Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

  It's no secret that I had bad grades in elementary and high school. There's always this distinction between huan-a (which may no longer be offensive, and refers to anybody of the Malay-Indo race ) and the lan-nang (our people). However, I prefer to call myself hua-lang (華人, Huárén) over lan-nang. Early last year, I wrote about why the old Sin Jiang textbooks were written the way they were . Barely anything can be understood by the non-Chinese speaker! It's funny but true! Honestly, we were even forbidden from romanizing, and we had to use Zhuyin Fuhao--something no longer applicable with Standard Chinese! Taiwan is still left using Zhuyin. Zhuyin may be best rendered as obsolete as the Alibata for standard writing or inputs. The Chinese schools in the Philippines all operated under a single standard. Learning Chinese was often characterized by the "死記硬背 sǐ jì yìng bèi" or "Memorize to the point of death" mentality (read here ). People had to learn Hokk...

I haven't posted a Chinese language lesson for some time. As I said, I didn't like Chinese lessons because of the focus on too much memorization  (read here ). I found this photo on Facebook. One of the biggest problems of Chinese education back in my day was that you had to learn Amoy before learning Mandarin. The process itself is a red tape. Why not learn Mandarin being introduced in the language you're most comfortable with? For example, why not teach Mandarin to Filipinos using their language or in English?  HSK Online For starters, here are some measurement units for Chinese mathematics. One problem with Chinese mathematics was that we had to learn Chinese first, before learning it. I'm talking about introducing Chinese to people who have zero background. It would be good to introduce these measurements first before teaching them how to solve problems.  What I find strange is that the Chinese word for meter also means... rice? Yes, funny but true. However, using G...

  Chinoys of my age (and older) may remember these textbooks. I called them as the "symbol of trauma". It was memorizing something without understanding it . One would just memorize (without understanding it) because it was typical. Not being able to memorize what was assigned? Get a bad grade? One can expect physical punishment like hitting the hand with a ruler or chili in the mouth. Chinese language teachers are stereotypically strict . The language textbooks (above) are what were used during the 1990s to the early 2000s. As I wrote it, the Sinjiang textbooks aren't effective in teaching Mandarin , in a world where Mandarin has over a billion speakers!  There's a Chinese proverb that says, "死記硬背 sǐ jì yìng bèi" or "Memorize to the point of death". That's exactly what those textbooks are. Memorize to the point of death! Okay, it may sound exaggerated. However, that's how Chinese language teachers in the Philippines were made to teach the ...

I could remember how useless the Chinese classes were, not because Chinese is a useless language (there are actually over a billion speakers worldwide), not because the Chinese teachers were stereotypically very strict (Grade 2 was strict, Grade 3 was even stricter than Grade 2, Grade 6 was said to be the strictest ), but because of the way Chinese was to be taught. That's why I got encouraged to write about learning Chinese through meaningful conversations, not parroting . Fortunately, those old Sinjiang textbooks are no longer available except for museum purposes (read here ).  Just looking at this question and answer sweet from Ling Ling Mandarin's Instagram account--I remember what my Grade 4 Chinese teacher said, "If you want only one bon toi (question and answer), go back to Grade 1. But I don't think Grade 1 only has one bon toi." The problem with the old class was that we had to learn Hokkien before learning Mandarin. I confess my Hokkien is really bad. Th...

  As a person who once hated his Chinese heritage, I blame it on the way Chinese was taught in Chinese Filipino schools. It didn't matter if you were in this or that school--it was the same banana . Maybe, I can say that I hated how mathematics was taught instead of mathematics itself. The books above were the old Chinese textbooks that required people to learn Chinese first before they entered the class. Today, I heard from one of my old Chinese language teachers that Hokkien is no longer used in schools. It was very unlike several years ago when teachers would get their pointing stick and say, "Speak Chinese!" in Hokkien, when someone speaks another language. Even worse, some people graduate to the next level without learning to speak Chinese. In Chinese Filipino schools, there would be the English singing contest and the Chinese singing contest . The Chinese singing contests were spoken in Mandarin. That meant contestants were called in Mandarin. If the person was numb...

Some time ago, I wrote about the importance of learning Pinyin (read here ). Here's an interesting chart featuring different fruit types. Of course, without learning Pinyin, one would be reading everything at face value instead of the proper reading. That's why we weren't allowed to use self-romanization and use the Zhuyin. With the  Pinyin taught, the more self-romanization isn't allowed. Instead, one had to follow the Pinyin.  One of the best ways to teach Mandarin Chinese is through the different types of fruit (水果, Shuǐguǒ). It would be a fun topic to teach it this way. For example, 多吃新鮮水果和蔬菜 (Duō chī xīnxiān shuǐguǒ hé shūcài) means "Eat more fruits and vegetables." I would imagine how fun it would be to teach vocabulary and conversations (read here ) in Chinese through fruits. For Chinese Filipinos from the millennials and backward, one may remember the dreaded bon toi items (question and answer). However, with the way Chinese is taught now--learning Hok...

