Teachers' Day Special
Translation for Page V :
I know chinese is not easy.
Not as easy as you want it to be.
Being able to Speak chinese is fortunate,
it will be unwise to lose this ability.
I hope you heed my words.
The world revolves around the english language
to be able to speak it means certain employment.
Yet i feel quite frustrated at the situation.
Nanyang girl: What are they doing?
HCI fella: I have no idea.
Nanyang girl: And your leg hair has grown long again.
And of course...Happy Teachers' Day! - En & Hou
Dear Students' Sketchpad < | > Today, I'm Mugging About Blogging! | > Friday Weekly Interview | >> Choices
posted by En and Hou at 12:00 AM
Xpress cartooning by two students, En & Hou
reflecting the Singapore
education system and its schools. 
121 Comments:
yo en. Nice collaberation. I especially like this entry. haha
Cuuute!
-Hearts the fifth one especially-
Hmm... I actually couldn't read some of the chinese words! :-/ Sheesh. I've totally lost touch. Anyway, I love this entry :)
-E
rofl the fifth frame owns! :)
mmm i like it - though should change "dear" to "qing ai de" :P
Haha I really like the syllabus thing, and of course the 5th page of the comic!! Darn funny. XD And not to forget the last page. profit margin! You guys rock. haha. Good job on this teachers' day special n thanks! :)
vie not vye =p
and my chinese sucks, but i think you can't exactly speak 华文, you can only write it right?
another coolio entry! the chinese one rawks =)
-mh
HAHA. The Chinese one is hilarious. I fell off my chair when I saw the pictures.
BTW, I'm from MG. =D
"
HAAAPPY CHER DAY
aiyarh.. why u all so smart.. clearly i am preaching to the wrong audience.. true enuff my chinese sucks.. HCL D7, so i know exactly how it feels when i shout out :"chinese damn hard!" and no one understands.(coming from the Chinese environment sec school i was in)
still, i think chinese is cool. I find the language far more engaging compared to english.(mainly due to the fact i enjoy watching that show with that fat beardy man with big poofy hair, that zhang fei show .. zong yi da ge da or something.)
oo.. sorry 4 spellin error. V.paiseh, i such at both languages now.. how awful.
.. happie cher day though.."
-En
lol man u are right about IB STRESS AR...... DUN JOIN TRUST ME
ac ac ac
nice one, but i believe that all of us dun totally condemn chinese,it's still our mother tongue after all...but, keep up de good work!
haha (: blogging was the open topic for sc's prelim paper 1.
heyhey this is GOOD!as i always say.haha(: this time the chinese is easier.and no, nanyang people don't speak chinese a LOT.
there are always people like me who suck at chinese lol:D
AHAAAA. that's a good one for teachers! i liked the part where the stereotyped nygh-hci couple were talking about the anti-chinese thingy.
jiang hua YU shi fu qi...
not hua wen. =.= hilarious though. but i doubt the common sense in it
Haha.
The chinese one was so funny!!! But I have to speak in defence, I'm from MG, but I'm doing LEP (higher chinese) as one of my 4 A Levels now!!!
Who's that MG girl up there who left a message? Hi sister!
hi, got to know of your blog thru the todae newspaper, very farnie! but i didnt get the chinese one though, i'm not chinese mah, do u mind translating it for me? everyone seems to sae its funny but i dun get it... haha, great job aniwez!
why should we study chinese in the 1st place when we rarely use it?
hahahaha, really good rhyming there...LOL! and egg looks really...similar. =D way to go en and hou!
"Anonymous said...
why should we study chinese in the 1st place when we rarely use it?"
For goodness' sake, because we are CHINESE?! What would we become if we only speak English? It's not even OUR language, that is absolutely disgraceful. Of course, I do love the English language, but how can we even say that we don't need to study Chinese when we don't "rarely use it"?!
Firstly, we don't "rarely use it". Mandarin is an extremely useful tool when it come to communicating to Chinese, especially the grassroots. People feel closer to you because there is a common bond, a common language. People feel better listening to you because it's OUR special and unique language. The people do NOT want to hear you speaking in English! They want to be able to identify with what you are saying!
Can you imagine if one day we really stop learning our mother tongues and speak in English entirely? Then what IS our identity? We're just going to be a bunch of wannabes, neither here nor there, neither English nor Chinese, not being able to speak in perfect Queen's English or American English but stuck here in the pit. And that is something I don't think any of us would like to see.
Sorry if this is such a long reply but I feel utterly upset that someone actually asked such a question!!!!!This is not a personal attack or anything by the way, ya, so I apologise if you feel like insulted or anything!
wordy sia....
I would like to comment on what wuyen said. Just would like to bring to everyone's attention that China is in a mad rush to learn English. So that they will be ready to receive the rest of the world in the coming Olympics Beijing 2008. Sooner or later, everyone will be conversing in English.
Besides, dont you think its a beauty that every one speaks the same language? At least that will remove the language barrier that hinders half the acheivement of "world peace".
