Teaching Mandarin to Children below 7yo

This is going to be one long post. I am not teaching or providing guidelines how to teach children, but I am sharing my experience. I have no degree in education or early childhood education and am no longer dealing with kids now, so you can say I might not be the most credible source that you can get, but here I am sharing my experience on what worked and what not, sharing my "brilliant ideas" and those ideas that I had to flush down to the toilet, sharing my love and frustration when dealing with those little creatures, particularly in teaching Mandarin. 

For teachers
1. Know where you want to be.
For teachers, it is important to be aware of what you are good at and what you are not very good at. I myself not good in a corporate setting, I can't deal with 'politics' in general, thus private settings are the best for me, because sadly I noticed that even at school, politics exist among the teachers. How many times in the past one and half years I was offered to go back to teach in school, I had to heavy-heatedly turned them down. Unhealthy, because so much of energy is wasted on that rather than preparing better materials for the students. That's just one of the reasons for me not to go back to the schools (might change in the future, who knows?). 

The other reason is that I might not be the most cooperative teacher in executing what's the schools/government have decided to do for the kids. Let's not talk about the curriculum in general, let's just talk about the choice of books used. Some schools did choose great books (in my opinion), but some others made the very bad choice, the first time I came back and started teaching, I was book hunting for reference books, but I am so disappointed and amused at the quality of the books published here in Indonesia. So many basic errors in the books. Just a few days ago, a neighbor showed me a book used by her kid, the title of the first chapeter is "你家的电话号码是多少？" I am not going into explaining the mistake, but for those who understand it is more appropriate to ask "你家的电话号码是几号？" The only difference is in the last 2 characters. This is just one of the mistakes in books that I have seen so far, we have so many more. Sad... 

I am one of those people who will want to set things right when they are not right, I do not like to bow down to people because they are my "boss". Not many people can take this, those who can have real big hearts to accept me. With that "bad" characters, I make sure I am doing my best in things that I am doing. When I say I teach, I will teach for the benefit of my students, not to help the schools to make money. Thus, again, private setting is the best for me, FOR NOW. Yeah, I am not very flexible and not grown up some people might say. That's fine. 

2. Know Your Strength
In general, I am bad in memorizing things. In Mandarin, I am bad in writing and memorizing thus beautiful idioms and proverbs. Thus, my Chinese isn't those "hi-tech" Chinese. It is very simple and conversational Chinese, layman Chinese. 

The report that I wrote and chosen to be presented when I was in China titled "美丽的上海", no fancy title, no fancy content, good enough to convey my experience and feeling, particularly

However, I am very good in "rationalizing" what others are saying, so listening is not an issue for me. I also have the benefit of early exposure to the language thus my tongue has no problem pronouncing words in Mandarin properly. I  also have to boast a little that I am very creative too (very useful with kids), but not very patient in certain circumstances (bad quality to have). Lastly, I  am childish, in both positive and negative ways. If I want to look it more positively, I can play like a child, thus this works well with kids. I like to play with playdough (which most kids like too), I like art and craft (again, most kids love crafting too), and if you ask me to play hide and seek I might be enjoying it too. Hahaha... But again liking is something, being good at them is another thing. That's fine! 

Contrary, in negative ways, I sometimes very emotional in childish way. There were two times that I can recall, I cried teaching my students, feeling disappointed and hopeless. Some other teachers might be able to handle the situation better than I was, and I admit that and learn from it. Realizing this make me realize that teaching children with special needs might not be my strength. 

In teaching, I think I am quite good with both kids and working adults. Somewhere in the middle, I am not quite sure as I do not have much experience here. 

Knowing my strength help me to perform better at what I CHOOSE to do. Now, I learn not to spend my time reading those books about how to master public speaking. There are only two ways in doing good in speaking in public (including teaching); 1) know your materials, 2) do it more often. All things get better with times. Listen to constructive feedback not those negative downgrading criticisms. I am learning to filter things more now. :)

Knowing your strength means to acknowledge things that we are not very good at certain things too. I know that we are all trying to make a living, better in doing the things we love, but please if we are not very good at it, admit it. I am not good in writing (as in writing the characters using pen/pencil, but typing and forming sentences, beautiful ones, I have no issue with that.), I will make it known in advance. 

By doing this, I think I am doing myself a favor, less upset tummy and stresses when I took up the job! I mean yes, we all can learn to be better, I can be better in my writing if I spend more time practicing, but I don't see the need for that now, as we type so much. But don't get me wrong, some others, depending on the nature of their works, might need to be good at writing. So again, depend... 

What I am saying here, if we are teaching conversation, please make sure we are good at it. Here, I'd heard a radio advertisement of one of the schools in Bali and no matter how many times it played, I would still laugh and feeling amused at the ads. The student speaks better Mandarin than the teacher. I firmly believe that is not the radio announcer, that's the staff/teachers from the school. I am feeling sad about this. 

Do you know why? I learn from my sister and niece that children do look up to their teachers. So there are times when teachers make mistake in class and do not bother to correct it, then it will affect the children too. There was one time my sis was correcting my niece's English, my niece insisted that the teacher said it's the other way and what the teacher said is RIGHT. After that I have to lecture my niece about think for herself about what's right and what's not. I am the tiger aunt after all. 

