Thursday, November 27, 2008

the Complicated Mandarin Language...

Complicated ..at least to me, i found it difficult to catch with this subject..whenever i am able to comprehend the lesson then i could not pronounce the word corectly, once i asked teacher in Gifta's school.., what if this subject is too difficult for my kid (3 times a week with once test every week...writing chinesse character!!!) and these are for 6 years old kid..i've been thinking am i wrong take this class or even the school? but thats the only school in the option right now...we have background why we chose this school. back to my question to senior teacher (she also one of the owner), she got a very wise answer..."Mandarin is difficult for everybody..not only for your kid..as long as she doesnt have any problem with English..just give it a try, but for those kid who has difficulty in English..i suggest just drop, and shift to Bahasa Indonesia.."


The reason why i chose Mandarin (they have Mandarin and Bahasa Indonesia Class...with the same category) because i thought i have paid expensive enough for the school fee so then i have to get more and at the same time, it happened to be my girl's choice..coz she loves mandarin.., but it turned out the mummy has to be more active..so as my girl so then i studied..using the same book. till sometime i have to check the homework after they slept..slightly read the book..and go over..that's worse..Man...really lost in translation..


So many stories about this subject, i really need help so then my girl could follow not only for getting the points itself but to even deepter, so then one day she could talk Mandarin and also write..(wuiiiiiiiih..Mum's ambition all right dech!! ) i dont really much care about score/marks, i just want my girl enjoy learning the subject and good result in the end of the day.

make the story short..i got the young talented Lao shi (=teacher) to have Mandarin session at home "one hour every Monday". The first day, i worked half day the purpose of meeting this lao shi at home and have some points of view ..how this is going..the method she used and everything.. so far just great..

I got good feed back at first , she said that my girl easy to comprehend but need practice to pronounce the word..she compared..bla..bla.., the next week my girl got 100 score for test..good girl, but along the week that i have to leave her for business trip..she got low score for that week test.., it seems this Lao shi pretty disappointed about the result..while to me yeaw..a bit upset but its ok i didnt make a big deal of it.., its not end of the world..still plenty of time. Last Monday, our mbak said that Lao shi need to talk to me..wondering what about? then i called her..

+ Hi Lao shi did u ask me to call you? ada apa?
- Iya tante..itu Gifta tadi aku ajarin 2 crita tapi kayaknya satu aja belum kepegang padahal udah 1 jam lebih..
+ Oh ya ngga papa lah.. kita coba aja...(i am the Mum who willing to take any chance for my girl)
- Iya..trus kayaknya Gifta kurang cepet nangkep....
+ (me speechless...think this young teacher lady has been crossing the line...)
- maksudnya kurang cepet kalo nangkep Mandarin.. (she added ..)
+ ngga papa lah..di coba aja.. (i was really..reallly...uncomfortable with her judgement, she just underestimated my daughter....)
+ no worries..Lao shi

But after that conversation i was really in deep anger...and got no nerve to tell Ayah..he would be pist off for sure..., so i've been thinking of terminate this mandarin session at home..and i dont care if she is the best mandarin teacher in the world.., I AM THE MOTHER I COULD DO EVEN BETTER THAN HER..EVEN I DONT KNOW MANDARIN..., what do you think Ladies...Mummies...? any idea...

Note :
somehow mum being so emotional..if thing to do with the children, but have to be wise to see the problem from different angle..mum decided to keep the mandarin session at home. Sorry Lao-shi for me being so emotional!! if you've got the chance to read this entry...

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Kaki..the autumn fruit..


we had really nice lunch at very traditional tempura restaurant at Takamatsu-country side of Japan..love the food.., even the rice was really yummy..all fresh.."anago-ebi-taco-daicon-hamachi fishi-and vegies" and traditional..hhmm..this country is really something so neat..organize and polite.., dont tell Indonesian is very polite and kind.., they are really more polite..kind i dont know... :-) very strict to the rules i may say..now wonder they became very strong economically..
in the end of lunch..the old lady who also owns the restaurant serve and cook together with his hubby which i found romantic way to spend the oldies..ha..ha....offered us fruit.., we simply say yes..we've been told that was autumn fruit called "kaki"...funny name isnt it? the first time ..when it served the fruit just deja vu rembering me of kesemek fruit when i was little..which really difficult to find also these days.., but "kaki fruit" tastes a bit different with kesemek that we know..sweeter but the texture similar.., since then we almost had kaki fruit all the way .."this is kaki..fruit.." and we proudly say.."oh yeah..we also have in Indonesia...we called kesemek..." the i would heard..."oooh ok.....what mek?" what a ugly name they thought probably..
we got a chance to see the view of country side..and i saw the orange fruit all over the place with no leave just fruits all over the branches..just like "fake" ...oh thats kaki fruit, we just like a couple of kids (me and my boss)...take the pictures..the one that i took just like the wild one..like no one has them..so beautifuuuuuuull...its just in between autumn leaves change to red..there you go the fruit tree was there...
after we got to Tokyo we just like haunted by kaki fruit stories..., one of big boss told the story that one Japanese..brought kaki fruit seed to indonesia..and plant there.."oh i see that kesemek was coming from..." becoz the climate pretty much different so they grow differently...hhhmm..pretty classical..dont you think? like foreign people who stayed in indonesia too long... dont get offended could be positif ...and could be either way..
How come i've never heard any story of our fruits..mango, salak, durian..just any story...but Hey i took so much time talking rubbish...who cares anyway just the fruits....!! KESEMEK anyone...???