People dont really care if you speak another language. Just because you are speaking some language that sounds "impressive" to them, that doesnt really mean you're unique. In fact, some say that the Chinese Language makes some people sound not so demure. Sometimes people even go like "Hokkien sounds vulgar". In my opinion, that is no beauty.
Coming to the issue on identity. The importance of portraying who you are is not all about language. It is more of what you are made of - your personality. Courtesy,customer services etc. People remember them more vividly then your flowerly language. Which obviously leaves a bigger impact.
Mastering Chinese will be a bonus. Because you are bilingual. But that isnt really essential. Right?
Yeah. This is just something I felt like saying. Its not meant to be any form of slander.
lol frankly, i m an ac guy and i RARELY use it or NEVER use it hahah
cool!
u really got a cool blog here!
this is on wuyen and anonymous' comments
We might not be speaking chinese much in the near future,but,like wuyen said,isn't being chinese something to be proud of? and you should hear some of the chinese nationals speak in their native tongue,it actually sounds better than when a British guy speaks Queen's English.
don't get me wrong,I'm also one of those people who get F9s for their chinese and look forward to the day that I can stop learning it. But even I still try and speak rudimentry chinese now and then,hehe
Having an identity doesn't mean we close ourselves from people of other identity. We don't all have to be the same to have world peace.
People do care whether you can speak english/chinese or not.If you're interviewing two people--one who speaks in really good english,and the other who speaks in a mix of both-- wouldn't you get a better impression from the english-speaking guy because of his nicer-sounding speech?
I know I would. im my opinion,speech DOES leave a deep impression.
This is also something I felt like saying :P
Haha. Just something to say about Wuyen's comment...
What do you mean, if we stop learning chinese we'll be stuck in the pit? We are ALREADY stuck in the pit though we are still learning it, us being unable to speak normal chinese properly or english that fluently either.
And perhaps, some people just feel more comfortable and closer with people who speak english than those who speak chinese. As you said, "People feel closer to you because there is a common bond, a common language." Isn't english a common language, especially among all races?
Therefore, wouldn't it be better if we just concentrated our energies into perfecting one language for those who cannot master even one and end up speaking both languagues improperly? or perhaps we should be given a freedom of choice to be able to learn the language/s of our desires?
I do agree on that point on mother tongue being our culture though. Others tend to look down on us if we can't even speak chinese being that we are chinese ourselves.
And yeah, sometimes people do feel more comfortable with speaking mandarin.
Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against chinese... but perhaps because of the syllabus, i find that most people don't like the language a lot. And yeah, DISCLAIMER: this comment not meant to slander or attack anyone personally. (:
OH yeah... good job on this comic as usual, en and hou! Loved the fifth one as well... "ni3 jiao3 mao2 you4 chang2 le" hahaha, hilarious!
hahahaha the leg hair part was freaking funny. i used to be an mg girl btw. but yea good job guys!
hohoho this has got to be my fav entry!!! finally one about hci leg hair!!
it seems every reader here are mostly english-educated. And that chinese poem bit... you should seriously stick to english.
hoho! better hairy legs than shaved legs right?
perhaps mou would like to join the team?
-En
u guys totally rock. it was SUPER FANTASTIC!
oh ya.. if u need ideas abt hci... the principal says 'we're a big hwa chong FARMILY!"
lOl. the fifth frame is damn stereotyped la. but i like it anyway.
PS. my bro's from hci but he hardly speaks chi.
haha. the fifth frame was particularly entertaining.
ip sucks lah.
i come from a "ip" school.
seriously. it makes no difference or whatsoever.
with globalisation happening everywhere, learning chinese is definitely useless. look. while we are racking our brains trying to master the wonderful culture of the chinese language, somewhere in china, the kids are learning english.
it's china that needs to catch up, can't they see?
ask the USA, the japanese and other economically stronger countries. do the majority of their people speak chinese? no.
then why should we?
english will become the INTERNATIONAL language.
if the chinamen can't speak english too well?
consider them uneducated then.
i get A1s for chinese every year.
i just don't see the point in it
but since china is opening up, you realize the ang mohs are learning chinese too. soon chinese will be more important than english. bottom line is to be fluent in both languages!
hahax... ive linked u guys... nice blog =) i love this entry man~ =P
okay la.. Hmm. the first few comics were really amusing yeah?
but now.. erm it's just getting boring. it's getting old. it's like you're poking fun at the same old things over and over again.
like acs guys not being able to speak chinese, and stereotyping hwa chong ppl as being pro at chinese. it's getting old. boring. not funny.
you guys seriously need some new ideas. go poke fun at neighbourhood school kids or something... forget about the acs and hwa chong people.
-g
haha...omg...tis is cool...
Hi.. is the fat female principal (at the last picture) meant to be the principal of the SAP sch which xiaxue came from? :p
I could read all the Chinese words. Wow!
NY girls can use pink hair accessories meh? :0
"Chinese is only useful for talking to hawkers, bus drivers and shop keepers" - A minister's son. Actually it's very useful because many chinese magically lose their ability to speak english when facing a yellow-skinned chinese-looking guy, while magically getting it back when talking to a Malay/Indian/Ang Moh. Kind of like the Malays in Malaysia...