So, as our moral duty, if we are not good at certain things, admit it and learn from it and don't afraid to say "I am not too sure. Let me look it up for you about this." then Look it up and get back to the students. I have positive experience about doing this with my students, both children and adults. However, if there are some people who looks for the perfect teacher who knows every single things, remember that they have the right to do that too. Don't take it personally. 

That's for teacher. Now it's for parents.

For Parents
Parents have to understand that learning is a process, especially Language. For me it is a lifetime journey. If you realize even for our first language, we always get better with times, needless to say a foreign language. I always remember that when I was in China our home class teacher is one of the most respected on in that uni, he came in to the class with dictionary. When he wanted to give better explanation, he checked the dictionary. I respect him for that. He is our 黄老师。So while your kids makes a bit of progress in foreign language, don't feel hopeless. Remember that a professor and a native is still so humble to always bring a dictionary with him.

Parents have always one thing and one thing only to do that is to realize that Home is always #1 school for your children. 

Parents, sending your kids to school, to tuition doesn't mean that your responsibility is fulfilled. I owed it to some of my good teachers (at school, at work and in life) that I turned out well enough now as a person. However, the best teachers I have is still my parents, my home! 

Teachers of Life

Be more involved in your children's learning process, even in the things that you are not familiar with. For example, parents who do not speak Mandarin helps the kids in learning Mandarin. The best way to be involved is to give and get feedback from the teacher. Do it "moderately." As a teacher, I like getting feedback from the parents, I like when the parents said "she/he speaks to us in Mandarin and none of us understands" or when parents said "she/he is so scared every time coming to Mandarin class." I can work with those feedback. The first feedback means I am doing a good job and I have "easy" kids to deal with. The latter feedback means I need to adjust something in my way of teaching for that particular kid. The tips for parents, when giving feedback to the teacher is to be  as diplomatic as possible. Teacher is human too "Guru juga Manusia". Don't keep on criticizing, praise then gently criticize. We teachers take it better that way, or at least for me. =D 

This is  from one of the students who were "scared" when it's Chinese lesson. With parents' feedback and cooperation, she has done so much better at the end when I leave Medan for Bali. 

I learn this from my 3 years of teachings kids (not long but very valuable lessons I got), that the parents who are involved more in the learning drive me as a teacher to do better for the kids and in turn the kids perform better. Those parents do not care as much, shows less progress. At home,  always look for progress in your children and acknowledge that, even the slightest one. I have to learn this the Buddhist way, "Focus on the good and it will grow!" Be aware not to over praise though. There is trick in praising too. Some praise encourage, some other praises discourage the kids to do better. You need to understand the kids and the "right" way for them. Often, it needs to be customized from one kids to another. Parents might have a better understanding on this better than I am.  

Focus on the good qualities in each kid

Narrow it down to things that I have done in the past for kids under 7 years old, pick those that are suitable for you. Remember that "There is no exact science in teaching. Teaching is an art."

1. Write or Not to Write?
My interest in this was intrigued by a parent. I did my research and since then think logically for myself that I won't be focusing on teaching the kids under 7 to write , definitely not under 5. The most that I will do is to color (lots of it), while they color, we teacher can talk to them about anything, in Mandarin, training their listening skill. Don't think they don't understand, children understand all things in life better than us! (exaggerating :p) 

Coloring and teaching the names of objects, from here we learn about which kids have that artistic side, which kids are not. 

However, expert can say all things that they want, studies can show all the findings, but teachers and parents have to adjust the fact to the kids. If they want to, why not? But if they do not want, don't force. Especially teacher, do not threaten the parents about not advancing the kids to the next level because he/she can't write. This happens to my nephew. He is smart in so many ways, but not the kids who sit still and listen to "boring" talk of a "teacher". My nephew was still 5 then. Oh yeah, I was pissed! 

About writing, have you seen anyone who have been to school and can't write alphabets? You haven't right? Even those who have not been in school, when they are in the age when they have better motoric skill, they can copy every curve of the letter just fine. So don't worry about it. 

Forcing kids to do something make the kids hate it in the long run, and it doesn't benefit teacher nor parents and definitely not the kids. I learn this the hard way, I was a tutor before. Tuition is seen as a mean to complement the schools. Thus, I was trying very hard to prepare the kids to catch up the materials in school, which I personally despise. Then, I have a few kids whom I can see transform from loving to liking then to almost hating the subject, Mandarin in this case. It is something upsetting to see. 

If you are in school setting that provides you with books that need to be completed and there are writing elements in it, be prepare to fight! Know your subject and crystallize your goals for the kids and make it known to the school management/principal/head of department. Especially in Bali, Mandarin as one of the subject in school is just a way for the school to PROMOTE their school. Once or twice a week, half an hour session, for me it is good but FAR from enough. Especially for those kids who are still young, calming then down, warming them up for the session might already takes fifteen minutes, especially you are alone in charge of 20 plus kids. GOOD LUCK! 

But when come to the time they want to write, you can start from the very easy characters. Then tell stories about the Chinese characters. Stories always a good medium for kids (even for me) to learn things and remember them better. For this you can do research on the origin of the characters (as all Chinese characters are from logogram) or you can just make up your own to generate interest. For example, I sometimes describe 四 as a window with a curtain. The story evolves depending on the kids' interest. But some of the story must stay true and factual, especially those characters that will be used as the radical or known as 偏旁。So that your story is consistent and continuous to avoid confusion. 

