Learning Mandarin the Hard Way

The Chinese characters.

Source: Flickr Photo by heidi schempp fournier

As you can see in my bio page, I am from the Philippines. However, my grandparents are Chinese expatriates who came over the country to settle down. Both of my parents were born in the Philippines. In other words, I am a Filipino with Chinese blood flowing through my veins. But just like most Chinese-Filipino my age, I am very accustomed with the country’s culture, norms, and language. Sadly, the Chinese culture is becoming lost within my generation. Chinese-Filipino at this age tend to embrace this culture less and prefer Western culture. It is quite unusual to find a Chinese-Filipino of my generation very fluent with our ancestor’s mother tongue.

The Language of Chinese People

To give you a brief background, the Chinese expatriates in the Philippines mostly came from the Fujian provinceof China. So the dialect they speak is Hokkien. The official language of Chinese people is Mandarin. This is the language learned at schools. In the Philippines, Chinese schools do exist to cater to these expatriates. However, the government allotted only 2-3 school hours for Chinese studies. The rest of the hours go to all the required subjects being taught in Philippine schools. Therefore, in the morning, the subjects are being taught with English and Filipino as the medium. In the afternoon, subjects are taught in Chinese. In most Chinese schools, the subject matter is in Mandarin, but the teachers explain it in Hokkien dialect, but some schools implement Mandarin as the medium of teaching.

Chinese Demystified: A Self-Teaching Guide Amazon Price: $12.75 List Price: $22.00

Chinese School Systems

Most Chinese schools utilize rote memorization. There are lessons to be studied during the semester. Each lesson is usually a moral story. At the end of each lesson, the students were taught some vocabularies found within the lessons. Questions (related to the story) with fixed answers were also given out at the end of each module. The exams will then be like this: identification of the vocabulary words and questions to answer. Basically, to pass the exam, all you needed to do was memorize what was included in the module. Since Chinese lessons were explained in Chinese, it is difficult for those Filipino- English-fluent students to fully understand the concept of these lessons. That is why most students weren’t really very fluent in Mandarin.

Chinese (Mandarin), Conversational: Learn to Speak and Understand Mandarin Chinese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's) Amazon Price: $20.00 List Price: $49.95

Relearning the Once Neglected Language

With globalization and the fast developing economy of China, Mandarin has become an essential language to learn. Those who neglected Mandarin during their school years were being sent to China to relearn the language. Mandarin indeed is becoming very important today. Most businesses here require collaboration with Chinese businessmen. Most suppliers came from China.

Sending kids to Chinese schools in the Philippines is not enough to hone their Chinese-speaking skills. Unless they go to Mainland China for a study tour or even a vacation, learning Chinese in the Philippines alone could be difficult. However, going overseas to study may be above the budget of some Chinese parents. That is why, in my opinion, it is still possible to learn the language through local Chinese schools as long as they take it seriously. Students should just be motivated to understand the lessons instead of resorting to rote memorization. They should also be encouraged to watched Chinese films and read Chinese books. This way, learning Mandarin could be achieved in a fun way.

Copyright © 2011 by seriousnuts. All rights reserved.