Study Chinese because we are Chinese? Then we should bind women's feet and worship Guan Yu also. And your roots are in your dialect, not Mandarin; that's a foreign tongue brought in by the Northerners.
The tragedy of Singapore's bilingual policy is we have a populace which is incompetent in speaking both languages.
god helppp me!!!!!!! ia m full of projects and guess which sch i am from!! my school produce superstar instead of scholars hahahahahahahaz!
heh i only speak chinese twice a year- during the chinese orals and the chinese orals retest ^^.
it's not a bad language, it's the method of teaching that puts most students off the learning of it. or rather, not the learning, but the mugging of it.
and yeah, most singaporeans can't really master either language but a mish mash of both.
you don't really need to be gd at english though because your webcomic is very well-drawn, so much so that your point is communicated with with a fair amount of clarity.
please don't hit the top schools anymore!! or the girls schools either -_- but they are the ones with the most stereotypes ><.
The Problem with Neighbhourhood School Stereotypes.
the problem is that neighbhourhood schools seem to have NO stereotypes , because neighbhourhood schools do not take the time to advertise their culture as fervently as top schools, and how top school students constantly want to compare themselves with other peers.
ACS people on this site should know that they themselves constantly stereotype their RI rivals as nerds, and lifeless mugging organisms, and constantly compare their more exuberant school culture to theirs.
RVians should also be aware how we keep comparing ourselves to dunman.
even if neighbhourhood schools do have well known stereotypes , its only the typical ahlian, beng, which TCS has so cleverly taken so much time to advertise through shows like Phu Chu Kang.(really is there a need for any more?)
Its quite impossible to make fun of a school culture so invisible and little known... or to simply generalise all neighbhourhood school people as bengs and say it is a school culture in itself..
with the mild exception of maybe less prominent schools like cedar or crescent girls.crescent girls being totally apeshit crazy and stuff...and even that is a rather mild stereotype.(not commonly accepted by many)
That i guess is the price for being a famous top school, that we are constantly under intense scrutiney , and we constantly prove ourselves to be real stereotypes( who can deny that these things aren't half true?)... Clearly from the multitudinous comments in this post alone, we can see that ACSians being unable to stand the aspect of learning the chinese language is true to a certain extent.
Not to mention the comments in the SCGS one seem to echo the fact that SCGS girls really may be materialistic.
It is a self-imposed kinda thing since we ourselves always want to feel proud and tell others of our prominent school culture.(thereby inevitably creating a school stereotype in the process)
So i do think its unfair for all of you to try to sell the idea of not making fun of a top school to studentssketchpad.
but if You DO KNOW any stereotypes of neighbhourhood schools, i think some of you should email them, to stop this cruel online persecution of our schools, i don't like the aspect of My school being constantly jeered at myself.
So there, anyone knows whats the stereotype for Jurong Secondary School? anybody?
haha, din know you guys DOTA also, but i dun remember the sharman's call being use in any hero lol
well, i think you guys using chinese is great, obviously people which decided that english should be the only language in the world should just die painfully. i mean, well, don't expect the PRCians to really all like you and abandon their language, or in a more subtle ton, accept a chinese to converse fully in english with them, its this chinese pride thing lah, and well, i would say puting in the chinese part is nice, really.
awww.. poor poor neyborehud skools..
don't expect the PRCians to really all like you and abandon their language, or in a more subtle ton, accept a chinese to converse fully in english with them, its this chinese pride thing lah
I don't think PRCs are as pig-headed as Chinese Singaporeans - they don't pretend not to understand English if yellow people speak to them in English.
"Study Chinese because we are Chinese? Then we should bind women's feet and worship Guan Yu also."
-agagooga
Nice one...personally, i also failed chinese, but still...I'll admit it's important.
And im eagerly waiting for the next one...good job guys.
"Study Chinese because we are Chinese? Then we should bind women's feet and worship Guan Yu also."
-agagooga
If you put some thought before writing this statement you'd realise that you cannot compare studying chinese to the binding of women's feet.
Of course, while I was reading all your replies, I suddenly realised why there is such an uproar against Chinese. Is it because of the mundane quality of the Chinese syllabus? I do agree ths syllabus is painfully boring, of course, but that doesn't mean Chinese should die!!
Let's not talk about Chinese. Imagine one day everyone speaks English and only English, which means the world would be African-less, French-less, Malay-less, you get the idea. Then the world would be much less colorful! Killing languages off like that is like genocide, you might as well only have one race!!
I say it is a common language among the CHINESE so that we can have a sense of identity. It is different from a common language among every race so that we can BOND and INCREASE understanding. These are two different issues here, you cannot argue about them collectively.
wow Agagooga, you look ugly.
I don't think PRCs are as pig-headed as Chinese Singaporeans - they don't pretend not to understand English if yellow people speak to them in English.
