cHiLdReN's TaLk

Scene #1
Shanel (a half Korean, half Chinese K2 girl): Cher Yanni, you see … one of my teeth dropped.
Cher Yanni: Oh no! How come it will drop?
Shanel: I also don’t know. I brush my teeth then I PUI then this tooth comes out.
Cher Yanni: Hahaha … Huh? What is PUI?
Shanel: PUI lohz! (laughing away)
Cher Yanni: then where is your tooth now?
Shanel: I put my tooth in plastics and put under my pillow and the tooth fairy took it away.
Cher Yanni: *shocked* Tooth fairy?! And then what happened?
Shanel: The tooth fairy gave me two one dollar coins.
Cher Yanni: Oh … you mean the tooth fairy buy your tooth?
Shanel: *laughing away* Yes Yes Yes!

Cher Yanni’s reflection- if JAMs kakis were to be there to hear this girl saying PUI, think not only they will roll on the floor but they will point their finger at me and said, “Teacher Yanni, what have you been teaching your students in school?!” Hee!

Scene #2
Cher Yanni: Jeremie, you were playing at the playground again?! (trying to say with angmoh accent)
Jeremie (a Sydney K2 boy): Ya … they want to play with me! (FULL of angmoh accent)
Cher Yanni (listening very carefully so will catch what he says): How come?
Jeremie: They want to chase me everytime I come to school
Cher Yanni: Oh no! Why are they like that?!
Jeremie: I don’t know … I can’t ignore them!
Cher Yanni (amazed by the word ‘ignore’ he used): You should have run away, Jeremie!
Jeremie: I did … but that doesn’t work!
Cher Yanni: Oh I see! Ok! Class … Lets start lesson now!

Cher Yanni’s reflection- a typical Singaporean child will say, “I did … but cannot lehz!”

sCeNe #3
Cher Yanni: Vivek, how many house you have?
Vivek (a K2 Indian boy): hmmmmm … 2!
Cher Yanni: Wow wow … where is it?
Vivek: One at Serangoon Garden … the other one we don’t always go, is at India!
Cher Yanni: So your Singapore’s house, how many layers?
Colleagues by the side started laughing loudly … “Teacher Yanni, you think cake ar, how many layers!?”
Cher Yanni: Oops! I mean how many storey?
Vivek: 4!
Cher Yanni: Wow wow … then you sleeps at which storey?
Vivek: 2!
Cher Yanni: Vivek, can you invite the teachers to your house?
Vivek: Yes Yes!

Scene #4
Teacher XYZ: ABC, why didn’t you want to play at the playground?
Child ABC [a 5yrs old girl]: don’t want
Teacher XYZ: Alright … then you sit here with me
Child ABC: Teacher! You know hor … my father always scold my mother!
Teacher XYZ: Oh … what happened?
Child ABC: then my mother scolds my father and asks him to go outside and sleep
Teacher XYZ: ABC, you love your mummy more or your daddy more?
Child ABC: mummy
Teacher XYZ: Why you don’t love your daddy?
Child ABC: my father always said I this wrong, that wrong one
Teacher XYZ: Your father always scolds you?
Child ABC: Yes

Cher Yanni’s reflection- true story wor! You be amazed by what the children knows and can tell the teachers. Sometimes they will just tell us about what happened at their house … their parents quarrels those kinds. Encounter once before that one of the child told me that the mum was crying. Is very important to give a child a healthy and positive childhood.