Or for each characters you want them to write prepare some activities to go along with it too. Writing activities don't always have to be on the book, kids like to imitate the teachers. Ask them to step to the front of the class and write on the whiteboard with a marker, just like what the teacher (you and I) are doing. I bet they must be very very very proud and willing to do that. At first might not all are enthusiast about this, but I bet, when one starts, others will follow! 

Write and then do some activities

2. Listen, Kiddos!
They said even when a baby is still inside of a mother, they are already listening. Thus, some mom-to-be exposes the baby to classical music and say all the loving things to the baby.  

Language skill (not speaking ability) can apply the same thing too, in my opinion. Teacher should speaks more often to them, especially if the teacher is the only person who interact with the kids in Mandarin. Remember to use proper Mandarin.  

I am a firm believer of gathering as many vocabularies as possible for someone to be able to be good at one language. We can be super in memorizing the use of grammars, etc, but when you don't have the words to describe your feeling, all those grammars are at no use. Again, my personal opinion.  I personally like to repeat things I say. 

When I say "Zǎoshànghǎo" (good morning) to kids who first started their Mandarin lesson with me, I will repeat it a few times and translate and explain it to the kids first language. And as all greetings, I will want the kids to respond to my greeting too. This is where a bit of moral lesson is introduced. First you might not get what you want, it might take you a few tries if not a lot before you succeed. The key is to repeat what you want them to learn as much as possible, as early as possible so that it form a pattern and the kids will get it somehow. Thus it is important to introduce good things from the very beginning before the bad habits formed.  

For example, when I want them to learn to keep their own things in the bag, I will say "把书收在书包里”， I will then say "书包" and show them the bag, for them to make the correlation between words said and the object. This will NOT work just one time, do it every time you see them, it will apparently register. Warning: there are times when some kids do not even know how to put things in bag and zip them up properly, be patient. That’s another practical life skill lesson that you can help the kids with. So teaching Mandarin is never about just the language, at least for me. 

A bit of Science in Mandarin class. I too learnt here... 

To "shorten" the learning process, I often translate the words to the language that they are familiar with. "书包" = bag/tas. Again, say it a few times, especially when you first introduce it to the kids. Then REMEMBER to use that words you taught again in the next meeting, as often as you can, do it for about a week or a month (depending on the kids, the frequency of meeting) then observe. If they have gotten the ideas, use it as necessary only and you can do a review every end of the month or every other weeks, or whenever you think necessary. REPETITION is the key. It is teachers' job to decide how much you should repeat.  Other ways of learning more vocabularies are through songs and story telling or in Chinese we have 儿歌. In doing this, I am the kind of teacher who is very expressive, HEBOH in Bahasa Indonesia， both in my facial expression or in the volume of my voice. I am trained to "scolding" my nephew and nieces, so I am very LOUD. However, I need to acknowledge that some teachers can do it calmly, and still manage to convey the message and get the kids to learn, so find what works for you.

Every interaction with the kids are "extraordinary" for me. When I praise them with the word "wow" I don't just do "WOW", but I do "WOOOOWWWWWWWW!!!!" with both eyes bulging, in good kind ways. Oh I have seen some teachers who encourage with a very gentle "wow" and get the kids blushing and more encouraged than ever, so again personal style! Remember an art not an exact science.  

Start by focusing on those words that we might use daily. Forget about the kids must be able to count 1 - 10, must be able to recognize colors, etc. For, me, I first teach about whatever objects in their schoolbags, the things they wear, the things they need to say when they want to use the bathroom, the dustbin (kids need to learn not to litter), about the birds or butterfly that stops by in our house's garage or even the type of weather, or sometimes, I take out the content of my fridge and start teaching. 

If you insist want to teach color, then do it more creatively. Use all the things you have in hands. You can also ask the children to stand up and find things around the class/room that is in color that you are currently discussing. Children who do not sit still are normal! I am not patient about it at times too. But we just have to learn. But again, we can be firm about certain "rules" in class" and for all the "rules" followed, reward them with FUN activities! 

When the kids are not in the mood at times, I sometimes let them choose on what to learn, limit your option though, be firm about certain things, this motivates them and teach them to be responsible to what the things that they have chosen to do.  

In listening, better to have props to draw attention. I once was overwhelmed by a class of crying babies as the parents started to leave them by themselves in class, when I sang no one was interested. So, I get the idea to make a felt finger puppet, that are thematic and suits the songs. For example, I sew a few tiger finger puppets, one without eyes, without tail, etc to accompany the song "两只老虎”. As I took out the finger puppets, the kids are started to get interested, then promise them to play with it (and let them play with it, keep your promise), if they sing together with you and before I know it, they were singing louder than me!

I am not against gadget to aid learning. But I make sure I guide the use of gadget and limit them as necessary. When I want to show them a story, I make sure I don't just let them watch, I pause from time to time, then put the story in a simpler language and highlight on certain vocabularies in it before moving on to the next part of the story. Often I ask them to repeat the story for me, ask them about the meaning of vocabularies that I highlighted before. Repeat this until you think you no longer needs to pause the video, it's the indication for me that I am done with that story and need to find something else new. 

The pace of teaching is varied from one kids to another. Thus, even kids on the same level might learn different things in my class. This is a challenge for school teacher. Observe and see how the pace of the majority of the students and always prepare "something extra" for those who are slower or who are faster. 

