Monday, September 18, 2006

language

The same tv programme in my previous post gave me insight to the standard of our primary school teachers.

The reporters interviewed this primary school English teacher about how she dealt with the girl on her first day in school as she can neither understand nor speak an English word.

This is what the English teacher said: "When I found that this girl could not understand what I was saying, I speak to her in Chinese."

Mdm, I know that the English speaks English, the French speaks French, the Japanese speaks Japanese, but we Chinese speak Mandarin.

I really wonder what our kids are learning in school.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think this is a very common mistake. Recently was reminded of another one - strap, strip and stripe....pple keep mixing these up. I used to want to list out all the common errors I heard, but abandoned that plan cos I think there are quite a few sources online already. :) (and oh, I dont' think my friends will be pleased with me quoting them ;p)

JerL said...

BAM: Please do! I'll be happy to learn from my mistakes! Go ahead and quote! Better not make mistakes for life!

The Oriental Express said...

Glad to meet you, Jerlynn. You are prettier in person than in the photo.

You speak well too. Your table topic was well presented.

The interesting thing about Singapore is that so many languages are being spoken, and it is difficult for people to be proficient in all that they speak.

Choo

JerL said...

Ms Kam: Thanks for your compliments.. You're so kind..
Thank you for inviting me! I really enjoyed your speech and your cooking!

Sure it's difficult to be a linguist!