Hi all, my son started learning Madarin 7 years back when he was 6 years old. We've changed a few tutors for him in the younger age and he took Chinese as his Mother Tongue as well in school(local school). His foundation was really weak compared to all his Chinese classmates, and he was losing interest as well. Fortunately we locked a good and professional mainlander as his tutor in Primary 3 and now he's much much better.
He's taking PSLE soon and he's getting A in prelims. I have one doubt here, is PSLE level of Chinese sufficient for him to converse and communicate with Chinese(be it local or in China).
According to his tutor, local Sec Sch offers a much more difficult syllabus than primary school and it focuses on exam rather than daily usage(application). As parents, we don't like our boy to struggle from getting As or Bs for something we initiated for him to learn. And his tutor did mentioned that many students choose to drop Chinese from their exam list in O levels.
Another concern is although his tutor tried very hard to teach him proper Chinese (in terms of accent and language usage), he was still (a bit here and there) influenced by his local Chinese friends. His English is not so bad as we speak English at home everyday, but Chinese is really an issue if we continue letting him to mix around in the Sindarin environment.
His tutor gave an alternative, he can teach my son HSK Chinese so that he's more familiar with the correct(proper) usage and accent.
Any suggestions?