Whenever I flip through my children's mother tongue textbooks, I always think that the stories in them are bland and uninteresting, so much so that they could put me to sleep.

Children should be introduced to works such as Romance Of The Three Kingdoms for those studying Chinese and Hikayat Hang Tuah for those studying Malay.

My daughter has told me that she would rather read books in English as there are many more options available.

But when I presented her with great literary works in her mother tongue that have captivated the young of many generations, she instantly fell in love with them.

Her command of her mother tongue has also improved.

I believe schools should look into exposing to students a wider range of literary works in the teaching of different languages.

Arthur Ming