watched a little of a documentary about bridge-building in greece. one thing that caught my attention was how much they emphasized on the building of the foundation of the bridge.
it is the foundation that will hold the bridge and make sure it is safe.
the most meticulous planning and work is done in the design of the foundation.
when the foundation is not ready and mistakes occur, it is back to the design board and ways to improvise or to rectify the weakness are taken.
once when the foundation is settled and it is deemed strong enough to support the bridge structure, only then the rest of the work to complete the bridge can start.
and what makes me babble so much about making the foundation of the bridge???
i just can't help from applying this to our quality of life ... if we care to build strong foundation in everything.
take learning a language for example. if a child gets proper guidance from his parents and nursery and primary school in learning the correct use of a language, it will help a lot when the kid grows up and learn to master other subjects. you can't read other subjects without the knowledge of a language right? and i won't call language a subject to learn. a language is something which is best learnt via immersion.
my english is not good enough for what i am doing i think. do i have strong foundation in the language?? well, my parents do not speak to me in english. i learn all my basic english from tv programmes and cartoons! thank god for all those cartoons in english. sesame street, electric company, he-man, thundercats, mighty mouse, captain planet, etc.
come primary school, i transferred to a national school from a vernacular chinese school at 8 because my uncle who is residing in australia thought the school would provide a better learning opportunity for me to learn english.
well, i started having friends of different races and strict teachers who spoke to us in english and i found plenty of books in bm and english to my delight. all my chinese characters started being swept away to be replaced by these 2 languages. oh all the happy stories penned by enid blyton filled my primary years. i love the faraway tree tales and i always imagined that the big tree in the playground in front of my house was one. hehehe....didn't all who read the book? and i love the investigative stories of gemuk and inspektor goon. yup, i read my famous five series in bm.
in secondary school, i was introduced to 'modern bible' aka mills and boons. wakakaka....my friend and i even rented the books and exchange them from one of the bookshops in our small town. 'modern bible' was coined by our english teacher who caught us reading the books in our drawer during his lesson. maybe these tales had influenced my 'idea' of an ideal man.
however, my english skills are only used a lot in reading and writing. there was minimal speaking and listening as i conversed with my classmates then in chinese and malay and with teachers too.
come college time, well, it was the time i really learned my english. it was so intimidating to hear those who could speak fluently coming out with a string of english words so confidently and using those big words. gulp! i could not even make a proper sentence without a grammar mistake if i did not run the sentence through my head first. and it was in the college when i was pushed to do my first debate. i think i only got through the debate because i had facts and figures to support my arguments and not because of my language proficiency. it was bad. but those years in college had sort of made me change my thinking language into english. i would think in english and sometimes in cantonese. i dunno why it is easier and faster to think in cantonese than in mandarin. blame the influence of tvb dramas?
well, then there was the one year in england. the spoken english got a little better but not the confidence level. and i worked in a chinese restaurant mind you and my boss was a cantonese. haha...so more cantonese than english sometimes in a day.
going to america during easter while in england loosen the tongue a bit. those who have spoken with americans would know how words can fly out so easily from the americans and they are less reserved compared to the british. so it was yadda yadda yadda for 2 weeks in america.
back on the home soil after 1 year abroad, the confidence level was ok. being sent to a good training ground for 3 months in pj forced me to act like i know the language well. those kids could eat you up if you lose your rein just for a second. one of the girls was already reading 'war and peace' by leo tolstoy at 16 (i still haven't read the book till now!!)!!!
now coming to the present situation, i think it is the kids who cannot understand my babbling in the english language in front. i speak faster when the ideas come because i don't want to break my train of thoughts. but i hope it would give them a practice of how people would speak in real-life. i can sort of place some grammar rules in the head while uttering my sentences and keep the sentence grammatically correct. when speaking with peers, i will not falter nor will i stand out. those who work in the city speak the language more and their choices of words are more bombastic now that i even have to guess what they mean sometimes (some words you only see in books before and never really have the chance to use them). i do pronounce words wrongly because i was never taught how to pronounce them at school. i can only imitate the pronunciation when i hear the word spoken either by a person or on tv. and gosh, some words are are pronounced differently in england and in america. so which should i follow?? headache.
i will not drown nor will i climb to the highest mountain with my level now. but i do hope i won't tumble down on my walk up like jack and jill.
so if you want to give your kids a stronger stepping stone, do invest in early education and be a good role model. don't turn into a half-filled bucket like me. i can't stand parents who teach their kids wrong english just so they can show off to their friends the english they know. i shudder having to correct the kids when they grow up. so is this the moral value of my sharing???
wakakaka....i think i have digressed far and wide from what i started with...have i or have i not???
remember....no cutting corners when it come to setting up a strong foundation. only then the ideas and plans can go smoothly and with minimized glitches. ;P
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