Joe started learning Bahasa Melayu in kindy this year. Initially, he found it really confusing because he has been learning English phonics all this while.
For example, 'a' is pronounced 'eh' as in apple or 'ay' as in ape.
But in BM it's pronounced as 'ar' as in api.
Blame my lack of patience for it but coaching him with homework really made me want to pull my hair out. I even went to school to see his teacher to learn how he's taught in school because he didn't seem to understand what I was saying.
And at 5 years old, they have weekly ejaan tests!!! I didn't want to pressure him so I just praised his effort regardless of how many chee tans (egg) he brought home.
I must also admit that I had not been too bothered to coach him at home after that one crying episode.
But this week, I resolved to help him with more patience. And it paid off. Somehow it's like a light bulb went off in his head and he understood everything I said!
He came home today and told me that he didn't have to do any pembetulan because he got everything right.
I'm so proud of him. And what makes me even more delighted is that he declined any offer of a reward. He says he already has too many toys!
Good job Joseph! I love you. And that doesn't depend on how well you do in school.
Good job, JOE!!! Happy for you and your mom (so she don't have to pull her hair out, haha). I'm going through the same boat as you, Pris... more about getting her to read.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realise the little BM and Chinese books they have in their homework pouch are the words for ejaan and ting sie for the next week, until recently. Haha...blur mummy. Yiu Yiu has many mistakes too until I realised about the little books and started practising with her. I find it more difficult to coach her in English since I don't know how phonics work :-(
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