It'd Be Stupid to Continue Using Obsolete Chinese Language Textbooks to Teach Mandarin Chinese

I remember writing about how to make Mandarin Chinese more accessible in the Philippines. I remembered the day when I ended up not liking school not because I didn't want to learn. I was eager to learn. Science and history are interesting subjects. However, mathematics is taught in such a way that it's almost irrelevant. "You just need to study it, it's required by the DepEd and you can't graduate without it!" was the only reason. You're not allowed to think, just be a robot, and then parents get mad about why their children have almost no initiative and need to be programmed like robots. It's because the school system kills initiative and nobody does a robot's job better than a robot. 

Bahay Tsinoy, museum of Chinese life in the Philippines

I just found this photo shared on Facebook. It was the picture of childhood trauma that I'd like to talk about. The standard Chinese textbook. At first, I was excited to learn Chinese but that excitement died when I was in Grade 2 Chinese. Heck, I even failed Grade 2 Chinese, and later skipped Grade 5 Chinese, and what did I learn at that time? I can't blame the teacher or the Chinese principal (who was pretty much like the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago) but the faulty system that they were forced to use. I remembered the Grade 2 Chinese teacher would say, "Please study your lesson." The Grade 6 Chinese teacher is known to be the strictest for some. Eventually, these books were slowly being replaced but we were still using Zhuyin at that time. The cause that I didn't get my Chinese diploma (which is now best considered irrelevant) was that I failed again, in Zhuyin! However, I did learn something from two of the strictest teachers (Grade 4 and Grade 6) to develop better study habits and determination. I felt the Grade 4 and Grade 6 Chinese teachers taught me more by failing me to study harder. 

Bahay Tsinoy, museum of Chinese life in the Philippines

This was the standard using the Zhuyin. Zhuyin was the old phonetics alphabet. I remembered how we were told to use the Zhuyin. Yet, the fundamentals of reading Zhuyin weren't established so how can we even use Zhuyin to learn how to read? We had Chinese language, Chinese math, Chinese history, and Chinese phonetics. But what did we learn? Even some classmates of mine who graduated up to the fourth year (under K+10) in Chinese even forgot Mandarin. I remember even asking some of my Chinese classmates and they admit, "Our Mandarin skills are close to zero." There was really also no learning reward whatsoever in memorization except the teacher giving a grade. Grades can help measure learning but not in its entirety.

Chinese teachers could go and emphasize the importance of Mandarin. However, the way they're forced to teach has destroyed a bigger room for learning. I remember I complained about the tons of memorized questions and answers, and reading without understanding, and it's no surprise to complain about Chinese. One can talk endlessly about how Mandarin has more than one billion speakers (now) and a lot of speakers back then. If there was one reason that I really hated high school--it's all about just memorizing, parroting, and not learning anything. Many times, that's what happens and it doesn't help when parents like to brag how good their grades were, that they wrote "excellent" reports without a PC, etc. Please, times have changed and some even wanted their children to study outdated textbooks. 

The problem with these old Chinese textbooks is that they don't really translate between Chinese and English. How can you expect to learn Chinese if all is written in Chinese? The Chinese textbook would work if it were in Taiwan or China. However, in non-Chinese-speaking countries, it becomes incredibly absurd to try and learn Chinese with these textbooks. That's why I even lost my appetite to study. Who would want to study if one's not learning anything at all? Enthusiasm is killed especially when the education system is more focused on grades and not learning. Learning and grades should go hand and hand--not one without the other.

That's why I had a sigh of relief in college when our Chinese conversational class was what it should be--a conversational class! If I had a good grade learning the conversation, I did learn something. It's like memorizing Pinyin is more rewarding than Zhuyin. Learning the basic conversation and answering them, understanding what was memorized was more rewarding than in the old Chinese classes. 

A better approach to learning Chinese is to bridge the gap between Mandarin and English. That's what the textbooks failed to do. Above is an example of a Chinese language textbook that's written in traditional Chinese (though simplified has been more used), pinyin, and English. I remembered arguing too much when I asked, "How proficient is your Mandarin anyway?" It happened when I talked about how the "new Bopomofo" namely pinyin was better. Some still insisted on using Zhuyin as if you can use Zhuyin in registering a Chinese-named business. Can you imagine if a business permit's name mixed Zhuyin with English characters? I spoke in Amoy saying, "The City Hall doesn't know how to read that!" We have a lot of establishments that spell out their names in Pinyin like Gong Cha, Chatime, Huawei, and Xiaomi. Can you imagine if the Pinyin here were still spelled in Zhuyin? As I like to say it in Amoy, "The City Hall doesn't know how to read Zhuyin!" Even my older Chinese teachers said, "You need to know Pinyin now!"

What happens is that by reading both Chinese and English--the gap is further bridged. It would make more sense to memorize questions and answers, called 问题  (Wèntí) if the people understood the question and the answer. It would make more sense if each and every recitation of question and answer required the student to first, translate the question, then answer the question in Mandarin, then answer the question in English. The quizzes will require students to translate the questions and write down the answers in Chinese characters, pinyin, and English. That would make memorization more meaningful. Memorization is required but without understanding, it becomes just another exercise without results. 

Based on the book written above, I can imagine making 填空 (Tiánkòng) and 问题  (Wèntí). Memorization becomes more meaningful because people will know even the title. Most people didn't even know the meaning of the title in English. If we're planning to get people to learn Mandarin--the bridge needs to be built. Pinyin has become a better tool though some people can still opt to learn Zhuyin, for historical reasons. That is, I think learning Zhuyin and Pinyin can help develop a deeper understanding of culture. I think Zhuyin is best left for diehard Chinese history enthusiasts. Other than that, Pinyin itself has become the standard Chinese phonetics these days.

This also reminds me that Chinese education can return the true or false in learning reversible Chinese words (read here). It would require the bilinggual approach where the student is told the Chinese term with the translation. For example, we can have questions like:

1. 牛奶 (niúnǎi) means cow's milk and 奶牛 (nǎiniú) means milk cow. 
2. 蜂蜜 (fēngmì) means bee and 蜜蜂 (mìfēng) means honey.

The student will be required to answer true or false in Chinese. The reasoning must be spelled out in English with the Chinese like this:

1. 是 (Shì), because 牛奶 (niúnǎi) means cow's milk and 奶牛 (nǎiniú) means milk cow.
2. 不 (Bù), because 蜂蜜 (fēngmì) means honey and 蜜蜂 (mìfēng) means honey bee.

Sticking to the old method means not getting people to speak Chinese. It might even give Chinese or Taiwanese firms the right to raise their eyebrows at how Chinese is taught in the Philippines. I was glad that Chinese history (tzong hap) was removed. However, the way Mandarin was taught was too rote-based. Rote memorization is part of learning but it's not the only component of it. Pinyin has helped many non-Chinese speakers or those who never studied the language better access. 

The only place the old Chinese textbooks belong is in the museum. It should serve as a lesson how not to teach Mandarin. Mandarin is important but you can't teach Mandarin simply on rote memorization.