Teaching Mandarin Through Meaningful Conversations, Not Meaningless Parroting Without Understanding

As I try to criticize the old way of teaching Chinese, I also recall why I didn't like studying it. I had an interest in learning the language but the approach was too much memorization. One of the many problems was turning children into robots and parrots. Eventually, I lost learning because getting a high grade was the end of it all. I compare that to the arcade experience where a game never ends. If you've played many arcade games in the 1980s--you may realize that the games are only focused on getting a high score rather than learning a curve. It would be different if people started talking about what they learned in studying the ethnic Chinese language (華語, read as Huáyǔ). What interest was there anyway if we only compared scores? I had a lot of what's called boi seng in Amoy (failing mark) because I didn't like to study because of extreme memorization. 

I found this basic conversation on how Boi Toi (termed as question or 問題, read as Wèntí in Mandarin) should've been taught. I found a blog called Mandarin Wow and found this basic conversational table:

In memorizing bon toi, one of the biggest problems was that students never understood what they were memorizing.  A high mark means nothing if nothing is learned. Unfortunately, parents tend to have the mentality of either "Tio o mia!" (Translation: "Must have honors!") or "It doesn't matter if they don't know how to read, as long as you pass." Then they wonder why their children all get caught cheating. Schools even start to wonder why cheating is really hard to stop, even if strict punishments like teachers rightfully crumpling the test paper for cheating or even suspension. As I wrote in a previous post, cheating happens more because the education system cares more about grades instead of learning. If grades were more important than learning--cheating happens. 

Just think if students just had to memorize the table I presented without the English. Can you learn Chinese if you were memorizing bon toi without understanding? Just think of how it would be just grading by parroting. That's why I had no motivation to study Chinese back then. Can I expect to learn Chinese by merely parroting what I can't understand? The only "reward" that tends to be there is (1) the siansi (teacher) doesn't hit with the ruler, or (2) a high grade. But where's the learning? 

Just think if someone had to memorize it this way...

1. Q: 你nǐ 想xiǎng 去qù 哪nǎ 里lǐ？= Where do you wish to go?

A:  我wǒ 想xiǎng 去qù 长cháng 城chéng。= I wish to go to The Great Wall.

The student knows the meaning of the question in English. As said, Mandarin should be taught as a second language--not expect people to learn Mandarin first before entering the classes. Just think if the process went with memorizing the question, understanding what the question means, and memorizing the answer, with the English. This would require oral and written examinations.

My idea for the oral examination is for the teacher to say the question in Mandarin. No student can be allowed to answer the question unless they translate it into English. For example, the teacher says, "你nǐ 想xiǎng 去qù 哪nǎ 里lǐ?" The student must say, "Where do you wish to go?" Then the teacher says, "說 Shuō 出chū 答dá 案 àn." The student answers, "我wǒ 想xiǎng 去qù 长cháng 城chéng." The teacher says, "Okay, say it in English." The student answers, " I wish to go to The Great Wall."

The next one may involve teachers assigning partners to memorize the bon toi. Person A gives the question and Person B gives the answer. It would be like this:

• Person A: 你nǐ 想xiǎng 去qù 哪nǎ 里lǐ ?
• Person B: 我wǒ 想xiǎng 去qù 长cháng 城chéng.

Then the written examinations would have the teacher say the question in Mandarin. The student must translate the question, write down the answer in Chinese, and write down the answer in English. It should be done per bon toi. During periodical tests, each bon toi must have this rule that the Pinyin and the English must also be written down for the questions and the answers.

Those who graduated from the old Chinese education in the Philippines may have nothing to brag about should they take the 汉语水平考试 (Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì), often referred to as HSK, would probably not get pass HSK1 (read here). Just reading through Dig Mandarin makes me wonder how many of the old schoolers can do this?

It’s required to master 150 commonly used words for HSK 1. To achieve this first level of Chinese language proficiency, you must master basic pronouns, classifiers, nouns, verbs, and other parts of speech. You must also know how to express time, age, money, and numbers using different sentence patterns such as questions, negatives, imperatives, and the like.

With the basic levels, the use of bon toi should focus on answering questions related to what's described above. For example, the bon tois would focus on trying to make students know how to answer certain questions. Of course, it should be that nobody can answer the bon toi if they can't translate it, even if they memorized it.  No answer is complete until they translate it. It might seem tougher at first, but enough practice can help learning to be stronger. 

Sure, I don't think grading can be abolished. However, grading must be based on learning. A high grade means nothing if there is no learning or cheating was involved. A good grade, even when it's not excellent, is only achieved through perseverance, diligence, and a love for learning.