Agagooga
oh, perhaps i put it in a way too crude and harsh. but while i was in PRC, i tried to use english to order from the person serving me seeing he just used english(in a pretty bad, thou admirable way) to take an order from a brit/french/german(actually i can't tell, just that the person is not black or yellow), but i was kinda nicely told of in mandrine "hua ren yung hua yu ma"
and since i was in a pretty good mood and that staff is damn chio, i did not get angry, but kinda strikes a person alot if you know what i mean.
Hi! Thanks for including my school, NYGH in your comic :) Somehow one gets a kick out of seeing a character from one's school in your comic, provided one has a sense of humour. Haha, we do speak pretty good English too. ~
If I remember correctly, my Chinese teacher told us that we should not be proud of speaking Chinese, because we are Chinese and are supposed to speak Chinese- just as the French are supposed to speak French etc, because it's part of our racial/cultural identity.
Oh well, whatever your stand on Chinese, it would always be good if you can find some use for the language. Even if you just use it to order food from a canteen auntie whose stall you frequent, it does make her like you enough to give you bigger portions. :)
Why can studying Chinese not be compared to binding women's feet? Both are Chinese cultural artefacts, and thus suitable for the "you are Chinese so you must do Chinese things" argument. I'm not advocating that Chinese should die, but that the parochial attitudes of many Chinese Singaporeans smacks of ignorance.
Common language among the Chinese? Erm. Before the Communists came along, different dialects were spoken. Related, yes, but not the same. Forcing people to share an identity by virtue of the colour of their skin is simply a form of racism.
Anonymous: Good for you, but I'm told that PRCs are less pig-headed about this generally. Ah, the joys of anecdotal evidence...
I'm ugly? Gee. How imaginative.
aiyah, a b3 for HCL is more than i could ever ask for, en =P
my gosh. you guys are hilarious. i'm from ac and your impressions of ac are just so funny. love the pokemaid one. the stereotypes are so so true.
light-hearted truth. thumbs up!
ooh, good one. especially with the continous changing of TYS and questions! To promote creative out of the box thinking no doubt.
I've always despised those who cannot speak their own Mother Tongues. I love the EL as well, and I prefer to write in English, and, being a typical singaporean, converse in a mixture of EL + mandarin. However, I've always been proud of the fact that I am able to hold a conversation in mandarin well.
About the people from China [as mentioned by Anonymous some posts before me]. Well yes, they are all learning English, but that is because they've already mastered their own MT - chinese. Same with many other ethnic groups, they all have pride in their own MTs. I've no idea why so many Singaporean chinese [in particular, students from the supposedly prestigous schools?] are so white-washed in that sense. Seriously.
i cant speak my own mother tongue and i'm rather proud of it. I mean like, my ring of firends dont speak much chiense as well. Besides its shaman nor sharman. haha no hero in dota is even close to shaman except the new bloodseeker?
Anonymous Sat Sep 03, 06:48:08 PM SGT:
So can you speak your true mother tongue, your Chinese dialect? If not you should despise yourself.
Perhaps the reason why so many Singaporea chinese loathe their mother tongues so is due to people like you.
nice blog. comics roole!!! All you DotA FREEAAAKKSS........ keep playing.
Woh!!.. Rock on man! that's one hell lot of a good entry!
I'm chinese. I speak cantonese, mandrian, and hokkien to my english speaking boyfriend. His friends speak only english too. At first I felt left out as his friends are all eat "kantang" (potato) which my Bf the same too. After giving some thoughts, I said to myself, wat the hell! China will be the next big thing. AngMohs are learning mandrian, even my Italian friends too! Why do I have to feel small? In the past we have to learn english because the world kind of belong to ANGMOHs but now china the chinese will be the next big thing! Anyway better be safe, learn your own language as well as english just like the kiasu singaporean way!
haha. great post:) aiya. you want to speak chinese speak chinese lor..we cannot speak chinese lar. cannot huh. haiz.
my bad on mis spelling shaman. but well, the voice script was not use by any hero, i guess they just pick one that is pretty nice.
my bad on mis spelling shaman. but well, the voice script was not use by any hero, i guess they just pick one that is pretty nice.
This is really really good!
hi all.
this is in reply to the uproar caused by our(most anyway) mother tongue - chinese.
we have suggestions that chinese should be 'optional', that those who don't like it/cannot handle it should have the choice of not taking it, while others strongly feel that it is part of our heritage, and therefore we SHOULD study it.
i've never questioned why we have to take mother tongue as a subject in my 10 years of schooling, and in this last year of studying chinese, it might be good to start thinking about that.
is studying chinese about heritage? is it part and parcel of our customs and traditions - like chinese new year? does it mean that we HAVE to study chinese just because of this reason?
or is it about practising pragmatism - the fact that china will advance into one of the greatest powers the world has ever seen? and since they will be one of the elites, we SHOULD study chinese for a better future?
i mean. take the french for example. they're so obviously proud of their language. why can't we be that way? is it because we're a rojak of cultures?
it's funny how a simple comic can spark off such heated debates. it's funny how this has struck a raw nerve in chinese students being forced to study chinese in schools.
i mean. WHY do you study chinese?
is it a duty that we have to fulfil? exchange ten years of school just because we were born chinese? is it a sacrifice of sorts?
i don't think so. i've yet to develop any concrete views, perhaps you could call me a fence-sitter.
but, i feel that those who violently object the studying of chinese, to reserve your judgement.
maybe, just maybe, you'd find something innately good about it in the future.
