By Sharon See, Channel NewsAsia
Some primary school students have been taking Chinese lessons from animals.
In a bid to make learning the Chinese language more interesting for primary school students, the Singapore Zoo has produced booklets on Chinese idioms related to animals.
"Two tigers cannot live on the same hill" - it's a translation of a Chinese idiom reflecting the nature of tigers who are solitary hunters. The booklet tells it all.
"We hope to have a conducive and relaxing environment for them to learn Mandarin with no pressure at all. And this booklet is one of our many programmes. We have also improved our interpretive signage and map with Mandarin inside," said Fanny Lai, ambassador for Speak Mandarin Campaign.
"I find the booklet very useful because it has beautiful pictures and it's very interesting," said Primary 5 student Candice Wong.
"It tells us a lot of idioms of Chinese and background of the animals," said Jerry Heng, also a Primary 5 student.
But it's not all child's play.
The aim is also to help the English-speaking Chinese community pick up a thing or two about the Chinese language, and teach Mandarin-speaking senior citizens to conserve wildlife.
The booklet is sold at the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari for $3.
What's the point of all this when in my opinion, the true and only way to learn/master a language is to speak it regularly?
And stop teaching Mandarin in English. English just can't make the cut in terms of conveying the meaning. And vice versa. Direct translations are so funny.
I've got a classic example. Check this out, it's very cool!
Then now got what Speak Cool! campaign. Actually, they should change it to, "Speak Super High Class Language!". Confirm plus chopped can work.
Posted by TheLast | 
« Home | Wai Kit is a ghey » //-->
Add a comment: