Nam Kue School

My worse nightmare as a child. Missing my Saturday morning cartoons. Surprisingly, the principle of this school was my first grade teacher. I had to see my mean 1^st grade teacher 6 days a week. Sigh. I went here ever since I was a kid, started in kindergarten and finally quit in 4^th grade. Thank god on picking up the bad habits of this bad ass friend which made me quit in the middle of the semester. It was his idea to ditch school. The reason was I had this very rude teacher from 3^rd-​4^th grade. Dealing with this teacher was the worse, she had a big and long bamboo stick the whole time she was teaching. She really frightened the kids. I didn’t know any better because I was only like 7 – 8 at the time. She would use the stick to hit the blackboard so hard that you would see the chalk come off everytime. I remembered that we always was assigned to recite an entire chapter of Chinese words AND of course if you didn’t do it. She would 1 yell at you 2. take her giant bamboo stick and hit it on your table (IF YOU’RE REALLY LUCKY, she would ask you to put your hands on the table and she would hit it with a stick really hard of course OR the other option was her hitting your butt) 3. punish you by making you sit in the corner in front of everyone 4. shame you in front of the class 5. tell your parents what a BAD kid you were and let your parents yell at you during the whole car ride home as well as at home. ONE TIME I forgot my homework journal and she made me copy the entire chapter ten times. You know how many strokes is that? More than 9,000 of course. Back then we weren’t allowed to use lead pencils either. If we used lead pencils, she would take your lead pencil and toss it into the trash can in front of the class. Another ridiculous teaching of hers was that you can’t wear windbreaker jackets or pants, it would piss her off SO BADLY that she would make you stand in front of the class and goes like «YOU SEE THIS? THIS IS NOT ALLOWED IN MY CLASS BECAUSE IT CAUSES SO MUCH NOISE AS YOU WALK DOWN THE AISLE!!!) she also grabbed the arm of student forcefully. She still scares me till this very day. I saw her 5 years later waiting for the muni after I quit that school, she STILL scares me. During Calligraphy, she would pick on the students who couldn’t write perfectly and call them out of how ugly it was and praised the ones that looked good. Her name was Mrs. Liu I believe, old Chinese lady with glasses that forever scared my childhood. The second I walked into this school every Saturday morning I would die a little on the inside. The second I walked away from this school I would wished that I wouldn’t have to ever come back here again.
THIS is the last Chinese school I would recommend for your kids, unless you want your kids to have a very tainted childhood. I went to another Chinese school with the big stone dragons in front and where the ⁴⁵⁄₃₀ bus runs near the tunnel during the summer AND it was like heaven to me. The teachers were SO nice and helpful to me, I wish I went to that one instead. I actually learned from that. If you want your kids to have a happy childhood, this is the last place they want to be at. Spoken from real experience. I didn’t know what my parents were thinking, I’m pretty sure they didn’t Google best Chinese schools in San Francisco. Maybe it was cheap.

My niece joined the 2 week program for $ 100 dollars where the teachers from China come to teach the students in arts and crafts and lion dancing and kungfu etc. The program said that they will pay you back the $ 100 dollars after finishing the program.
I am the aunt writing the check for my niece to attend.
When I get the check back from the school they have written the check to my niece.
Well since my niece is 9 years old, I don’t know what kind of school assumes a 9 year old has a bank account?!
Since I am her aunt, I can’t deposit her check. When I ask the person giving the check, she dismisses me and tells me to go to the office to ask them. Then the lady proceeds to tell me that its the school policy as the my niece is the student that they write the check to my niece. They suggested I open an account for my niece to cash the check!
I have worked at schools before, they normally write check, «to the parent of or guardian etc». Why in the world would you write the check issued to the student? Why don’t I write the check to the teacher since the teacher is the actual person teaching my niece instead of the school?!
Needless to say I didn’t get my $ 100 dollars back as I can’t cash the check. My sis doesn’t have money that’s why I paid for it in the first place. Parents, please beware of this when this program is open again that you will not get the check made out to you.

Have to support my Chinese School. I didn’t like going to Chinese school. Those who went on Saturdays have it easy. I went there 3 hours x 5 day x 6 years. That’s torture.
The experience and what I learn was somewhat beneficial. There were so many things that they could have done better. Like teach more Mandarin. Sounds like they haven’t change much. Parents still bring there kids there because Chinese schools are far and few.

As my grades slipped in Mandarin class in high school, my mom found it in HER «best interest» to enroll me into Nam Kue the summer between my freshman and sophomore years.
(NOTE: Yes, I was doing so poorly — but cut me some slack, will ya? I come from a background of not even pure Canto — my family has roots in Toishan, so I can’t even speak Canto properly. I can’t even speak Toishanese either! So of course pinyin and the sounds made no sense to me! The only thing I could really speak was English! I did try to get out of taking Mandarin in high school, but my mom forbade me to do so.)
So yes, I did a quick reading test and they put me in… the 3^rd grade. Yes, the 3^rd grade with the little kids. I was about 3 feet taller than all of the class. My teacher for the year was an old guy who was supposedly the «calligraphy master» of the school. It was in this class I learned to «cheat» calligraphy writing, haha — where you do every single stroke painfully slow.
In the 4^th grade, I had a teacher I liked a lot, because she, well, she gave me 4^th rank despite me not doing a lot of the work — purely because she liked me, hahaha. However, it was in this class that one particular fat boy I had to sit next to the entire year kept bugging me. He was rude, obnoxious, and a slew of other Chinese words. The only upside of this year was I made a lifelong friend who’s suffered the process with me – haha. Always got 1^st rank in the class, and was the same grade as me in high school.
Overall, I’d say I learned a good amount of things, but most Sundays, it was just pure boredom. I spent most of the time watching the clock tick.
And the burning question — did it help my regular Mandarin class in high school? I guess to an extent it did. It was crazy though, because that meant I had school 6 says a week, on top of swimming and violin lessons.
+1 For the nice teacher I had in 4^th grade.
+1 For the friends I made.
–1 For the assemblies.
–1 For the boring ineffective ways of teaching.
–1 For the fat boy.