The Chinese New Year's first day is over but for China, it's until Day 15.  I feel like visiting a childhood trauma (which I laugh at now while remembering all the failing marks I had) because the whole program was based on parroting over understanding (read here ). I even wrote about how the old Chinese textbooks can't be used  for teaching  Mandarin . Good thing that these dreaded textbooks are now out of print .  My memories are Grade 2 Chinese was strict and Grade 3 Chinese was even stricter . The Grade 3 Chinese teacher got the nickname of either Teacher Turtle or Teacher Fierce . Grade 4 Chinese teacher was also called Teacher Minus because she often said in Hokkien, "I will minus!" That threat came every time the class would misbehave. If I'm not wrong, I tried getting a minus 20 (for always talking) which caused me to fail another quiz. Some people would move out of a Chinese school when their child fails either Grade 2 or Grade 3. In our case, Grade 3...

It's going to be the Chinese New Year. It's very easy to think for some people to go to a Chinese restaurant. A post I wrote earlier was about teaching Mandarin through meaningful conversations, not parroting . It's a typical sight for any Chinese teacher to complain or get mad at a student reacting to the memorization. The real constraint is systemic in nature. Chinese teachers are being forced to teach Chinese the way they know how. Hokkien was used as a medium of instruction. If a person didn't come from a Chinese-speaking home, they were actually going to have a much harder time in a one size fits all arrangement.  Now, it's time to talk about conversational again. Sure, this looks like the bon toi (question and answer) found in the Chinese classes. The only difference is with Chinese taught as a second language --it would give students fewer reasons to cry while memorizing Chinese phrases.  This time, the "bon toi" here is more than just a question an...

Last time, I wrote about learning (and teaching) Mandarin through meaningful conversations, not through parroting . I found the Kico Chinese website and found some meaningful flashcards. I would like to share the flashcards. I really criticized the way old Chinese education was done. Yes, those old Chinese textbooks that I passed through can't be used to teach Mandarin (read why here ). Instead, we can use this method to start learning Chinese vocabulary using conversational methods. This is where the memorization of the answers to the bon toi (question) can become more meaningful. The three are sample flashcards for the memorization of the answers to the bon toi. However, it would be necessary to actually discuss vocabulary. One of the biggest constraints of memorization of bon toi was for people with no Chinese background or not fluent in Hokkien. I confess that my Hokkien isn't fluent and I got labeled as "huan-a gong". Huan-a is often used for Filipino though it ...

Chinese is a tonal language and it can be very confusing. None of the overdose of memorizations in Chinese has done a thing. I tried using the Taoli application updates and found myself not hitting the 75% mark in the Pinyin lessons. I do feel I didn't master the subject until I hit 75% (passing) then tried to reach 80%. The final lesson in the Taoli Pinyin course is tonal change . If I still had that weekly report card from the Pinyin course, I think I'd get a red mark with a score I had with only 68% during my exercise last night.  It can be very confusing but here are a few rules to remember: Vivid Chinese This can be very confusing. From the Vivid Chinese , we can read this general rule of thumb to follow: 不 usually pronouns as “bù.” But it can change to “bú” when it follows by a 4th tone word. 一 pronouns as “yī.” But it can change to “yí” or “yì.” And if you see two third tone in a row, the pronunciation of the first word will change to the second tone. This can get confu...

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)...

Back in my day, I remember we kept memorizing what was called bon toi (written as 问题, Wèntí in Mandarin) without understanding them. I hated memorizing those. I guess another reason was to parrot what one can't understand. We had the biak diam too which is Hokkien for oral recitation. Memorizing the question and answer (written as 问题和答案, Wèntí hé dá'àn in Mandarin) would actually not be so tedious if Chinese was taught as a second language. My bizarre idea is to think about having only one bon toi but there are five answers to memorize.  Memorizing (and understanding) why some don't want to learn Chinese These five reasons (above) have to be memorized in both Chinese and English. The teacher (老师, Lǎoshī) would say the question,  "不学中文的最大借口是什么？" (Bù xué zhōngwén de zuìdà jièkǒu shì shénme?). The question can't be answered  until  the student actually translated it as, "What are the top excuses not to learn Chinese?"  The student will eval...

Keats School Blog   I wrote about why those old Chinese textbooks will not help achieve the HSK level needed . HSK means 汉语水平考试 (Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì) or Chinese proficiency test. I really remember a lot of bad memories that some people laugh at today. Some say they were crying at the tutorial classes. Sometimes, there are good reasons that a child can end up crying. Memorization is useless when understanding is hardly incorporated. That's why I flunked Grade 2 Chinese back and I always had problems with my grades. As a student, I realized that I wasn't really just wanting to learn but wanting to learn how it's applied. The same goes for how mathematics and sciences are taught. Both are important subjects but the way teachers are forced to teach them isn't really making people learn.  HSK is defined by the Chinese Learning Center as: HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) or the Chinese Proficiency Test is an international standardized exam which tests and rates Chinese language...

Bahay Tsinoy, museum of Chinese life in the Philippines There are a lot of cavemen-minded people out there. Some would argue that Pinyin is making things too easy, never mind that Mainland China was the first to  move to abolish Zhuyin. I was looking at the comments on the Bahay Tsinoy Facebook page, and I was not surprised by them. I try to talk about Pinyin and even ask, "Can you get your business permit with Zhuyin?" I guess I was being too blunt in what I did or not. Those old books above were useless . It's because they required people to learn Chinese first and an overdose of memorization . Memorization helps but without understanding, it doesn't help. Besides, you can't even use those textbooks above to teach Mandarin in the language centers (read why here ). People who graduated from Chinese schools talk about their experiences. Some of them even said, "We just memorized so we don't get whacked at the ruler by the siansi (Hokkien for teacher). Fo...