Business & Economics Perspective Blogger

Some time ago, I remember doing the act of exonerating the Chinese language teachers (siansi), saying the lesson wasn't their fault but the fault of the system . It became absolutely necessary to remove Hokkien from the Chinese classroom if one expects Chinese to be learned better .  Right now, I still remember my lesson from who many considered the strictest Chinese siansi we had at Bethany Christian School. I remember the old language textbook, considered Chinese Language Arts during her time (called 華語, Huáyǔ) how Chinese was getting over a billion speakers . Until now, I exonerate her because the lesson wasn't her fault. She was just doing her job, including coloring my report card red . She was right about Mandarin's rise in the global market. She was just stuck with being told to use the wrong methods .  As I was watching this video, seeing that even America's richest are now learning Standard Mandarin. Why is that? The China Daily gave this news that made me (1)...

BluPrint It's the Chinese Ghost Month, which starts on the first day of the seventh Lunar Month. This year, Ghost Month started on August 13, 2026, and it will end on September 10, 2026. Today is called the peak of the Ghost Month. For the sake of a post, I want to write about this Chinoy Ghost Story that I remember from the 1990s. This was when our Grade 2 Chinese siansi (I don't know where she is anymore, but I remember her as being very strict, and the next year, Grade 3, was even stricter ) would use the statement that she said, "If you can't speak Chinese, you will have a hard time finding a job." She even mentioned a peer who baliwala (took for granted) his Chinese studies and ended up as a motorcycle driver in their community. However, I often suspect that white lie was made out of desperation because grades mattered that much.   The threat, however, proved ineffective because the students were in Cebu City. Chances are, several huan-a students ( a word use...

  If you're a Chinoy millennial or perhaps a boomer, I would say these books were more of a symbol of trauma . I can exonerate the Chinese teachers (called siansi in Hokkien) but not the system . The lesson wasn't the siansi's fault. That's what I would tell my fellow Chinoys when we talk, we raise the problem. Whether it was Bethany Christian School, Philippine Christian Gospel School, the now-defunct Samantabhadra Institute, or Cebu Eastern College (where the school shooting threat occurred recently), the problem was often that they relied on si-thak, an  overemphasis on rote memorization. The traditional Chinese classroom in the Chinoy school can be a horror story  I remember the classic escalation of strict teachers that happened. Grade 1 Siansi was strict. Grade 2 Siansi was stricter than Grade 1 Siansi. Grade 3 Siansi was even stricter than Grade 2 Siansi. I remember the Grade 3 Siansi was so fierce that she got nicknamed Siansi Fierce by some students. In my memo...

Chinoy TV This is a viral Facebook post right now. Zhang Yingfei, who was dubbed as "Linda Walker "in a micro-drama  The Heiress Who Won With Brains . Sure, there are tensions right now between the Chinese government and ASEAN countries. Back then, I remember I was "outstanding" in the Chinese class, in the sense of being disconnected from the Chinese language classes and getting bad grades . It's because the classes were taught in Hokkien , where your only reward was actually passing; the siansi (teacher) didn't spank you with a ruler or do any absurd punishment for compliance, and the foundations were built on dead repetition . Thankfully, the Chinese School Association shied away from the mandatory Hokkien to the  open-house approach . It's because the open-house approach would mean, "You learn Mandarin in the language you already know. Let's teach Mandarin using English or your local dialect." It's like one of our Chinese siansis a...

It's time to rethink about Chinese again. Here are some ways we can teach basic Chinese by introducing food in Chinese. All pictures here belong to the International School of Languages Facebook page. This would be one way to prevent the dead reading (si-thak in Amoy) in exchange for learning Chinese for real.  This could help create some interesting tests like: a.) Matching up the meaning and filling up the Pinyin. b.) Memorizing (and understanding) the mini-conversations with food as the topic .

It's time for a bit of Chinese language Throwback Thursday. I remember how the Chinese school can be summarized as students  memorizing without understanding . The problem wasn't the Lǎoshīs (老師) but the system that ran them as persons . I decided to write this article to " bring up a trauma " associated with the Chinese education system. From Kiko Chinese, this picture shows the common complaints from children. Standard Chinese is so hard! The Chinese schools tend to lose students because they keep failing in Grade 2 or Grade 2 in Chinese. In fact, I remember someone failing Chinese four times back in the 1990s. Another one was three years in Grade 3 Chinese, where the Chinese teacher was even stricter than the Grade 2 Chinese teacher. The real issue was that there wasn't any real learning because the old traditional Chinese system wasn't doing anything right . People were treated as if Hokkien were their first language. However, we realize that people can...

