Mandarin is the official language of China and Taiwan. It’s the dialect of almost all in Mainland China and the Chinese overseas. Cantonese is not as commonly used since Britain’s turnover of Hong Kong to China. best ways to learn mandarin could become a dialect that’s used among family and friends.or business purposes, Mandarin is more practical to understand.
Learning Chinese at Home
A great way to start your kids in learning the ORIENTAL is through Learn Chinese DVDs and videos and audio CDs. These DVDs are specially made to optimally expose your child to the tones of Chinese with fun things to watch. The training pace in DVDs are carefully programmed to help your child remember the words and phrases. Chinese songs on CDs alternatively, are great to utilize while travelling or throughout your child’s relaxation time. For bigger children, Chinese stories on CDs could be played to expose them further to more Chinese vocabulary and sentence construction.
If one parent speaks Chinese, arrangements could be made that 1 parent will talk with the children in Chinese and the other will speak to them in English. Kids have an amazing ability to keep up with each parent’s language.
Exposing Children to Native Chinese Speakers
o Chinese tutors are available to teach children and even the entire family to speak Chinese. Check online or newspaper ads for available tutors.
o Play dates with children who are learning or know Chinese is a fantastic way to expose your kids.
o Another option would be to hire Chinese-speaking baby sitters. Local universities frequently have students who are half-Chinese or spouses of Chinese. This can be an option you can try.
o Other families get au pairs from China.
o Some families hire Chinese nannies to ensure the children grow up hearing the native Chinese tones. Be cautious in the hiring though. Truth to find out, there is a large numbers of people in the US from China who don’t have the necessary papers but will work as nannies. Nannies also manage your children, so picking the proper person is extremely important, particularly if they live with you. Friends of ours have gone through multiple nannies and it had not been a good experience.
Learning Chinese Online
There are online Chinese programs available for adult English speakers. Up to now, I am not aware if there are any online programs available for English speaking children.
Chinese Private Schools
Traditionally, non-public Chinese schools teach a child the Chinese language once the child is old enough to sit still and copy characters. Most schools still utilize the method of rote teaching found in China and Taiwan. Children in the US are very independent, therefore the rote method will not be the easiest way for children to learn what and characters. Instead, the Montessori or ESL method enable you to interest the kids to learn Chinese. These methods place emphasis on using Chinese in conversation . Other programs that teach utilizing a lot of singing along with other fun activities will definitely make children learn Chinese easier.
Summer Camps
Chinese summer camps expose the child to full immersion of the Chinese language. Summer camps can be a weekend trip in the US, a complete boarding school stay, or traveling to live for several weeks to China or Taiwan. There are few sites that produce the biggest set of Chinese summer camps available so keep tuned in for updates.
Learn Chinese Materials
There are a great number of products available in the market to greatly help children learn Chinese. Books, videos, audio CDs/ cassettes and software can be utilized at home to learn Chinese. These materials not only expose the kid to vocabulary or tones, but also show the beauty of Chinese culture. These materials can also be used for parents and children to spend time together.
Books
A big challenge to teaching Chinese from books is that one parent/ adult should know how exactly to read it. For families who are starting to study from scratch together, bi-lingual books are a big help. Story books which can be read along with audio CDs are useful to understand the proper pronunciation. A great introductory book to reading and writing Chinese characters is Long is the Dragon. For smaller children, I WILL NOT Bite is a very interesting material. Kids can touch and feel the different types of animal skin textures.
Videos
Videos teach through engaging visuals, songs, and repetitive vocabulary. Viewers will also be subjected to how different places and persons look like. In 1 DVD of the Follow Jade series, Teacher Jade would go to a Chinese Kindergarten. Children will be able to compare how their own school and classmates look like. The Bao Bei series has 5 enjoyable videos that teach Chinese vocabulary of plenty of common words. Bao Bei is really a panda puppet that children will like to study Chinese words.
Audio CDs
Chinese CDs can be grouped into 2:
o 100% Chinese songs and stories. Some don’t have printed guides, others include a book/ booklet
o Learn-Chinese CDs specifically designed for all those learning Chinese as another language. These CDs usually include books, booklets with Chinese, English and Pinyin. Songs are sung in both Chinese and English, or booklets show the English translations. For example, the songs in Teach Me Chinese Book and CD are popular and sung in both English and Chinese. Parents may also learn songs to sing for his or her children, such as Happy Birthday. This series also includes a Teacher Guide. Other Learn Chinese Book and CD series such as for example Sing and Learn Chinese Series and Let’s Sing Chinese also engages its listeners with interesting songs.