3
6
start their educational life with such a study, which to my mind is
at the bottom of most of our educational troubles by the inevitable
atrophy or retardment of the reasoning faculties which must ensue
where brute memory is the only qualification. This however need not
concern you and is perhaps unavoidable.
13.
So long as this is the case local Chinese will continue as
a general rule to take (a) of Group II and in exceptional cases (b);
and the effect of abolishing the compulsory nature of this part of
the examination in your Matriculation will probably be negligible,
especially as exemptions from such compulsion were commonly granted
by the Senate. The mere fact that Group II is now compulsory seems
to me to meet any objections on this score, as you point out in a
previous letter.
14.
There remains then, after all this preliminary talk, the
case of those students of Chinese race who have not had the advantages
(if indeed they are advantages) of our local pari passu system, who
learn no Chinese until a comparatively late age, and yet whose
parents, mostly overseas, wish them to study Chinese here as well as
other subjects.
15.
I confess to a certain sympathy with the views expressed in
Mr. Britton's letter of 9th February, 1934. In particular I agree
with the arguments in its second paragraph against compensating for a
reduced standard in Chinese by insisting on a higher standard in
English. And personally I think that for such students a paper
intelligently set on the Thousand Character Classic would meet the
case, on the general educational grounds stated above, as a second
language. I go so far as to say that in my opinion such students will
generally be better equipped mentally than the product of our own
schools.
16.
The trouble then is how to have two different standards for
written Chinese in the same examination without giving grounds for
17.
a grievance on the part of those who have to take the more severe test.
Une possible solution presents itself, namely to alter the
wording of (h) to read "Any other language approved by the Senate.
Candidates offering this section of Group II may be called upon to
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age 7
7 END
pay an additional fee of $5" and to omit all that follows, leaving
the examiner free to omit Grammar (which is non-existent in this case)
and to set the papers as he likes.
18.
By this means the Senate should be able to ensure, by more
rigorous enquiries than in the old exemption from compulsory Chinese,
that the concession was not abused.
19.
I should have thought in any case that the qualification
"modern" in (n) might be inconvenient. Surely ancient Greek might be
20.
offered on occasion. Written Chinese is neither ancient nor modern.
I have sufficiently indicated that I adhere to the views
expressed in my letter of 7th October, 1933, that both Mandarin and
Cantonese should be excised from this Group.
21.
I will not add to your burden by a disquisition on Kuo Yu.
This is an attempt at one and the same time to depict on paper the
spoken word used, with local variations, over a large area of China;
and to provide for political reasons a lingua franca. For the latter
purpose it is clumsier and less efficient than the existing written
language which is current everywhere. And to attempt to depict
sounds by non-alphabetical means is like expecting a jelly-fish to
behave like a vertebrate by painting an imitation spine on its back.
i have no doubt that these views will be vigorously opposed
by enthusiasts for Chinese culture. But the only alternative of
forcing the boy from overseas to neglect his general education by
attempting in a year or two to advance from almost complete ignorance
of written Chinese to the requirements of II (a) seems to me
22.
indefensible.
Page
23.
i nope that my recommendation as to Chinese pens dated
23rd October, 1933, will not be lost sight of.
Yours sincerely,
(Sd.)
1. I. SMITH.
E
age 7
P
33791