ramblings of 03S78

03S78. HCJC.

27 of us make up the lovely class of 03S78 :)

it was a year and 6 mths ago that we graduated from hwachong, nothing much has
changed since then - we still have the good old class outings when we spend most
of the time walking around (+ extended one in europe recently), we still play
mahjong, watch movies, go æçå¦! together (at nwxiang's request of course)..

to many more years of friendship!

teddy! :)

our beloved school :)

our lovely flag.

outside canteen.

chalet in ubin.

'A' lvls results '05

Chao recruits!! '05

05/01/2003 - 06/01/2003 06/01/2003 - 07/01/2003 07/01/2003 - 08/01/2003 08/01/2003 - 09/01/2003 09/01/2003 - 10/01/2003 10/01/2003 - 11/01/2003 11/01/2003 - 12/01/2003 12/01/2003 - 01/01/2004 01/01/2004 - 02/01/2004 02/01/2004 - 03/01/2004 03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004 06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004 07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004 08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004 09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004 10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004 11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004 12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005 01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005 02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005 03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005 04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005 06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005 07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005 08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005 09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005 10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005 11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005 12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006 01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006 02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006 03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006 04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006 05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006 06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006 07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006 08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006 09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006 10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006 11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006 12/01/2006 - 01/01/2007 01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007 02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007 03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007 04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007 05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007 06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007 07/01/2007 - 08/01/2007 08/01/2007 - 09/01/2007 09/01/2007 - 10/01/2007 10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007 11/01/2007 - 12/01/2007 12/01/2007 - 01/01/2008 01/01/2008 - 02/01/2008 02/01/2008 - 03/01/2008 03/01/2008 - 04/01/2008 05/01/2008 - 06/01/2008 06/01/2008 - 07/01/2008 08/01/2008 - 09/01/2008 09/01/2008 - 10/01/2008 10/01/2008 - 11/01/2008 12/01/2008 - 01/01/2009 01/01/2009 - 02/01/2009 02/01/2014 - 03/01/2014

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ramblings~

Yijin + girls! '05

Xiz, Ms Wang + guys! '04

* 03S78
* hwachong junior college

* candice
* lifang
* yang
* xiaoxuan
* hilda
* quanyao
* xizhen
* sharon
* huiqi
* meiyin
* yijin
* yifan
* pear
* nwxiang
* weixin
* samuel
* ningqi
* pua
* yilin
* eliza
* wijaya
* ronnie
* weilei
* bong
* ryan shea
* wuwei
* r~linz

* hwachong!
* IVLE :)
* 30th Anniversary!
* HJC Council! :)
* our funky yahoogroups! :)
* winning thinkquest entry - i-Matrix
* blogger
* blogskins

* junior class!
* grandjuniors!
* 06s78
* 07s78
* 08s78

* dearly beloved ms wang!
* 03S77
* 03S75
* 03S71
* 03S7A
* 03A11
* 03A12
* 03S62
* 03S69

* 04S68
* 04S62

Quote 6: all things come in threes 好事成三

At our age, I think most people hope to make enough money to get our own car. A trusty Toyota, a Big Bulky mercedes or perhaps a cool slick Lamborghini. In a rush today, that was certainly on my mind as I chased a bus down clementi road before a kind-hearted samaritan at the 3rd bus stop decided to answer my raving mad calls to flag the bus down. But little was I to know that in catching that bus, I was given a timely reminder of the serendipitous encounters that taking public transport can potentially bring every day.

This one came in the form of a chatty blonde boy of, I was told, 3+yrs old. Perhaps its not surprising at this point that I should say he had 3 people with him. And that in the next 3 minutes or so, I realised that he was being exposed to 3 languages. It was apparent that an arrangement had been worked out so that his dad would speak in german to him, his mum in english, and his babysitter/carer in mandarin.

Woah. And I thought bilingual babies were the next in thing. Well, in a sense, most of us are exposed to 3 or more languages if we include dialects. But I guess more and more parents are putting in effort to make sure their kids are multilingual.

Which led me to wonder if it were better to use the "dual/triple immersion approach" or stagger the teaching of the languages in the years before the child reached 10 years old. If you believe Dr.Robert Needlman:

"Up until about 10 years of age, children can learn a second language in the same incredibly efficient way that they learned their first language, and they can learn to speak without an accent. After about age 10, language learning comes less naturally, and it's very hard for most people to get rid of their accents."

Reading the experiences of various parents around the world on the net. It seems that more people are favouring the "dual immersion approach" + "one parent - one language". Here are some excerpts:

"When certain language assessments are done on young bilingual children, the children can appear delayed, when in fact they aren't. For example, a 15-month bilingual toddler might only say two or three English words. However, if you add in the Spanish words, the total number of words is six or seven--well within the normal range. By about age five, most bilingual children have caught up and will test well in both languages."

"Within the first 12 months of his life, Gabriel has sorted out in his brain the two separate sound systems, so that he immediately knows which language is being spoken to him. As predicted, he says some words in both languages, but most fascinating is the way he tends to learn to say just one word for a given object at this stage. So he learned horse before koń, and won't say the Polish at all. Yet if you ask him, "Gdzie jest koń?" he understands. But by the time he's five he'll have sorted things out and be speaking two languages more or less fluently, with perfect accents in both. That is, if we keep making the effort to sing and read to him..."

A few interesting articles on trilingualism here:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=321833

Well, with the right environment, still not too late to learn more languages after the age of 10 definitely. I can certainly think of at least 1 very effectively trilingual person in class...
But, I shall paraphrase what a certain neuroscience lecturer of ours likes to say though:

"The learning ability of owls' has been shown to decrease after they start having sex, dare we extrapolate? Learn and study hard while you can, people..."

I shall certainly do that these next 2 weeks or so.

Yes, the studying.

P.S: In American superstitions, the number three is very important. Often, Americans will say, "All things come in threes." Three is lucky because it represents the traditional family: mother, father, and child. Therefore, gifts, letters, and guests will often arrive at your home in groups of three.

Labels: toddler, trilingual

ryaniq lived on 11:40 PM

- 03S78 forever -