Monday, February 22, 2021
My internship at K. Fels
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
HDB to condo is an upgrade???
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Can my kids be bilingual?
Losing the battle in my 用心良苦 attempt to have my kids be effectively bilingual!
So we've been investing deliberate efforts since Yx was young, speaking to her in Mandarin as much as we can. It helps that she was under the care of both yeye and nainai who are primarily conversant in mother tongue. Well, not 100% pure Mandarin, as there are times when we mash in a few English words (most of the times nouns and adjectives), but mostly and mainly Mandarin! We even teach her multiplication tables in Mandarin, and borrow 1-2 Mandarin books from the library each time.
But recently, I observed she's beginning to think and respond in English... I guessed she's been exposed to too much of it at school and on TV (Wiggles, Peppa Pig etc). Well I have nothing against her English because her spoken English is really very decent for her age! It's just that gradually she's switching from more Mandarin to English... when she's nervous she even speaks with an outlandish Peppa Pig slang it hurts my ears >.<
Discussed this observation with wifey (who has a rather good command of spoken English) who didn't feel it was a big issue - she'd rather Yx be a master in English than speak typical broken Singlish like most Singaporeans do. My counter was that school-goers will be using and hearing English 95% of the time in school any way, furthermore it is easier to pick up English than Mandarin; hence we should practise Mandarin at home... this discussion didn't reach a conclusion yet and it doesn't help that wifey is more comfortable and intuitive in English... =/ So both of them would be exchanging convo in complete English sentences like in an English class. I've observed that Yx would speak/ask/initiate to wifey in English... And beginning to do the same to me.
Really don't want my kids to turn out to be uncomfortable in Mandarin in future. It's been the trend in kids (and teens!) these days. English fi-li-fey-ley but mother tongue is like alien to them, worse, they even admit with arrogance that it is! Reminds me of my experience with Yx's cousin, J who is 5 years+, he speaks English at home and attends Berries:
Me to him: "你吃饭了没有?"
J stared blankly at me, eyes wide open and afraid to blink. He looked right at me like his brain was processing what I said but he doesn't know how to respond; he uttered nothing and only mustered a tiny tiny nod, the look in his eyes reflected that he hoped that's the right answer to my question.
SIGH!
Readers, if you have any tips pls share some guidance!
Sunday, February 07, 2021
Netflix shows I watched in 2020
I really, really invested alot of time on Netflix in 2020. Okay, to use "invest" is arguable as it would mean I gained something out of it; I'll rephrase and say that I depended much on Netflix to unwind in 2020. Almost every night, I found myself glued to Netflix on TV.
In the early part of the year when babywye was still oblivious to her environment, at night I was able to watch shows whilst carrying her to sleep. Later on, as she developed and learnt that TV with its flickering lights and distracting sounds = entertainment, I could no longer do that, so I could only watch after she's fallen asleep and in the cot. Which means I only couched damn late (maybe 11.30pm thereabouts). Which means I also slept damn late. To make matters worse, Netflix shows are so addictive, geez! Episode after episode. Luckily for wfh, I could afford 30-45 mins more sleep the next morning haha...
Minus movies and some series that I watched a few episodes but didn't like (e.g. Suits, Brooklyn 911), here's the series I watched in 2020!
Would take up too much time to give my review for each and every one of them; so I'm gonna categorise them into three groups:
1) DAMN GOOD MUST WATCH!
Saturday, February 06, 2021
Vaccinated!
Capturing this moment about life
It's 2+am, I'm lounging on the sofa watching Netflix (because Tottenham is getting badly thrashed by Liv is not worth wa...
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YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES ...
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Blur Bee gave me the link to this: http://www.talkingcock.com/html/article.php?sid=1891 . I'll be good and save everyone's trouble o...
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A soon forgotten sport - void deck soccer Boys around my age would have played void deck soccer in their primary and/or secondary scho...