--hope i managed to offer a fresh insight.
aye.
awesome! like the nanyang/ chinese high wan. ahhaha. artistically well-done!
so kawaii!!!
just stop making fun of these people =| they feel bad you know... who knows somewhere in the internet someone is writing the same about you two =X but w/e, u guys should be well prepared =D
- seck
its a multiracial country man.
pls have translations for chinese parts.
stay cool.
hey even tho ny and tchs people may seem a tad cheena, it is their warmth and affability that makes it easy for others to open up to them! this was what made hwachong such a fantabulous place for me in the first three months. (: i was from scgs btw (:
i am sure every schl has its own warmth, and i am very sure that ac is one of the hottest lol
I like the way you wrote 'hwa chong' and 'nanyang'.
To All Chinese Who Are NOT Willing To Speak/Learn Chinese & those who pretend they didn't understand Chinese:
Pls Get Yourself ReBorn to a Original AngMoh Family Next Life to avoid all pain and misery.
AND KUDOS TO ALL WHO ARE PROUD TO BE CHINESE.
Wang4 Ben3 Wang4 Gen1 Zhe3 Da1 Ni4 Bu2 Dao4 Bu4 Zhi1 Suo3 wei4 ye3
["Study Chinese because we are Chinese? Then we should bind women's feet and worship Guan Yu also."
-agagooga
If you put some thought before writing this statement you'd realise that you cannot compare studying chinese to the binding of women's feet.
Of course, while I was reading all your replies, I suddenly realised why there is such an uproar against Chinese. Is it because of the mundane quality of the Chinese syllabus? I do agree ths syllabus is painfully boring, of course, but that doesn't mean Chinese should die!!
Let's not talk about Chinese. Imagine one day everyone speaks English and only English, which means the world would be African-less, French-less, Malay-less, you get the idea. Then the world would be much less colorful! Killing languages off like that is like genocide, you might as well only have one race!!
I say it is a common language among the CHINESE so that we can have a sense of identity. It is different from a common language among every race so that we can BOND and INCREASE understanding. These are two different issues here, you cannot argue about them collectively.]
Hey, if everyone spoke the same language, was the same race, same religion, then there'd be global peace :D
And yes, Chinese SUCKS. It's simply an inferior (imo) language. It's more complicated, requires far more knowledge, and takes forever to learn compared to english. Languages are meant to allow one to express oneself and communicate, not to hinder yourself by taking forever to find the right word.
And I highly doubt HC supports chinese. Most of the people I know hate it. It takes forever to study those stupid 1k+++ word lists and wev.
~from hci
Looking at the discussion, it does make me think of a question...How different our attitudes towards Chinese would be, if schools were to teach chinese more of its culture, rather than the language (and syllabus + rote learning)?
Cheers,
Hou.
LOL, u know wat? this entry owns!! man, I love the fifth page!
Firstly, let me say that it is only HUMAN to hate chinese. (I was from acs and now in nj). Please, Chinese is a difficult language and why shouldn't pple who find it HARD dislike it? well, not everyone can be proficient in two languages. If you are good at chinese, good for you. If you are good at english, better for you. If u are good at both, then LoL you are a genius.
Studying chinese is indeed important, basically because China is rising (like duh) and if we want to make business, we might as well learn their language too. After all, learning chinese helps us to communicate with the rest of the population in Singapore. Well, "pure" english-speaking sec schools are like 20 out of the 160 plus sec schools we have in Singapore...haha, lets open up k?
chinese is important. full stop.
FYI, i suck at chinese too. trying to pull it up to an A1 but it remains at 69.
learn chinese! (GO LISTEN TO THE SONG BY JIN:D)i suggest you find the lyrics cos he raps fast. bewarned, jin is rather.. vulgar:p
come on, chinese IS important - it's our tradition and culture. i agree that we have a boring syllabus to study and idioms to memorise, but shit happens ! be glad that you are born chinese =D do not try to be angmoh because it's such a turn-off. cheers !
D= BISH! !@#$%^&*()_+ hahaha this webcomic thingy is so freaking funny. anyway i dont think nanyang girls and hwachong institution people are suitable for each other. somestimes, if you are very lucky, you can see them fighting on the overhead bridge. the ny girl of course using the nanzhongquan taught in school whereas the hwachong guy would just stand there acting retarded. tootsies! D=
Actually. What I meant to say wasn't that chinese wasn't important, it's just that some people are just not suited to learn two languages -- they mix them both up, which ends up being worse than before.
And I'm not saying we shouldn't learn it, I am saying that those who simply cannot learn both languages should be given a choice.
What I feel is that the chinese syllabus in the schools really need a huge huge change. Not only in exams, but also in their teaching methods. My impression of chinese when I was in primary school was how it was so boring and how if you want to study for chinese, you have to memorise the whole chi2 yu3 shou3 che4.
Right now they are trying to make some changes -- yet that doesn't seem to increase the popularity of the language.
And to make things worse, if you go up to the adults' section for chinese books, you find that most chinese books there are all in fan2 ti3 -- which are not what we are taught. This adds to the level of difficulty in reading those books, and thus we find ourselves turned off towards the language (don't ask me to go to the children's section for chinese books, the books there are boring).
So perhaps yeah, they should focus more on the culture, and they should publish more interesting books that are actually readable -- in terms of the kind of words we are actually taught.
otherwise, the language's pretty okay -- i find myself preferring chinese songs to english, and i even speak more chinese at home than english, perhaps because of my parents.
For all of you pple upstairs... We speak MANDARIN... not freaking Chinese.. for christ's sake.. At least write proper ENGLISH if your Chinese really sux...
was from nygh. we cant wear pink stuff! also, as the last commenter said, we don SPEAK chinese. its not jiang hua wen its jiang hua yu.
Done! I thought I fixed it earlier, but I guess I must have missed it out by mistake.
Cheers,
Hou.
i believe that even if the chinese syllabus were to be revamped, i highly doubt anyone would change their attitude towards it anyway.
people's attitude towards chinese nowadays are toatlly cynical and biased, judging from opinions coming from this blog alone, what more the entire society.
i feel chinese is actually quite an interesting language to study and i use it fairly oftenly, although english more. how chinese is being slammed here is really ridiculous and the fact that we are chinese is suffice that we learn our chinese well. so i feel. frm ac btw.
err this was posted some time ago.
Agagooga said...
I could read all the Chinese words. Wow!
NY girls can use pink hair accessories meh? :0
"Chinese is only useful for talking to hawkers, bus drivers and shop keepers" - A minister's son. Actually it's very useful because many chinese magically lose their ability to speak english when facing a yellow-skinned chinese-looking guy, while magically getting it back when talking to a Malay/Indian/Ang Moh. Kind of like the Malays in Malaysia...
Study Chinese because we are Chinese? Then we should bind women's feet and worship Guan Yu also. And your roots are in your dialect, not Mandarin; that's a foreign tongue brought in by the Northerners.
The tragedy of Singapore's bilingual policy is we have a populace which is incompetent in speaking both languages.
Thu Sep 01, 04:44:13 PM SGT
lets just drop the roots or china rising thingy cuz its just sorta dumb political language.
fyi a minister son of A DIFFERENT RACE studies chinese and he arent a geek whatsoever.
your "incapable of speaking both languages" part is totally irrevelant. as far as i can tell the discussion here is about teaching chinese in "elite schools". and most of us in ri,hc,ac,sj whatever is good at at least one of the languages.
THAT ANG GUY (principal of hcjc) SERIOUSLY KEEP ON USING THE TERM HWA CHONG FARM-ILY!!! GAH!!!
Agagooga said...
Anonymous Sat Sep 03, 06:48:08 PM SGT:
So can you speak your true mother tongue, your Chinese dialect? If not you should despise yourself.
Perhaps the reason why so many Singaporea chinese loathe their mother tongues so is due to people like you.
Sat Sep 03, 09:16:47 PM SGT
You know what? I can speak my dialect perfectly well, thank you very much.
It's kind of sad if people loathe their mother tongues supposedly because of someone like me. An insignificant someone? Gosh, grow up. I'd like to argue with you endlessly, but I've better things to do than that. :)
Oops. Haha. Sorry about the mistake...
I don't hate chinese by the way.
And anyway, my chinese doesn't suck. (:
And even if it does, I can still like it -- like how I love literature though my results aren't that good.
=)
PLEASE! Why are some of you condemning chinese? And chinese schools are not as stupid as you think. I am from a chinese school and I am EFFECTIVELY bilingual. I know BOTH chinese and english. Unlike you, monolingual. Are you so ignorant in thinking that you can survive with only English? Why are you hating your mother tongue? Hating chinese means that you hate yourself. YOU ARE A CHINESE of godness sake.
(other than that particular chinese part of the comic, i think it is fine=)
I don't get why people are so uptight. shouldn't take this too seriously. that's how i see it in this case. After all, this is supposed to be funny, not somthin to debate about. anyways, great stuff En&Hou, can't wait to read more of ur stuff. and i although i am chinese, i don't understand chinese so please have a translation on the chinese parts. hehehe.
*PS... i can agree that ACS is more EL based coz most of my classmates speak EL all the time and very little Chinese which is great for me, personally.
[humanbeing said...
