大家好, 今天我们在这里欢聚一堂, 举行圣显容堂第62届中文小学毕业典礼.
同学们, 祝贺你们, 多年的汗水有了回报. 你们今天中文小学毕业了. 我们家小孩笨一点, 多读了几年. 但我们一样欣慰. 你们让我们骄傲, 我作为家长, 我以我的孩子为傲.
首先感谢同学们的努力, 你们放弃了玩的时间, 要面对更多的作业和考试.
第二感谢你们的爸爸妈妈, 你们上课, 他们陪读. 我是去附近健身, 有些家长就干脆加入了成人班.
最后感谢你们的老师们, 她们要花费多少心血才能看到你们毕业. 我们都喜欢看到好的成绩, 老师也一样, 但是中文学校的同学成绩出得特别慢, 所以老师们更辛苦.
六年多了, 每个周六周日都要来这里报到. 有些人象我们一样不是住在附近. 要开车来, 要找停车位. 我们也想过放弃, 也想过轻松点. 但我们坚信, 小孩的成绩都是家长们坚持的结果.
让美国长大的孩子学中文这本来就是个挑战. 我们来这里学习的三个小孩, 每个性格都不一样. 他们会试探你, 看你的底线在哪里. 我有一个小孩, 他就是不学, 上课找借口去厕所躲着, 回家不做作业. 考试他能 交白卷. 我说中国以前有交白卷上大学的, 想不到现在我们家也出了个. 你说头疼不头疼?
他平时在学校成绩还是不错的, 后来发现他是故意不好好学, 以为这样我们会知难而退, 以后他就不用学中文了. 我们告诉他, 学中文我们不会放弃. 一年不行我们再读一年, 两年不行我们读三年. 反正爸爸妈妈不急, 但要不去中文学校是不可能的. 学中文, 任重而道远. 没别的窍门, 只有”坚持”二字.
同学们, 你们学的还远远不够,今天还有千千万万的小孩从各种学校中毕业. 他们有很多人比你们优秀, 你们要学会面对困难, 要学会解决困难, 从中你们会感觉到学习的乐趣. 中文就好象一把钥匙, 有了这把钥匙你们才能打开中国文化的大门, 因为我们的文化全在文字里面. 没有文字, 你们就学不会中国文化.
希望你们永不放弃学习中文.
谢谢大家.
Hello everyone, thank you for coming to this graduation ceremony. When the Principle approached to me in the beginning, I was wondering, “why me?” My kids are not the best; in fact they have quite a lot of problems.
I have brought 3 boys to study in here. The first one is great, he can always score in 90s, the second one , well, can only get half of that, so his score is in 50s, 60s. And the last one is the problem. He can only get half of the second one, so his score is in 20s. We are very frustrated about that, and when you ask him, he doesn’t seem to care. After a while, we finally realized that he is trying to make us give up on him, so that he doesn’t have to come every Sunday to the school.
Kids are very smart; they are constantly testing our limits. We always blame kids for not being able to stay focused or they can’t keep working to finish one thing. However, most of the time, the problem is in the parents. We just give up too quickly; we should allow them to make mistakes; we should give them more time.
So, I told my son. We will never give up Chinese school, it’s ok if you can’t pass this year, we will repeat it again. We will repeat until you are totally comfortable to move on to the next level. Other kids may only take 3 or 4 years to finish; we are prepared to spend the next 10 years here.
When we plant a seed, we expect to harvest in the fall; when we go to work, we expect to get paid. But after 3 or 4 years of sending them to Chinese School, if they still can only understand very basic elements, we will have doubts, we will have questions.
Kids are like a piece of blank paper, whenever you write on it, it will show and stay on it. Many people think learning Chinese can wait, wait when kids are grown up and want to learn on their own. Of course that will be easier, but Kids are like wet cement, you have to print on it when you still can.
Learning Chinese has no shortcuts, there is only one way, persistence. Learning is a commitment, once you have decided, you should go all out. Take your kids to China travel; take your kids to see their grandparents; make them only speak Chinese in your house.
Remember, if you don’t give up, your kids will never give up!
-- Anthony Chau
