Teaching Chinese at Home

[daisyt]

hquek:

....

And DH complains that I explain in english. it's not quite right I know but then if I explain in chinese, my chinese being so so, I end up with one big story and sometimes DS1 gets more confused.

hi hquek, I personally do not like the idea of explain in English BUT this is the kind of practise and teaching in dd's sec school now. I guess this is more towards bilingual approach. :roll:

The Chinese teacher even encourage them to write down the meaning of difficult Chinese words in any form (English, drawings, symbols etc.) As long as these \"forms\" can make themselves understand, its fine.

[HyperKiasu]

hquek:

thanks hyperkiasu!


It's not so much of word recognition, rather he's not sure what a certain term refers to eg 硬嘴 or maybe some other chinese idiom.

When I'm telling the story, it gets quite disruptive when he keep saying I dunno what this means. Am wondering if I should break the story so that he knows what this term means? or just keep going?

And DH complains that I explain in english. it's not quite right I know but then if I explain in chinese, my chinese being so so, I end up with one big story and sometimes DS1 gets more confused.

But now from time to time, I'll read half way and make him continue on a bit. Then at least I'll know if he's looking at the words or dazing off.

Hi Hquek,
according to ur profile, ur DS born in 06 is in Nursery, right?
when my DS was in Nursery, he was only interested in 孙悟空. I borrowed a lot of english and chinese books, but he was just interested in the colorful pictures only.... he was not yet ready for readings.....so at that time, my hubby and myself just told the story, we dun read. actually i found it quite boring if i read chinese story word by word to him. thus we have to read stories ourselves before storytelling. (strangely, we dont feel bored if we read english story word by word to him)
as he grows older he picks up reading habits quite naturally. Now he is in P1, he sometimes borrows chinese story book from school library by himself but he needs us to read to him if there are no pinyin. we only explain key words to help him understand the story. thus disruption can be minimized....and i think at the early stage, it is more important to sustain his interest in reading chinese books thus i allow him to skip some words....

[daisyt]

Brenda10:

Hi daisyt

Thank you for your valuable post. :goodpost:


My DD is in P5 this year, she is not taking HCL due to few marks shorter to the requirement we did not appeal for her last year. I like your point 3 and think this would be the best way to train for a good compo and attempt to 理解问答. DD has started watching Chinese News (because of Thailand) and read some simple events in Wanbao etc. I hope that she will able to obtain a good grade for CL in next year PSLE.

hi Brenda10, I don't recommend wanbao. Better read zaobao or the da mu zhi and douhao. You can find them online too.
http://www.zaobao.com/
http://youth.zaobao.com/friday/tu.html
http://www.zbcomma.sg/

I guess there is no easy way at upper Primary stage. Initially, its difficult when trying to implement some of these to my dd when she was at P5. That's why I say, determination on both parents and children. On one hand, we must work on to cultivate their interest, on the other hand, must work on practically to handle PSLE too.

[relaxedmom]

daisyt, thanks so much for sharing such comprehensive tips with me! Agree wtih Brenda10 that yours is an excellent post!


I will definitely try out all your methods! yes, I think it will take more than just determination. A lot of times, he grumbles and complains when i remind him to speak in chinese, read chinese books etc...it gets very tiring sometimes. Can you imagine? I have to remind him up to 10 times a day that he should be speaking to me in chinese....it's so frustrating and tiring. If I ignore him when he speaks in English, he will just not talk to me...sigh...I feel like I've aged so much simply because of my nagging....

I am trying to buy some more chinese story books to entice him to read...he doesn't like all those story books with stories on animals etc....sometimes it's true. I looked at the English books he read (like 39 clues, Anthony Horowitz) and these books have such rich and interesting story lines...but when you look at the chinese books...most are not so interesting simply because he doesn't have the capacity to read more difficult chinese story books...so the simple plot put him off....

But I shall not give up and will try! Pray hard that I shall continue to be determined too

Thanks again, Daisyt! :lol:

[daisyt]

Hi relaxedmom, I fully understand what you are going through. At least now, I see my dd's interest towards Chinese increase year by year. Nowadays, sometimes she even would naturally want to speak Mandarin with me but its a strict NO because she has enough speaking Mandarin with her classmates in school.


