A Taiwanese teacher’s alternative approach to learning Chinese is being adopted by schools in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong students have typically struggled with learning Chinese Mandarin due to its difficulty level and the widespread use of the dialect, Cantonese, in daily life instead.
Educators in Hong Kong have thus welcomed the new approach, with at least two private schools adopting the system.
Chao Li-chen’s approach is aimed at six-year-old children and focuses on their use of intuition for recognising and writing ancient characters, before making the connection with modern Chinese characters. She first came up with the approach in 2002 before going on to conduct studies to test the system.
Chao shared her insights with the South China Morning Post on the debate of whether traditional Chinese script, or simplified Chinese script, was better for young children learning the language.
“I feel that pupils in the lower levels are suited to learn the traditional Chinese script, as it is closer to ancient characters and better for understanding the surroundings.”
After mastering the traditional script, they can learn the simplified script from age nine, Chao added, noting the learning process could then be faster.
John Ng Sun-kit, a retired lecturer at Baptist University’s department of education studies shared that Chinese teaching in Hong Kong did not focus on meaning and instead placed greater emphasis on memorisation.
Hong Kong children start learning writing at too young an age, with kindergartens asking them to memorise and write Chinese characters, he added.
This, he said, resulted in many pupils fearing the study of Chinese at the lower primary levels.
Chao’s approach can make learning more engaging for students, according to Ng.
Ng had helped to bring Chao to the city for workshops with parents and teachers after realising its effectiveness.