If someone asks me, “How can you tell how much a child truly understands?”, my answer is often very simple:

“Listen to the questions they ask.”

I often judge a child’s stage of learning through the questions they raise. Because after watching so many children grow over the years, I gradually came to realise something important: the most essential part of language ability is not beautiful writing, but clear thinking.

And if reading comprehension is taken one step further, it becomes verification — the ability to question, examine, and seek evidence. Both thinking and verification ultimately begin with the ability to ask questions. When a question strikes directly at the heart of something, the answer often becomes much easier to find.

Once, while reading a story, a child suddenly asked:

“Why does he have to become king? Couldn’t he simply choose not to?”

Questions like this immediately tell me that the child has not only understood the plot itself, but has also begun thinking about ideas such as social structure, choice, and responsibility.

Some children ask endless questions.

“Why is this character written this way?”
“Why did the story end like that?”

Sometimes, after class has already finished, they still run after me asking:

“If he hadn’t done that, would the story have turned out differently?”

And then another question follows immediately:

“What if he had chosen the other path instead?”

To some adults, children like this may seem troublesome. But to me, this is precisely where thinking begins. Especially when children begin asking questions that start with “Why…?” or “What if…?”

Of course, I do not always have answers to their questions myself. Sometimes I simply say: “That’s a very good question. Shall we look for the answer together?”

Sometimes the answer can be found in a book. Sometimes in another story. Sometimes it requires much more reading and reflection before it slowly becomes clear.

And sometimes, children run up to me the next day and excitedly announce:

“I found the answer!”

The excitement on their faces in those moments is often impossible to hide. And honestly, those expressions bring me far more joy than any examination score ever could.

As children grow older, their questions gradually become deeper and more complex. In many ways, I often find myself learning new things because of their questions.

In truth, this ability to ask questions is not only useful for reading stories. In today’s world, it has become even more important. Because the world children will face in the future is no longer limited to textbook knowledge. It is a world overflowing with information, constantly demanding judgement and decision-making.

In today’s age of overwhelming information, the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood depends more than ever on asking questions. The questions children ask directly shape how they verify information, compare evidence, and form judgements.

And now, with AI capable of generating “hallucinations” and fabricating information, while misinformation continues mixing itself among real events, how do we teach children to distinguish between something that merely “sounds reasonable” and something that is actually supported by evidence?

Children often ask me:

“Is this real?”
“How does he know that?”

Questions like these are already the first step towards verification.

And sometimes, I reply with another question:

“So how do you think we could check whether it’s true?”

Very often, I use children’s questions as the starting point for encouraging them to develop habits of verification — checking sources, comparing information, and continuing to ask where information comes from.

If I had to say what the single most important lesson from twenty years of language education has been, it would probably be this:

The moment children begin asking questions is the moment real learning truly begins.

And once questioning becomes a habit, children have already stepped onto the path of lifelong learning.

Twenty years have passed in the blink of an eye.

And these twenty lessons are only one stage of the journey.

I am still learning Lesson Twenty-One, Lesson Twenty-Two…

Because truly good questions never come to an end.