:
:
:

Gosh... So long... To be continued... Not all those things are gonna work for every teacher and definitely not every kid. So we all just can be more observant and put lots of effort in implementing what might works and be prepare to drop it when it doesn't work as expected. Oh yeah, my first session with a 2,5 years old kid was embarrassing, running around chasing her to look at the book that I had prepared, under her mom's watch. But this parent is a great one, and that 2,5 years old is one of my success story, someone who has boost my confidence and teach me what I need to learn.

All the best!!!

About Contentment and 100%-ness

 

知足常乐

“Contentment brings Happiness”

 

It's been a while. Life has been in between busy and peaceful to less drama. So there is nothing extraordinary. But I am grateful that things have been going great. Just missing some people back in Medan.

So, here is something that I would like to jot down for myself to read one day.

I have been coughing for about a month plus, so far it is the second longest track record of coughing that I have had. The first still the one I had when I was in Beijing, due to polluted air. Now, it is the same case. However, since I can't sleep well at night because of the cough and I am done playing doctor for myself I dragged myself to the doctor (OH yeah... No one else can drag me and force me to do it.)

The result after the examination is rather as expected. Of course, I am going in with a cough and I am coming out with a cough medicine, on top of that, I am being prescribed with antihistamine called: Alergine cetirizine. Just hope that it clears the itchiness in the throat.

That's not the thing that I would like to remind myself (Although, it might come handy one day).

It is about life in general.

I thought I use my time really well lately. I teach and enjoy the current classes that I am handling and just considering another training for hotel, and around the house, surprisingly I still manage to do the house chores really well. For both work outside and inside, I got a good weekend off. On top of the regular cooking for dinner, I successfully copied the recipe of donut and martabak (4 times) that I found on Instagram. Somebody else is liking it and I am proud. =D For my family, they know, when I was in high school, I don't even dare to touch the stove. During college time, a male flat-mate taught me how to make fried rice. Now, I am cooking for another human being, not super good, but things get better with time. You tell me how can I not proud of that? Often times, we just have to impress ourselves, not others! =D

However, among those activities that have kept me quite exhausted by the end of the day and always happy when it comes to adventurous or even super lazy weekend, I got bored sometimes. I always think that I can do more with what I have. I got excited whenever my partner comes home and discuss his work with me at home. Although I can't help much, the discussion gets my brain going. Especially now that he has already moved to S&M department, more things that I can relate to. I am grateful of him for doing that to me. In that process, there is a certain part of me that always think that I can do more than what I am already doing right now. I am better than what I am right now. Maybe that's true and maybe that's not.

However, my interaction with a doctor today made me learn to be more content. Since I choose teaching Mandarin as something I would like to do (I got an offer to go back to Hospitality industry because as the Chinese market is growing here in Bali, the human resource for that market is insufficient. I decline it because I know I am not cut for a big corporation, too much politics at all levels, my greatest weakness), I might as well give my 100% in doing things that I do. In my life, I have always had done the same. In teaching, some people here told me to lower my expectation and just do enough because we don't expect people here to be as good as the Medanese in term of picking up Chinese language. Lucky that I am stubborn. I do lower my expectation, by slowing down the pace that I teach and the amount of material that I give, but never my view towards my students. Do just enough is not something I would like to do. I like to do my best, because I believe that certain people will be benefited from my effort. What is the greatest satisfaction than seeing our effort paid off, right? I see some students get interested in Chinese and looking forward to the class and actually can start forming sentences with whatever they 'catch' for the past 2,5 months.

Today, just before I went to the doctor, I was teaching my playgroup class. Children in playgroup are not expected to recognize characters yet. However, I believe if we can make it fun, why not. Just now, out of nowhere a 4 year old kid who had just started learning Mandarin (and whose mother tongue is no where close to Chinese language) is reading the Chinese characters to me and know what they mean! To be fair , that kid is naughtily smart. However, if from the beginning I have decided to go with the culture here to give just enough, just go by the textbook (which sucks), it might not happen. No one will enjoy the benefit to know that Chinese can be fun, and I will never get to feel proud, excited and happy, like what I am feeling now. I am so proud of her!!! Ecstatic!!!

Going back to the doctor, the doctor asked me if my work require me to be out a lot and asked what I do for a living. When I told her what I did, she gets so excited to know more about Mandarin and she makes me feel that I have got an exciting life teaching Mandarin. While most of us (including me) think that doctor is a profession that is not everyone who wants to be, can be. Because of the requirement of the brain 'capacity', which I believe I don't have. Also, things that they do are so 'technical' (I don't even know the word to describe it), that I think it is something prestigious.

However, seeing her eyes lighted up discussing Mandarin with me (the light that I don't see when I first walked in and when we discussed about my cough. To think about it, maybe Chinese language is more interesting than my cough. haha), it reminds me to be just grateful, content and give my 100% in everything that I do now and every opportunity that knocks.

For all of us who find that we are stuck and want to do just more of many OTHER things, because we are bored, ask ourselves if we have given our 100% in the moment, in things we do, to people around us and to improve what we are doing right now. Then, we might know what to do next.

As for me, I would like to be better in Mandarin, MUCH Better. Test can only grade us to a certain level. My HSK 6 certification means nothing to me now, because I know although that is the highest level for foreigners, but I think I still have so MUCH room to improve, sooooo much more.