D= BISH! !@#$%^&*()_+ hahaha this webcomic thingy is so freaking funny. anyway i dont think nanyang girls and hwachong institution people are suitable for each other. somestimes, if you are very lucky, you can see them fighting on the overhead bridge. the ny girl of course using the nanzhongquan taught in school whereas the hwachong guy would just stand there acting retarded. tootsies! D= ]
lol i like the way you say that. kind of true anyway. majority of nygh girls in fact actually have boyfriends from other schools. only a few associate with hci guys
Who cares which is important
just do what you like
i choose English (:
Chinese sucks , i failed
Catholic High Sucks
i'm from hci and i loved this strip esp the fifth one. i can understand why i am feeling slightly cheesed off by it.
anyway to respond to the above conflict,
come on la.
chinese is important. english too.
i also think that while chinese is an essential part of our studies and life, we should not be condemned for not liking it.
how about lets just accept it?
for me, languages arn't hard.
and somebody above said that you have to be a genius to be good in both languages. i dun agree.
for example, the best i can get for my sciences is c5, but normally i can get an A for both langs.
so out of like all the subjects i'm only good at the two?
so i'm not a genius.
i like different aspects of both languages. i like the written language of english more than the spoken one, but i cannot stand writing chinese. instead i love chinese pop. so its quite fair isnt it.
so to conclude we should be free to choose which language we like, but i think it should be necessary that we learn chinese no matter what, for we are still chinese in this sense.
kudos to you guys
to the hci guy above? you like jay chou? i dun think liking chinese pop necessarily means u are able to excel in them... this type of thing very subjective. Are marks really that important? is getting a very high showing your interest to the subject? is it a good gauge? perhaps you studied more for your languages test and slacked through your sci test? or perhaps you had an easier language test and much more difficult sci test?
ok for the one above.
i can frankly tell you that i hate science. and for example, the last class test even though i scored quite high, i was the last in class. that should show something isnt it?
anyway, compared to science, i would say i love languages.
and my results don't come from one day, its from an analysis of my years in school.
anyway, my point is that i think both languages are as important, and we shouldn't condemn any one of them. there are ppl out there who adores chinese, and cannot stand english. i personally know some neighbourhood school frens who are like that. so i guess we should probably TRY to take a liking to chinese too, if not at least don't influence everybody to hate it too.
it is important in the world out there; everybody knows this. culture, heritage, economy. all these can be affected by how much we can speak or use chinese.
that should be clear enough.
doesn't anyone see the beauty in the chinese language? i got inspired to learn japanese because of chinese! ppl can find the japanese language beautiful and yet not chinese? maybe because the japanese language is easier (easy enough for americans to learn anyway), and the chinese language is deeper in meaning.
btw, i think it's tedious to learn chinese. i too get fed up with learning how to write those complicated characters... sigh. but don't u want to gain more knowledge? after i "master" japanese, i look forward to learning french and spanish. learning different languages helps you to see how similar "different" cultures really are. oh and i'm currently learning korean as well. but it's still not up to chinese, because those 2 languages (japanese and korean) is derived from chinese, so if u have a passion for japanese, u'll know where to look for its roots. learning japanese has become so much easier becuase i understood chinese. sentence structure has also become more easy to understand.
i kind of like the chinese language.. even though i got b3 for the june o lvls this year (actually throughout my secondary life, highest i've gotten was c6, until this year). and even though the higher chinese ppl in my sch keeps failing chinese, they never said they "hated" chinese. that's because they learnt more of its history and culture i guess, while express chinese ppl wouldn't mind hating it passionately cos they don't fully understand many deep meanings in each ci yu, and thus not able to appreciate it.
i'm from a pro-english sch and our english standard is really high, eng literature is compulsory. while i do appreciate the english language, i must admit chinese is more complicated. why can't you realise that the more complicated a language is, the more culture background it has? those of us taking chinese are chinese rite? so we should actually be proud that the chinese has a more sophisticated language xD if you find it difficult and don't wish to learn it, it's ok. but don't hate the language... maybe you just haven't learnt harder languages, maybe try greek.
HEY! i dont really agree with the strip! HCI guys are really proficient in chinese, and there are a handful of them being very interested in English, French or German! Take the HP programme students in the high school (tchs) for example. They are students who are motivated and deeply interested in the study of Literature and Humanities!
And there's also the BSP classes, who are very very very so interested in Chinese culture!
We are bilinguals, and effective ones, and we can prove to proficient in both of them, albeit them being polar in nature.
I strongly feel HCI should not be stereotyped as the above. We are a mixture of students who can excel in both languages, and it is only the interest in either that marks them apart.
Thankew.
doesn't anyone see the beauty in the chinese language? i got inspired to learn japanese because of chinese! ppl can find the japanese language beautiful and yet not chinese? maybe because the japanese language is easier (easy enough for americans to learn anyway), and the chinese language is deeper in meaning.
btw, i think it's tedious to learn chinese. i too get fed up with learning how to write those complicated characters... sigh. but don't u want to gain more knowledge? after i "master" japanese, i look forward to learning french and spanish. learning different languages helps you to see how similar "different" cultures really are. oh and i'm currently learning korean as well. but it's still not up to chinese, because those 2 languages (japanese and korean) is derived from chinese, so if u have a passion for japanese, u'll know where to look for its roots. learning japanese has become so much easier becuase i understood chinese. sentence structure has also become more easy to understand.