I don’t quite know how to rate this place. I’ve attended this chinese school for about four years in 4^th grade, 6^th grade (I skipped 5^th), 7^th grade, and 8^th grade. My Saturdays were devoted in learning traditional Chinese (Canton).
I would say the education here is worth the money. They assign homework such as essays, vocabulary, calligraphy, and recitals of poems/​passages. It is very comparable to the education system in Hong Kong, but less challenging, of course. I give props for making this language stick in my head for a while.
Although this place is good for learning Chinese and whatever, the teachers here are horrible. They are old, convervative Chinese people. I did use to think they were okay, until I approached 7^th grade in Chinese school, when I also had to simultaneously cope with school work in my high school.
Yeah, my work slowly declined, as I would always rank top three every semester in my class. Don’t blame me, I don’t think people would get very excited to go to school six days a week. I have a life.
That’s when Ms. Not-​Stating-​Her-​Name saw my not so significant drop and called me out in a class of 60+ people (we combined two classes together and were situated in the auditorium). Wow, thank you. She blamed it on me, caring too much about my appearance, and wearing hoop earrings that’s too big for my ears, dragging me and my knowledge down. What kind of a teacher talks about their students in that tone of manner, in front of the whole auditorium, disparaging their students in a way that’s telling them, to JUST GIVE UP? How much I hated her after that.
I knew I wasn’t the only one. Couple of people from my class were also just tired of her unreasonable, condescending yapping.
They should really hire better teachers. I think this is the only thing this school lacks. I’m glad I graduated here.

I came here for chinese school! Most of the teachers are pretty nice. The school fee is about $ 100 and the book free is $ 30, but I think the prices are up now.

Oh, Nam Kue… where did all the Saturdays of my childhood go? While all the kids slept in or had Saturday morning cartoons, I was stuck on the now-​extinct 15-​line to Chinatown. Then through hours of lessons that I’d have to hold my eyes open for…
The curriculum is actually *gasp* not bad. While learning the characters through the stories and poems, you also gain a better understanding of the Chinese culture and history. And I think it really depends on the teacher that you have because I do remember certain years where I actually tried to pay attention because the teacher was somewhat interesting.
BUT when at school parties, you downgraded from the noodle and rice dishes to a cheeseburger and soda from McDonald’s or a CharSiuBau — I knew it was time to go.
Truthfully though, I do regret not paying attention more and for not being such a great student. I now understand the importance of knowing a second or third language! However, it was at this school where my slacker attitude was fostered and then carried on into my high school career. It’s all your fault I’m not in Med or Law School!
Sidenote: The classes I took were in Cantonese, but I think they were also offering Mandarin when I left. They have classes both in the morning and afternoon, and I think on the weekdays also.

During my 1^st — 12^th grade years here, i hated this school with a passion. How dare they take away 3 precious hours of every Saturday morning when I could have been sleeping in like most kids. No, the lucky ones wouldn’t have to wake up at the buttcrack of dawn to take the stanky, crowded, slowass 15 line to Chinatown.
I was the quiet kid in regular school, but somehow in chinese school, i was transformed into little miss slacker talks-​a-​lot… I did poorly, but well enough to pass all the levels with my friends. [one who was super smart, and a few others who were like me] When i graduated 12^th grade. i was 6^th place. Should’ve been ecstatic about it, but there were a total of 6 people in my class. woohooo! (i got a B, fyi) Most students got to quit when they reached 6^th or 9^th grade. My dad’s tone of voice somehow coerced me into staying…
Me: Can i quit now.
Dad: sure… but it would be best if you didnt. [stares]
Me: T_​_​_​T
Facilities: 3 — 4 floors. Since they lacked classrooms, the downstairs auditorium was used as a classroom, as well as a dinky, behind-​the-​stage room. Always freezing my butt off in the school in general.
Teachers: 2^nd and 6^th grade teachers were scary women… but i highly doubt they are there. 5^th/​12^th grade Mr Li was nice and taught effectively.
Materials Taught: effin difficult… when i had to memorize stories, i would actually have my dad record each sentence slowly on a tape and then pause before continuing so i could learn to read. dictation by memory was the worst. They also taught calligraphy. which initially was fun since we traced words. eventually it got more difficult when there was no tracing allowed. still fun nonetheless. Singing the star spangled banner in cantonese is not my cup of tea…
Times Cut Class: drum roll please… ONCE! seriously. my friends and I left during break for about 1 hr to take studio pictures next door. yes, the ones where they make you pose next to a pillar, screen or someshit…
Results: hate and resentment gone. I’m actually really glad i went and that i understand Cantonese. i think i’ve started retaining more chinese trying to sing chinese songs that i like… It’s nice to be an ABC and surprise people with my not-​so-​great ability to read a few words.