Chinese Very Hard

So I went to Ace's school on the second week of the term cos there is a CNY gathering for the parents who are in the Parent Volunteer Group.

Since we ended at around the same time they finished school, I waited for Ace to finish school so we could go home together.

While waiting at the school gate, I saw Mdm Ong, his Chinese teacher and waved to her... and then I saw Mrs Raj, his P4 form teacher and his current English teacher and went up to say hello.

And to my disappointment, the first thing both teachers said to me is whether I can please ensure that Ace finishes his work and hands it in on time.

Last year, Ace received a big scolding about being tardy in school and he said he will change.

So he "changed for the better" afterwards.

So it was a surprise to me that Mr I-Promise-I-Will-Have-Good-Attitude actually started being tardy so early in the school term!

So I told the teacher I will talk to him...

His Chinese teacher gave me a list of things to follow up with and I said I would. But while I told her I was really embarrassed that Ace gave such bad attitude.. she kept saying it is ok, just need to remind him.

So we went home and I listed all the things and asked him to do... and one by one, he completed the task and told me he completed. So I reminded him to hand in the next day.

Few days later, his teacher called again and said that he did not hand in the homework yet. I told her I will remind him to do so.

And then I gave him another prep talk about good attitude. I told him also that if you had done some homework and did not hand in, also mean you din do cos you cannot be graded for it mah.

Fast forward again....and his teacher called again.

I was so embarrassed she had to be calling again and again and so appreciative that she took the effort to keep up with that. She told me Ace has handed in most of the homwork and said to remind him to go checkout their school's asknlearn portal for the answers of the workbook so he could do his corrections. I am so amazed that his teacher took time to make this video for every question i the workbook for the students to go through at their own pace!

But she told me she suspected that Ace did not complete his Compo as she asked for it a few times and he kept saying later and eventually said that he could not find it.

WHen he came home, I asked him about the missing composition and he said that he couldn't find in his bag. He went to his room to "find" it and came out after a short while and said he could not find it. So I asked him to look into my eyes and tell me the truth.... Did he or did he NOT do the Compo homework...

And then he finally confessed that he had been lying. He did not do the composition at all because he was lazy. I gave him a scolding... about having good attitude.. about not giving up... about appreciating your teachers' efforts... about finishing and starting your race well...

But as I was doing my scolding/nagging... I also realized that it was not really very much Ace to lie. Usually to him, lying is too much of a trouble so he will rather tell the truth.. and so there must be more to this than he is letting on..

So I paused for a while and asked him to tell me... why is it that he is behaving this way and why he has forgotten his promise to himself last year that he will do better this year?

Ace then told me that he feels that P6 Chinese is too hard.

I told him if he keeps skipping homework and correction, it will only get harder and harder. Nothing in this world cannot be overcome as long as we have heart and put in effort one.. that is why chinese say 世上无难事，只怕有心人...

PS: I stopped getting messages from his teacher but he is still not very automatically up to date with his work.. he needs reminders and lots and lots of encouragement about how he can do it and how his Chinese can improve.. so if you see him, pls encourage him! :)

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