My rant on the SPM mandarin subject.

The SPM Mandarin subject is infamous for it's difficulty in scoring an A.
Why so?
Oh, I don't know,
Maybe Chinese people just love to give their us Chinese a hard time.

Sure, few decades ago,
It's almost impossible to get an A for most of the subjects,
Getting straight A's would be the work of a prodigy.

But in the current situation,
It isn't hard to score A for all the subjects,
Except for Mandarin.

And it's gradually becoming tougher.

I don't see the point in making Mandarin tough,
It's not even a main subject,
But it's so much harder in comparison.

The Mandarin paper consists of a lot of Classical/Literary Chinese,
i.e. 文言文，古文，名句精华, etc
You don't see other language subjects having classical language as a big part of the paper.

In fact,
Not understanding those components DOESN'T make one 'bad' in that language.
So why emphasise on that so much?

A lot of teachers couldn't really teach this specific component of the language.
So how are we gonna study for it?
Reading?
Without guidance?
How?

Language is something that requires time,
And consistent practice,
But to study a language (referring to Classical Chinese) that we don't frequently use in our daily lives USE AT ALL is just ...

I just hate the fact that the Mandarin paper has these,
Even the modern part is tougher than other languages,
But at least it's understandable,
And for that, I could blame myself for the lack of reading.

Even if I read Chinese papers daily,
Read all sorts of contemporary Mandarin novels,
I'll still have the same level of understanding for Classical Chinese.

It's just ... unfair /=

Teacher mentioned that we are the future for the Mandarin subject.

Fact is,
If I'm still in Malaysia,
I wouldn't encourage my child to take that subject.

-Kritz