What really matters?
Mother of two, stiXzzle inventor, bookworm ….
Not quite what you want to know, right?
What you really want to know is … How am I with Chinese, right? After all, I create the puzzles.
Modesty, step aside. Trumpeter, blow away. Town crier, make thy proclamation.
SM is good, unorthodox, crazy enough …
to score As for every single school or national Chinese exams. All the way from kindergarten to junior college (JC)*.
to nurture (not tutor) my kids to score As for their Higher Chinese ‘O’ Level exams. No tuition.
to nurture my kids to like fun Chinese stuff, e.g., reading & watching《三国》“Three Kingdoms”
to nurture one of my kids to like serious Chinese stuff, e.g., studying literature
to read “Dream of the Red Chamber” during JC
for my Chinese teacher, who saw me reading, to say 看就好，别搞红学。I was, and still am, light years away from being able to dabble in redology – the academic study of the novel. For the thought to even cross my teacher’s mind, woah, it’s such an ego booster. 谢谢老师抬举了！
to continue taking Chinese lessons (until a few months before the prelims) although I was exempted after acing the ‘AO’ Level exam at JC1*
to continue writing compositions during the “exempted” Chinese lessons and requesting the teacher to mark them
to be still a bookworm with a recent read like The Qin Empire.
Phew...blowing one’s own trumpet is blush-inducing .
* There was no Higher Chinese during the era I hailed from. Back then, we did Chinese at ‘AO’ level during JC. The earliest we could take the exams was at JC1. Upon attaining a minimum grade, one can be exempted from doing the subject for the rest of JC.
What really matters
We have fun with Chinese. All of us. The whole family.
In hindsight, the fun is there because there was no rejection of all things Chinese. And vice versa.
Chinese doesn’t exist as an instrument of torture at home. Academics aside, Chinese is a gateway to the world of books, movies, dramas, songs and other fun stuff.
Here’s to fun with Chinese in its various manifestations!