Kevin Cheng’s Pri 1 Son Brought To Tears By Chinese Homework

Hong Kong actor Kevin Cheng, 56, is now facing a parenting challenge many mums and dads can relate to.

The father of three boys recently opened up about watching his eldest son, Rafael, seven, who has just started Primary One, struggle under academic pressure.

Rafael previously attended an international kindergarten, where his Chinese foundation was relatively weak and he could not read or write Chinese.

Kevin said he now regrets enrolling the boy in a local primary school, his alma mater, Pun U Association Wah Yan Primary School, as Rafael needs to catch up rapidly in Chinese.

“Doing homework every day is very tough for him, sometimes he ends up crying. He also has to deal with dictation,” shared Kevin.

“Seeing how hard it is for him makes my heart ache too. If things don’t improve by Primary Two, we’ll consider transferring schools.”

Kevin added that the current Primary One Chinese curriculum is already quite advanced.

He didn’t expect his son to have to learn complex characters such as “墙壁” (wall) and “灯笼” (lantern), which even he himself has to stop and think about before recalling how to write them.

These days, Kevin spends his evenings tutoring Rafael, focusing on dictation practice. As a result, he has basically turned down all dinner engagements.

Admitting that he and his wife, actress Grace Chan, “took a wrong step” in their school choice, they plan to enroll their second son, Yannick, six, in an international primary school this year.

Their youngest son Carlos, three, will attend a local kindergarten instead, so he can build a solid foundation in Chinese before entering a local primary school.