Love Life,
Lin ^ ^

The Beauty of Balinese

Those are Huge offerings for Special days

Almost 6 months in Bali, I seem to find something to do that I am satisfied with. I tried school, it didn't work out so well, as I found that no matter how hard I want to try to make things better, I was abided by the system, which unfortunately is good only in theory but not practical.

So, I am now back tutoring again. This time it is tutoring tour guide, Balinese guides. These people do not stop to surprise me in so many (good) ways.

The first is that they speak so many languages, maybe not fluently, but good enough to be able to take the tourists around. That's the confidence and willingness to learn that amaze me. Most of my 'students' speak more than 3 languages, they speak Bahasa Indonesia for sure, Balinese as their dialect and a little English of course, then Russian, Japanese, Korean and now they are learning Mandarin, as Chinese tourists is the growing market here.

They said they get confused sometimes, but they are getting used to it with each passing day. Improvement is what I seek, so I think that's great.

Then, last week, had the chance to chat about the tradition that is still well alive in the society; the Balinese praying ritual. Most Balinese knows 3 calendar systems which I think is more than common and makes it extraordinary (my family is conventional Chinese, we use the Gregorian and Lunar, I know how to read both, but many Chinese, especially the youngsters, feel Lunar calendar is useless, so they do not bother to get to know it more). Again, Balinese knows THREE, the Gregorian, Wuku and Saka.

Because of their "persistency" in keeping what they believe in, thus makes this land special. People who lives here know best that Balinese is very laidback, in a way. Most of them put their belief first than work. Thus, many of them will take a break from work (the chance to earn money and make so called "better" living), and do what they need to do "pray". We who live and work here enjoy the benefit of more holiday :)

After a few months here, I notice that full moon that comes twice every month in either Wuku or Saka Calendar, is the same like the Lunar dating system. For these 2 days each month, Balinese normally will have bigger and more special offerings than the usual daily offering that they made. And much bigger for many other special days.

If you ever stepped into Bali, these offerings are everywhere, in front of the house, on the street, in the intersection, etc. They call this "Canang", if I am not mistaken. It is a small weaved basket with flowers, incense fruits, etc in it.

Other than that, this ibu (my student) was trying to explain to me that in Wuku (that has only 210 days in a year) and Saka calendars combined, there are many other sacred days where they will perform ritual in honoring the good aspects in live or merely give thanks to the nature/things around us. Last week, they just had this Tumpek Landep day, and according to this ibu, other than giving things to "metal" things that has been so great in assisting their lives, making work easy (including cars, bikes, laptops, knives, etc), they also give thanks to trees that deliver fruits, corps, etc, they give thanks to animals too, and many more. Each day has its own name.

From my conversation with Balinese, thus working class level, including Grab drivers (Yeah, I use their service a lot and often satisfied), they acknowledged that they spend a lot of money on offerings, that include the "basket", flowers, joss stick and fruits (the biggest amount was spent on fruits), but they think it is something they are willing to do and must do to get that peace of mind, for themselves, for the family, for the community and for this goddess land.

I am quoting what the ibu said to me in regard to that matter: "This is something that we do from our heart. We want to do it. Foreigners, the non-native, may say things about what we do, and take it for granted. They sometimes asked why this land is so peaceful, but they never think that it is what the people do that contributes in maintaining the peace in the land. We, Balinese, believe what we do gives peace in this land."

That statement really hits me. And I believe and I wish they will continue to do so. I know that part of the belief has contributes in keeping the land beautiful (like keeping the building low, not taller than the coconut trees), but I never think about the peace. To think about it now, I have so much respect for them now.

I am not a super religious person. However, I can see how this belief goes well with the universe and among us as a 'humankind'. Again, Respect!

This is Bali at its finest. The essence of Bali is not in the luxurious beach club nor the night life, but in the beauty of its people. Most of these people respects nature, I don't get whistling when I walk around alone, when I get it, I know it is not from the Balinese, but rather people who come from another islands of Indonesia.

Coming from a city that is not always very safe, I was skeptical at first, when my partner left our belongings (in a plastic bag) or jackets or helmets hanging on our bike, while we shop for groceries (it can take an hour at least). I expect to comeback and found something missing, but so far, this place has never let me down yet. I am so glad about it.

If you ever read or hear a story when bad things happen during a night out in Bali, which happened to me too. Don't blame this place, don't blame the Balinese. Blame yourselves. I blame myself for putting myself in a place where I know no good things can ever happen. If you ask me "is it okay?" Of course it is NOT, for me. Although some people are okay with that. I am in another group. Since I can't do anything and can only regret and upset about it endlessly, which is no use at all, the only thing that I can do in the future is not to go back. So, if things, unwanted things happen to you in Bali night club, don't blame this place. Acknowledge the fact that most things happened are not caused by the Balinese, but the people, often (or maybe always) the nonnative and foreigners (NOT the Balinese). So again, don't blame this place and its local.

The tourists and the non locals (like us) who need to behave and learn a little more respect to this land. This place and its people are undeniably beautiful, peaceful and kind.

From the Beautiful Goddess Island of Indonesia, Bali..

What is missing from the kids nowadays? Respect!

Almost every week, I see the post on Social Media about how corrupted the kids/students nowadays. We ask "what is wrong with the kids nowadays?'