こんにちわ. Fallacies, fallacies, madam. Proficiency in the chinese language does not help nor alleviate the learning of Japanese- Negligible, at most. And the sentence structure of Japanese is very different from that of the Chinese language, or at least I see no link in between. I personally find 漢字 a chore, no offence. AND what's worse is I keep writing 漢字 when I am supposed to write chinese characters. So seriously, your point doesn't really stand, you know.
Just wondering, will there be less people hating Chinese if more people start to score well in this subject? I just don’t think that it is justifiable to condemn a certain subject if the reason is solely based on one's inability to perform well for that subject. Whining non-stop on how you can't cope and therefore how you hate it will just reflect badly on you but the subject.
Of course, Chinese is not just simply a subject. Unlike Maths/Chemistry/etc, it is a language and has its own cultural backings. i guess many of you have realized this and thus some people conveniently equate their hatred towards the learning of the language to the hatred towards the Chinese culture as a whole. But how many of these people actually know the different cultures well enough to comment on them, to despise one and to be obsessed with another? Apparently not those I have seen so far because if you know the Chinese culture well, you will realize that it is obviously much more and deeper than binding feet and worshipping guan yu/guan yin. Yes, the Chinese people may have done many ridiculous things in the past but that doesn't mean we can deny their culture and ignore their achievements. If only one incident is enough to make a judgment then what about the British who achieved the most glorious time in their history through imperialism and exploitation of the people from their colonies. Can i, therefore, conclude that they are cruel and selfish? Or, the Japanese used to idolize the samurais so much that they would die if their sons were not selected to be the soldiers for WWII. It is right to say that the Japanese people are evil? I believe anyone in his/her right mind would not make such judgments.
So what, you may ask, I can speak English coherently and fake an accent well enough to bluff my Chinese friends that I’m actually an ang moh. You will see how the Westerners scoff at you when you can’t even write your name in your own language. Well, maybe that’s an extreme case. But the point is, they will never regard you as part of them. They will forever see you as a Chinese. And anyone who can’t come to term with his/her own identity is unlikely to gain respects from the others.
Well, some points made on dialects. I think it is reasonable that some people regard dialects as their mother tongues. However, I believe that nowadays there are even less young people proficient in dialects than in Chinese. Moreover, all the dialects are more or less the same when written, so Chinese lessons are good. At least they teach teach one how to write
One last point: people from HCI/Nanyang/Any other Chinese school can’t speak English?! I hope most people are not that ignorant to agree with this. Being proficient in Chinese doesn’t necessarily mean a compromise being made on their English standards. This is just like assuming everyone from the so-called English speaking schools (as if there are still schools giving lessons entirely in Chinese nowadays) can speak/write in fantastic English. And I think all of you can see it for yourselves.
P/S this is only meant for those who can't cope with Chinese and therefore start to narrow-mindedly condemn Chinese as a whole. No offence to the English-speaking group. Sorry if i didn't express myself well enough.
Fifth frame is PWNAGE. AAA. <333
(YES, I'm from NY.)
LOLZ.. haha reaally coolx especially the CHI HI and NY stereotpye thingy... haha but not all of us are THAT good in chinese... Take me for example.. hahax im glad if i can speak a proper chinese sentence!
eng might be fun but chi can also be fun too... esp after watching those movies like initial D n stuff.. bleahx
I love the fifth frame, good job. And actually, I was reading the argument on Chinese. I think we should make the effort to better our Chinese. Being Chinese ourselves, my teacher used to tell me, no matter where you go in the world, people will look at your Chinese face and expect you to speak Chinese. I think this is the same issue where we sing our national athem in malay when we are cosmopolitan? Or when commanders shout commands in malay when we march. We can never forget our history and heritage, full stop.
Actually it doesn't logically follow that because you are a chinese, you'll have to study chinese.
Most people are just repeating points about "identity" and "roots" that we hear elsewhere, but so far nobody has made any convincing arguments to show why a chinese ought to learn chinese. It isn't common sense.
Before we point a finger and scorn those who dislike chinese and avoid its use as far as possible, let us ourselves be certain what the purpose of learning chinese really is.
To those who hammer the people who suggest that chinese language as a subject ought to be optional, i would like to ask: would you study chinese then, if you were given the choice? Would it make a difference whether a person who hates chinese studies chinese or not, knowing that he would try as far as possible to avoid using it after exams?
Anyway, most of the PRC people we would meet in our lives would be able to speak english well, so the language barrier isn't really that great.
For my case, i like the chinese language, but i hate studying for it, though i admit that if not for the syllabus, i'd probably be checking the dictionary 2 times per page when reading a chinese book. For every language, there would be different types of humuor and wit that evolves. For example, i really can't imagine crosstalk (xiang4 sheng) in english. And reading the chinese version of harry potter feels really weird because every spell and riddle just lose their meaning when u put it in chinese.
Basically, learning another language gives you advantages, but it don't think it would have to be made compulsory just because of your race. Well, it helps you understand some things here and there, but i still don't see how it is neccessary.
The last frame is an insightful take on the system. Didn't expect that from youngsters like you guys.
WHOOHOO. I was totally laughing my ass off mann. Hilarious. LOL..especially the leg hair part :D
SCGS Girl <3
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