For Chinese language courses, one of the best ways to teach basic HSK-1-3 Chinese is by introducing jobs and professions in Standard Chinese (華語). One may remember the Sesame Street song,"Who are the people in your neighborhood" song. The exercises should be done with vocabulary (matching up the Chinese to English), followed by sample conversations (question and answer). For example: Question:"接待員的工作內容是什麼?"(Jiēdài yuán de gōngzuò nèiróng shì shénme?) Translation: "What is the job of a receptionist?" Answer:"前台接待員的工作是預訂房間和查詢空房狀況."(Qiántái jiēdài yuán de gōngzuò shì yùdìng fángjiān hé cháxún kōngfáng zhuàngkuàng.) Translation: "The job of the receptionist is to make reservations and check for availability." My sample conversation is probably too long, and may fit the HSK-3 level instead. However, one may look for shorter answers then give longer answers progressively. 

Learning the Standard Chinese language (华语, Huáyǔ) can be tough. Indeed, Pinyin has already become the standard over Zhuyin in the international market . Taiwan uses Zhuyin simply as part of its cultural identity, treating it with the same value as the Hindi alphabet. However, I'm still in favor of Taiwan abolishing Zhuyin entirely, because the Chinese Communist Party  didn't  invent Pinyin. Instead, Pinyin was invented by a  critic  of the CCP! After trying to learn Pinyin, one thing that can be overlooked is that, after reciting the Bopomofo table (as an easier way to recall Pinyin), we're getting into Chinese  homophones . Here's an example of homophones. It can be confusing. I was practicing typing in Chinese (using Pinyin) and remembered that inputs can have multiple meanings. It wasn't enough to learn how to pronounce the tones. One must deal with Chinese characters that have the exact same Pinyin and tone. Transliterating Zhuyin had made it easi...

Hanlin Language Center In pursuit of encouraging people ot learn Mandarin Chinese, here's a chart teaching the different types of melons in Chinese. Learning how to speak Chinese with these melons would be a productive exercise. Aside from using what was often called bon toi in the Chinese schools, it might be good to help people memorize these types of sentences, with the translation: Chinese: "天气热，想吃西瓜." (Tiānqì rè, xiǎng chī xīguā.) Translation: "It's hot, I want to eat watermelon." Chinese: "你想喝冬瓜茶吗?" (Nǐ xiǎng hē dōngguā chá ma?) Translation: "Do you want to drink winter melon tea?" Chinese: "我要做南瓜派." (Wǒ yào zuò nánguā pài.) Translation: "I'm going to cook pumpkin pie." Chinese: "用黄瓜去眼袋." (Yòng huángguā qù yǎndài) Translation: "Use cucumber on your eye bags." Chinese: "苦瓜对你的健康有益." (Kǔguā duì nǐ de jiànkāng yǒuyì) Translation: "Bitter gourd is good for your health." Chin...

Hanbridge Mandarin In pursuing the need to teach Mandarin Chinese, it's important to deviate from the old-fashioned Chinese language education (read here ). Instead, we need to get people interested in basic vocabulary. This would be a good exercise to learn from basic sentence making and conversations.  Here's an example of what's called bon toi back in my day. Let's think of learning Chinese through nuts. Question: 你想要巴西坚果、核桃、杏仁还是腰果? (Nǐ xiǎng yào bāxī jiānguǒ, hétáo, xìngrén háishì yāoguǒ) Translation: Do you want brazil nuts, walnuts, almonds, or cashews? Answer: 我想要杏仁，非常感谢. (Wǒ xiǎng yào xìngrén, fēicháng gǎnxiè.) Translation: I want to have almonds, please, thank you very much. However, there's a mistake in the chart because the coconut isn't a nut. Instead, it's a coconut fruit of the coconut tree, of the coconut palm family. The song was written by Filipino musician Ryan Cayabyab.  Now, it's time to enjoy learning Chinese through learning about n...

  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 ...