Maybe that isn't the right question. Maybe we should ask ourselves "what have we done wrong in educating our kids?"

Although not all (there are always the good ones in those extreme bad ones), I see the difference in value of my generations when we raise our kids. We mostly try to create children that are capable, we need them to be able to survive in the society that is getting more and more challenging. Darwin's theory of survival of the strongests maybe is the foundation in disciplining our children.

Unfortunately, in that process of becoming capable, our innocence children who if guide well, will turn out just fine,  see the needs to make their parents proud in "winning" things that they don't always matter, like winning arguments. Sometimes parents are proud when their kids are able to defend their opinions from people like their grandparents about having cellphones at young age, for example.

Parents think that their kids have a point, when their children who are still in primary ask for a cellphone of their own, those in  junior high school ask for driving lesson, and when they are in senior high school, parents even encourage them by presenting them with their own personal car, sometimes the brand of their choice when parents can afford it. There are even worse ones who think maintaining certain lifestyle to help them fit in their society by all means are important, for example; borrowing money! If the latter is the case, what do we expect from our children? Fitting in isn't always the most important thing. Being with people who accept you as who you are is what matters.  

We justify our action in doing that for so many logical reasons, like; convenience (when you need to check where they are, you can call their cells, they can drive themselves to school, it will save you the trouble of sending them) or most of the time because of social status.

So, when the old fashioned grandpa and grandma make a comment on that, parents will genk up with their kids and make a joke of their outdated grandparents. Make them feel bad about how the world has changed (has it?) and how outdated they are. How nice?!

This kind of thing happens to me before. When I was still in high school, living about 11KM away from school, my uncle would arrange a car for his 3 kids and a few nieces and nephews including me to send us to school. Normally, the driver would drive. However, there was a time, when the driver was sick and as usual my dad would replace him and send us to school. That particular day, my dad was not feeling well too and when I arrived at my uncle's house, my grandma was somehow so irritated that my dad wasn't there yet to drive us to school and she started scolding me and calling my mom. Being a teenager, I do not like that kind of attitude, I expect her to understand that my dad wasn't feeling well and she should not have scolded me or my dad. It wasn't our fault! So I ran back home crying and skipped school that day. Thinking about it now, I feel silly! My dad, on another hand, drove my cousins to school.

My mom didn't support my behaviour, but maybe deep down she understood my anger, but she didn't tell me that it is right. In fact, what my dad did after being scolded by my grandma showed me a very important thing in my family, respect for the elders. Slowly, I understand how thing works. It seems like the general rule in the family.

Up to now, my grandma being the oldest in the family has all the respects that she deserves from her children  and grandchildren. There are times that I can still see she isn't always the best in making a rational decision in her actions, however, her children like my mom, aunts, uncles, or even her sons and daughters in law know where they stand, thus they always show respect and love her in their own ways. We always say, our grandma is the most luckiest grandma on earth! She has more than 30 grandchildren, more than 2 dozens of great grandchildren, however her rank in the family is always the highest. She is the general in the family :D

I can see my dad likes to hang out around my grandma, even though he doesn't always have topics to discuss with her, or sometimes even get scolding from her, he is always there when my grandma needs him to drive her around to run some errands. For me that doesn't show weakness, that shows greatness, how big his heart is.

I think I can make the connection of all this respect my grandma has. She was treated very badly by her mother in law, my great grandma. my great grandma didn't like her somehow. She forced her to work hard and did all sort of things that no daughter in laws nowadays would have ever done for their mother in law. But my grandma was patience and her kids can see that great value in their mother, thus the respect now.

The respect that my parents, my uncles and aunts, have for my grandma teaches us to see the good in our parents too and thus, the respects and love we have for them now. I hope we can maintain this and do not get lost in our way, like many of our peers have.

I am still rebellious as ever. Once, I stormed out from my aunt's house because she scolded me over something. Again, my mom didn't think what my aunt did to me is right, but she didn't support me either. Over time, I learn that she has her own reason for doing the thing that she did and I am younger so I should greet her and hold no grudge the next time I see her. Things turn out well and I can see my mom is super proud of me for that. My aunt does the same thing to me too. She holds no grudge, she expressed herself and be my aunt again. She helped me a lot on my wedding day. That's her love for me, as a member of a family. I love her too for being kind.

I have seen parents who laugh when the kids are acting up and disrespect their grandparents, and I am feeling very upset by it! I pity the grandparents for being treated like that and I am waiting to see how will the kid turns out.

Do you see how things work? For me it makes so much sense to show our kids this little thing call respect. Never thing that when we spoiled our kids by approving all their behavior, always stand by their side and not guiding them are the right thing to do. We might thought that they will be able to see how "good" we treat them and we believe they will return it to us. However, in the process of us being good to the young ones, we might have hurt our elders and the good news is: the kids can see that too. So, don't be surprise when the time comes for them to have their own kids, they will standby their children blindly and lose sight of the importance of their parents, YOU and ME!

When this happen, do not say "Why do they do this to me, while I have always given all the things that they want?" I know the answer for that. It is " You have neglected the part about showing by example. The young ones will say: "If you can do that to grandma, why can't I do it to you?" "If you have never showed respect to your own parents, why should I?" At this rate, we know we have failed.

