Who needs maths when your English is this good at 10?
Re: “Is mathematics really that necessary in life?”, Letters, April 27-28.
Judging from the essay Khun Vint’s grandson wrote about his hatred of maths, the 10-year-old boy is a child prodigy.
I don’t think any Thai fourth-grader would know that the ancient Greeks invented maths (me neither) and I doubt any of them has such a strong vocabulary. Most 10-year-old Thai kids know only words that have a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern, much less are able to write coherent sentences. This sentence alone – “Though my most favourite subject is art, my family compares me to my friends, saying I should be like them” – would make a Thai university student cower and tremble.
I must credit his grandpa for the boy’s excellent English. Khun Vint should write a book on how to teach kids English. It would be sensational if not revolutionary.
Somsak Pola
Samut Prakan
