chinese tutor

[mingfang]

hi, all:

I want to get a chinese tutor for P3 daughter, pls advise me if you know a better and responsible one.......

[joop]

You can try New Concept Mandarin.

[kimm]

or you can try katong mall........

[ceramicheart]

better you find a china gril who study here to teach ur daughter

coz ppl from china has a good educated chinese.

i am from china, i realy donot appreciate singaporean's manderian.

besides, tution would be cheaper for a china tutor.

[course_placement_svcs]

I do not really agree with ceramicheart. No offence but there are Singaporeans who can teach Chinese well. First, they are locally educated, thus they definitely know the local school syllabus. A few of my friends have bad experiences with China tutors too as their children do not understand what the china tutors teach. I do not condemn them but no one is perfect. We just have to find the right tutor. I have a friend who can teach well, but she is a local. All her students and their parents like her and they can communicate well.

[sundaymorningstaple]

I found that by using a tutor for K1,k2, P1 &2 (Native putongua speaker) and teaching my daughter using their methods the first couple of years actually put my daughter at the top of her class in P1 & P2. You must realise that my daughter is not chinese or half chinese.Neither her mother or myself speaks chinese or dialect. Her Mandarin started slipping after her tutor returned to Shanghai and we replaced him with a local tutor.

Not saying that either are the best or worst but to keep an open mind. If you plan your kids to have the best international options then a PRC tutor would be best (not even considering the cost differential). If they are only going to use it here in Singapore than local is fine - from what my daughter's tutor tells me the local mandarin is just about as butchered as Standard English is (more singlish less english). So at the end of the day, it's how much of a leg up do you want to give your child?

[Global Citizen]

I think SMS is on to something here. My nephew also had a Chinese tutor from Shanghai who's very good and neither of his parents are Chinese.

In fact he was in one of those schools where both English and Mandarin are taught as a first language initially (primary) but has since moved on to a Catholic secondary school.

Mandarin is a really tough language at best and it would be in your interest to find a proficient and good Mandarin teacher right from the start.

[ceramicheart]

hi course placement svcs

inside singpapore of coz there would be many whos chinese are nice.

but...

Do you think their chinese would better than a china born china raise up china educated person?

i havent met some singaporean whos madarin i realy admired since i have been here for 2years ,besides 2 of my doctorate lecturers.

singaporean s madarain is totally localized, no negetive, it is useful for communicate inside this region.

but, if u wanna do business well with and get well communicated with 1.3 billion chinese in china , you better have nicer tutor and have a right start.

you will have more chances and be more competitive and benefited directly from the increasingly booming ecomomic.

no offence

debating may leads better results.

Thanks & best wishes

[course_placement_svcs]

Dear Ming Fang,

I think I leave it for you to decide what is best for your child.

Just consider a few things:

What is the purpose of the tuition?

Is it better to hire a school teacher, who is trained by N.I.E to teach the subject? Remember, your daugter is not taking up a language course.
Certain things/topics taught in language coaching is slightly different from the local school syllabus.

Well, good luck!

[kimm]

if i am not mistaken,try 2 level at Grandlinks sq.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Dear Ming Fang,

I think I leave it for you to decide what is best for your child.

Just consider a few things:

What is the purpose of the tuition?

Is it better to hire a school teacher, who is trained by N.I.E to teach the subject? Remember, your daugter is not taking up a language course.
Certain things/topics taught in language coaching is slightly different from the local school syllabus.

Well, good luck!

That would probably be a good idea. You have already stated your reasons which in all probability make sense to you. I would assume you have been listening to the new, reading the newspapers etc. and listening to the MM as well.

The fact that the teachers here are not specialists in the subjects that they teach flys in the face of what you are saying. Certain things/topics are what possibly is causing the Mandarin here to be so butchered. It may be that the government will also revert to native mandarin speakers as well as native english speakers for exactly the same reason. Nobody in singapore is a native mandarin speaker as it was forced on the chinese here by none other than LKY himself. Same as english with the same results.

So yes, Ming Fang. I think I agree with the above poster and leave it for you to decide what is best for your child. But don't just consider her points, consider all the points. Like do you want your child to have a better chance in the international market or will the local chinatown be enough.

[k1w1]

Is it better to hire a school teacher, who is trained by N.I.E to teach the subject? Remember, your daugter is not taking up a language course.
Certain things/topics taught in language coaching is slightly different from the local school syllabus.

The horribly scary truth is that this is a fact which needs to be considered. The school system here does not allow for differences, so things are either correct (as in EXACTLY what is written on the teacher's marking schedule) or it is wrong. If you want your child to do well in school exams, then it might be worth finding someone who can help her to do things as she will be expected to do them.

I can't count the number of times I have seen examination questions marked as incorrect when the answer was fine (or even worse, when the answer was a natural expression and therefore, excellent) and the teacher just didn't know it. (I think also it comes down to the simple fact that they have literally hundreds of papers to wade through, and simply don't care about looking into things either... but that's another topic for another thread.)

So while I don't agree with the extohling of NIE's virtues (as above in quote), the points made might be something to think about.