I am not a parent yet, and I believe it is not always easy to practice what I see and say at this time. However, the realization that the thing above is what missing is very important. This is a reminder for my future self when I am blessed enough to have children of my own.

When I was tutoring, the semester report that I sent to some parents always said: "Teachers like me can only do so much, however, what matter most is Family, Parents."

Show them the right thing, if you want them to do the right thing.

学汉语另一面的乐趣

提线木偶 - 学汉语另一面的乐趣

今年印尼三语学校协会邀请了五华县提线木偶传习所到印尼巴厘与日惹巡演，交流 与 授课提线木偶艺术。在 巴厘岛由文桥三语学校接待 了五华县提线木偶剧团的四位演员。

五华县提线木偶是中国国家级非物质文化遗产之一，也是汉族传统的一种戏剧。至今已有六百多年的历史了。这样的艺术表演带来了很多利益。

汉语本来是一种美丽的语言，可是想要学会，学者需要努力的去寻找，去体会这个语言的用处。有了这样新鲜，有趣的艺术活动，对于学生们，它不但带来了乐趣，也是能提高了小朋友们对学汉语的兴趣。让他们学懂了学汉语不仅仅是读书，写字，而从艺术表演上学者也能帮他们了解中国文化以及看懂了汉语的美丽之处。

为了欢迎和亲眼欣赏这个表演，我们的文桥三语学校的创办人和董事长，江连福先生和江睿董事长，也到场来了。这样的表演不但让小朋友们感到兴奋，当天的表演对于一小部分在场的老师和来宾们也是他们最初的提线木偶表演经验。在文桥三语学校礼堂等着我们的演员进场的时候，大家都包着期待的一种心情。

这次演员们展演了四段精彩的演出。第一个开演的是木偶书法。在此，其中一个演员，李新贤所长，让一个男木偶活起来，书写了四个美丽的汉字“马到功成”。这样的开场引起了小朋友们的注意力。接着展演的是木偶舞蹈。这次，来的四位演员，李新贤，李红霞，李伟平，和李景娴老师，都上台表演。他们戴着黑帽子，帽子连着细细的线和双手灵活的动作给了四个小小的美丽木偶舞者生命，让他们手舞足蹈。

 

最后两个剧目是《水漫金山》与《化子进城》。配着这两段民间传说，观众能听到两首动听的古代音乐和对话。从那四段表演，演员们表现了他们高级的表演技术。

      一转眼，节目已经结束了。小同学，来宾们解散后，文桥三语学校的老师们和五华县提线木偶的演员们就开始把礼堂装备些最简单，最基本的木偶。不久，三十多个想了解这个提线木偶艺术的小朋友们就慢慢的次第进入礼堂，次第入座。

授课的时间虽然不长，而在那短短的十五分钟里，小朋友们多多少少应该体会到了提线木偶的基本技术也亲自扮演了小小提线木偶演员的角色。这次的提线木偶表演让观众们看到了学汉语另一面的乐趣。

Hello Students, Hello Fellow Teachers, Hello School and Hello Education!

 

It is another new chapter of my working life. I will never know if I will make it as a ‘career’, as career is defined as “an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress.” The word “significant period of a person’s life” and “opportunities for progress” are big words for me currently. As of now, I applied for this job because I want to spend my time with a more useful activities, and of course to shed some pounds. I am glad that I did, as for the past few days, I went out for work (not much work to do yet though) and still got my house chores done at home, making sure that someone still comes back to a HOME. Although those left me with not much energy by the end of the day, I have to admit that I am proud of myself for that. Little things count, don’t they?

From this, I am also very appreciative for what my partner has to scarifie to get me to school, every single morning, EARLY. Before I start working, we woke up at 7.30 (earliest), now, We have to be out from the house by 7AM. And I couldn’t make it possible, if it is not for him. This gives me the energy to do more at work and home. Thank you, Baby. The best thing is that we manage to squeeze in our little routine of having breakfast together still. Hooray!

But getting myself here, at school, as a teacher for real, I am looking at those kids and I am very eager to show them that learning Mandarin can be super interesting and fun. Most importantly, it is a beautiful language. Forget about career advancement, I am just hoping that I will make a difference in the students’ learning.

For the past few days, I didn’t have much things to do yet. I will only be starting having my own class when the new term starts. I replaced a few classes for other teachers for the last 2 days and found myself back in my “nature.” It doesn’t feel like new job, it feels like me. And I am happy that way.

However, system and politics in workplace just failed me again this time round. I am not very keen in politics at workplace, but people are just too consumed with work that they forgot the reason that they are here, to educate (or could it be, they were just sticking with their purpose all this while?), I will never know their intention, but I guess I just need to adjust my place here.

Being here for so short period of time, I have already learning. I just witnessed a few things that are jaw dropping for me. I am no expert in education nor have more experience than the teachers who are surrounding me for the past few days, but I am new and distant enough to see that there are certain things that If I can I might want to do differently.

1.       Disciplining kids

As I was writing this, a kid is being disciplined for profane languages in school.That is a good thing, isn’t it? I will definitely do it too. However, it is done in the teacher office with most of the teacher around. Today experience has taught me not to discipline kids in front of public. (NOTE TO SELF) I did that at times, the reason is because of lack of emotional control, things that I am not very good at. Thus, I am living and learning.