Another suggestion, you can come out with \"Speak Mandarin Day\". Pick a day and start once a week. Then increase to twice a week and then 3 times a week. So at least in a week, there are near equal number of days to speak English and Mandarin. And see if he can stand one whole day don't talk to you? Hahaha ....

[relaxedmom]

Hi Daisyt, yup, I did that! I set aside \"speak chinese time', or 'speak chinese day'...and it didn't work. so I decided that everyday should be a \"speak chinese day\"....since honestly, there is really such limited tme for us to communicate - after his school and supp class and doing homework...and all that...hardly have time to talk to him...except for issuing instructions at times like 'go brush your teeth\"...\" go eat your dinner\"...sigh!


and I'm quite sure my son will NOT miss not speaking to me for a day...so sad hor....

[jedamum]

relaxedmom:

I am trying to buy some more chinese story books to entice him to read...he doesn't like all those story books with stories on animals etc....sometimes it's true. I looked at the English books he read (like 39 clues, Anthony Horowitz) and these books have such rich and interesting story lines...but when you look at the chinese books...most are not so interesting simply because he doesn't have the capacity to read more difficult chinese story books...so the simple plot put him off....

i am facing this same problem with my P2. even for chinese comic, he finds it difficult to read some of the key words which form the gist of the jokes or story line. the only story book he read is his Berries compulsory reading story book which comes in HYPY. the only way to get him to read his chinese book is for me to sit with him which can be quite time consuming and difficult with ds2 disturbing. is now i try to just read toddler level chinese books and involve the 2 kids when i am reading.

[rocklee]

Hi Jedamum


Have you tried the CLIPS (Chinese Language Instructional Materials For Primary Schools)? This is the supplementary reading materials for the primary students . There are 10 books for each series and they are catered to different levels. For eg they have books suitable for p1 and 2 and then for p3 and 4 and so on. It is published by EPB Publishers. The older version are without HYPY but the newer version have. I chanced upon these books at the second hand book sale sometime ago. I find them very useful as the words used in the story are exactly those that are taught in the chinese textbooks. So it makes it easier for students to read. If I’m not wrong, I think certain extracts of the story even came out as a comprehension passage in some of the top school papers. I saw the series at popular book store but it is very expensive. If you are interested, you can go to the second hand book shop at bras brasah. I wanted to scan and show it to you but dont know how?

Hope this helps.

Regards
Rocklee

[jedamum]

rocklee:

Hi Jedamum


Have you tried the CLIPS (Chinese Language Instructional Materials For Primary Schools)? This is the supplementary reading materials for the primary students . There are 10 books for each series and they are catered to different levels. For eg they have books suitable for p1 and 2 and then for p3 and 4 and so on. It is published by EPB Publishers. The older version are without HYPY but the newer version have. I chanced upon these books at the second hand book sale sometime ago. I find them very useful as the words used in the story are exactly those that are taught in the chinese textbooks. So it makes it easier for students to read. If I'm not wrong, I think certain extracts of the story even came out as a comprehension passage in some of the top school papers. I saw the series at popular book store but it is very expensive. If you are interested, you can go to the second hand book shop at bras brasah. I wanted to scan and show it to you but dont know how?

Hope this helps.

Regards
Rocklee

ooo...rocklee,
thanks! i will pm you my email then.

[daisyt]

relaxedmom:

Hi Daisyt, yup, I did that! I set aside \"speak chinese time', or 'speak chinese day'...and it didn't work. so I decided that everyday should be a \"speak chinese day\"....since honestly, there is really such limited tme for us to communicate - after his school and supp class and doing homework...and all that...hardly have time to talk to him...except for issuing instructions at times like 'go brush your teeth\"...\" go eat your dinner\"...sigh!


and I'm quite sure my son will NOT miss not speaking to me for a day...so sad hor....

Yes true, weekdays won't have much time. How about weekends? When you all go out as a family outing, can make it a full Speak Mandarin Day?

Another method I find effective is to make them like and listen to Chinese pop songs. Sometimes, during free time, my dd would love to copy lyrics of the songs she likes.