by Eau2011 » Mon, 21 Feb 2011 10:40 pm

sgbenben wrote:
Yes Pin Yin is used in China.

In China they are even discussing to use traditional Chinese characters again. But I don't think it's feasible. The young generations cannot read traditional Chinese anymore...

I personally think that's one of the biggest culture crime which the communists did to China, changing the traditional Chinese to simplified Chinese.

Yes in Taiwan and Hongkong they still use traditional Chinese, I was lucky because my dad had so many books written in traditinal Chinese and I liked reading the books as a kid. So I have no problems to read books printed in Taiwan or Hongkong, written in traditional Chinese, from right to left, up-down. For my friends it was difficult. :wink:
But anyway simplified Chinese have simple strokes and easy to remember specially for child.
But Chinese children have learnt the tradtional Chinese for thousands of years. :wink: They all learnt it well and so we kept it for thousands of years till 1964.

It's cultural heritage. Keeping and restoration of Pantheon in Rome costs so much money, shall we just leave it? :wink:

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Post by jennys » Wed, 30 Mar 2011 5:11 pm

no way. to learn mandarin go to beijing. singaporean mandarin is not the same standards as spoken in mainland china.

unless you are willing to hire a mainland chinese tutor...

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Post by nicole.du » Thu, 31 Mar 2011 5:39 pm

ksl wrote:
Eau2011 wrote:
sundaymorningstaple wrote:According to those in the know, the majority's Mandarin is as bad as their English. It more commonly called singdarin and their English is called singlish. Both are atrocious and the government has been running campaigns for years trying to correct it to no avail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singdarin
I was being a bit sarcastic to say their Mandarin is as good as their English.... :devil: because Mandarin is still my mother tongue. :)

So...which language can Singaporeans speak properly, if not English and Mandarin?
Actually those that take Mandarin serious, do not do it in Singapore, when i was in the Beijing Language Institute, i met the mother and her son, someone very high up in the National University, she told me that Singapore was a very poor place to learn Mandarin as English is the focus and Mandarin isn't really at a good standard yet, so she sent her son to China, also because the courses are much cheaper too..

My wife is Taiwanese, they still have traditional Chinese Characters there, though my 10 yr old daughter must settle for simplified Chinese. They wouldn't let her take Mandarin as mother tongue, which i wanted, as English is first language here and father is a Heinz 57 variety, :lol: British, Irish, Welsh and some Spanish I guess with a dash of Scandinavian too floating around :D

It is far too slow here to pick up anything significant in terms of Chinese Mandarin for foreigners, though as a young child talking with other Chinese kids, they adapt easy and pick it up easy, so by all means let the kids start learning. For beneficial and significant study either a course in China or Taiwan, though Taiwan use the Wade Giles system and China have adopted pin yin if i'm not wrong, its been a long long time Since i was in China, it may have changed again.
Yes, still use pin yin.

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Post by ksl » Thu, 31 Mar 2011 6:32 pm

SMS this poster is up to no good! Analysis of her posts and search information with others, show the website forum is targeted! What IP's have they, plus those from yesterday, it looks coordinated and they all have viral marketing backgrounds

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Post by JR8 » Thu, 31 Mar 2011 7:58 pm

Maybe all are from the School of Banal One-liners?

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Post by ksl » Thu, 31 Mar 2011 8:38 pm

JR8 wrote:Maybe all are from the School of Banal One-liners?
Actually nicole.du shanghai comes up as escort agency on one link and at the moment my neck is killing me sitting here all bloody day, i need a massage but what will the neighbours think with the wife away:lol:

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Post by nicole.du » Thu, 31 Mar 2011 8:59 pm

ksl wrote:
JR8 wrote:Maybe all are from the School of Banal One-liners?
Actually nicole.du shanghai comes up as escort agency on one link and at the moment my neck is killing me sitting here all bloody day, i need a massage but what will the neighbours think with the wife away:lol:
Singlish's rather difficult to understand. Am not sure of what you mean. But don't you think it's not good to say something based on your guess as "actually"?

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Post by JR8 » Thu, 31 Mar 2011 9:22 pm

nicole.du wrote: Singlish's rather difficult to understand. Am not sure of what you mean. But don't you think it's not good to say something based on your guess as "actually"?
You tok borrock hah!

Hope that translates.

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Post by nicole.du » Thu, 31 Mar 2011 9:48 pm

JR8 wrote:
nicole.du wrote: Singlish's rather difficult to understand. Am not sure of what you mean. But don't you think it's not good to say something based on your guess as "actually"?
You tok borrock hah!

Hope that translates.
arrrrrrrrrrr..... soory ar, don't understand ar, tell me in English la

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