 

However, it’s worse if we do it because we are in charge, because we have the power, because we want to show to our peers that we are doing something good, because we are looking for fun stuff to laugh at. I am in no agreement to that, at all. School should have a room for this purpose, if needed, take less new students so that you make room for what needed, to provide quality!

It is not very nice to scold people in front of public, not to adults nor to kids. It is even worse when the kids started to cry, then you took out your phone and started to take a picture of them and threaten to spread it, while you laughed along with your peers. Even I know that you are not going to do that for real, but it is something I don’t appreciate. I have good-ex employer before, who discipline and explain things to their employees about things that could have been done better behind closed doors, one on one. That is a good example that I hope I will be able to follow.

2.       Crown yourself with good title/position at work, but don't forget to be Human!

I also learnt no matter what your position in a company, in life, be Humble. There is a saying in Indonesian “Diatas Langit masih Ada Langit.” As of this, I have good example in our family. My second uncle and his wife are really good in staying humble. With whatever they have in life, they have been great in keeping their feet on the ground. I am very proud to have that uncle. I have the opposite type as well in my family, I am not proud of him but I hope good things happen to him though.

Politics in the office, teacher’s office to be exact, is so obvious between the Mandarin and English Divisions, and I don’t see the need for it to happen at all. But it is there. The school I am with now is well-known for their Mandarin in this island, thus, the division is the biggest, it is happened that I am a newbie in this group and someone on another division isn’t happy about the division that has gotten bigger and decided to declare war from the first day I am in. That person even thought greeting in the morning is too much for the members of the 2 divisions. Bad Example! She must have been so unhappy at work. Poor her! I have no intention to be in the war, so she can have her own war! Amen! J

I am totally self-aware, I am a type who might not make it big in a career, but I will make whatever I have in hand good, well and better. Excuse my vanity! :p

All in all, here I am starting my third full time job as a teacher in a big school. It is not a fancy job, (it even has not-so-good-looking uniform) but I am happy doing it. To be Frank and Hopeful, I can see myself having school of my own and grow it in my own way, as I jotted down almost 4 years ago. As a housewife, I don’t see myself has a dead end in realizing my dreams, I am just taking another route, it might be longer, but I feel it is something visible. Above all, I am just praying for good health, time, physical strength and the continuous support that I have already gotten and I hope to always have from my partner and other family members! 加油！

Learning in the process of Tutoring





Everything starts winding down. In a blink of eyes, we have made it through another school year. My students are going to the next level of learning; some are changing uniform soon, stepping to what so called teenage-hood, starting their first year of high school. Am always anxious dealing with the ‘current’ teenagers. They are not exactly like what we used to be. Or so I thought.

However, looking at many of the students, I come to a conclusion that how kids turn up mostly depends on how they are being brought up. I have written it in another post about 2 types of parents. Here I would like to focus more on how the daily things can make a difference in the development of a child. I read about the cognitive development theory by Jean Piaget. It is stated that children go through 4 stages as they actively construct their understanding of the world. There are 2 processes underlie this cognitive construction: organization (how do they separate important ideas and less important ones) and adaptation (how do they adjust to new environmental demands).

The first stage starts from birth to 2 years where they construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical and motoric actions, then the second stage from 2 – 7 years of age where they connect the sensory information with physical action, e.g. to know how long a stick is compared to another stick, they will try to put them together and come to their conclusion. The next level is a concrete operational stage (7 – 11 years of age) where they can do internalized mental actions, e.g. they can now compare the length of stick by just imagining putting two sticks together, without actually doing physically. Lastly, formal operational stage that starts from 11 to 15 years of age, where they move beyond concrete experiences and think in abstract and more logical terms. In this stage, they might think about what an ideal parent is like and compare their parents to the version of their ideal parents (I guess this is why I always think that the children who are just stepped into their junior high school year is more difficult to handle, while those in their senior years are already more ‘stable’ – again, stable in a very unstable form.)

Anyway, I encountered an incident with my student who is about 5-6 years old who make me think “What if a kid doesn’t go through the above mentioned stages properly?”

I have a student who had been sent for tutoring class since a very young age, as parents put academic above everything and another reason for doing it is because impatience to handle their own kids. So the kid basically seems like to skip the whole first stage of Piaget’s theory! The kid does not know how to put the book in a bag properly (so that the bag can be zipped), the kid doesn’t know how to wash hand with soap and wash it off properly, the kid doesn’t know how to operate a scissor, the kid doesn’t know when the pants are not worn properly.

Though he knows how to write, recognize characters faster than any other kids.

If given the opportunity to observe, I really would like to know what kind of parenting works the better. It is too immature to tell right now, although I know that I got irritated more because a kid can’t do what he/she is supposed to be able to do at his age than being impressed with the ability to do what his/her peers can’t do yet.

Anyway, that’s just me being me!

For myself, we were growing up in different environment. We didn’t have much gadget to play with. We were outdoor a lot, we were super active physically, we were not on tuition class as much as the kids now, if we did, because we wanted to not because we needed to, our parents involved in our playing time too as much as they can, they were home a lot (we were privileged to have a shop just outside our house), we had our dinner together and we do not rush through it for homework or TV programme, we had seen a real cow, pig, turtle, goat, rabbit in our daily life, LIVE, not virtually through internet or TV.

So as a tutor I am still trying to understand many many things, try to understand how things have evolved.