Teaching Chinese at Home

[hquek]

tamarind:

Hi hquek,

I find it very tiring to read to my kids. I ask them to read to me. When my girl reads out loud to me, I will not stop to explain unless she asks me. If I can think of an English word that can explain the Chinese word very well, I will just use it to explain. If she does not ask me, I assume that she understands. I don't expect her to know every word, the most important thing is that she enjoys reading the story. When a child reads regularly, she will come across the same words again and she will be able to figure out what it means. This was my personal experience when I was in primary school.

My girl tells me that she loves the Chinese books that she is reading. The most important thing is to find wonderful books that will fascinate a child. This is the best way to motivate a child.

If your DS1 ask you, then you should explain to him. I will suggest that you get books with lots of illustrations to help him understand the story better. There are many Chinese picture books that have challenging words.

Thanks Tamarind for your advice. DS1 doesn't fancy reading chinese books and somehow it's super ingrained in him. Strange. He can read English books meant for older kids and have fun doing it; but comes to chinese, he purposedly 'shut himself' away.

If it's something from school, he can read to me fluently. But come chinese story books, that's another problem. Am only doing those with many pictures and slowly going through my collection of books.

I'm doing daily reading, and asking him to continue reading a couple of lines from where I stop (could be anywhere within the page) or read the whole page.

[toddles]

tamarind:

Just to share my personal experience. My parents never read Chinese books to when I was young. In primary school, I was able to do very well in Chinese, and my PSLE results were good enough to get me into RGS.

My secret ? When in primary school I was super crazy about Japanese manga translated into Chinese.

hi tamarind,

we are similar! my secret was mandarin pop. loved the lyrics which propelled me to read mandarin.

hee hee maybe we were in school together... were you ever at jalan kuala?

[tamarind]

toddles:

tamarind:

Just to share my personal experience. My parents never read Chinese books to when I was young. In primary school, I was able to do very well in Chinese, and my PSLE results were good enough to get me into RGS.

My secret ? When in primary school I was super crazy about Japanese manga translated into Chinese.

hi tamarind,

we are similar! my secret was mandarin pop. loved the lyrics which propelled me to read mandarin.

hee hee maybe we were in school together... were you ever at jalan kuala?

Hi toddles,
I studied at Tiong Bahru Primary School, the school closed down long ago.

I love mandarin pop too, but only when I was in upper secondary. I love the lyrics too !

Mandarin pop is certainly a good way for kids to learn Chinese. But nowadays its hard to find good singers and good songs. I am not into Jolin Tsai, SHE, etc. I used to love Faye Wong and some of her songs have excellent lyrics.

[tamarind]

Dear all,

I would like to share some parts of the excellent book 好妈妈胜过好老师 about how to motivate a child to read Chinese books. Check out my blog :

http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-to-motivate-child-to-read-chinese.html

[toddles]

tamarind:

Hi toddles,

I studied at Tiong Bahru Primary School, the school closed down long ago.

I love mandarin pop too, but only when I was in upper secondary. I love the lyrics too !

Mandarin pop is certainly a good way for kids to learn Chinese. But nowadays its hard to find good singers and good songs. I am not into Jolin Tsai, SHE, etc. I used to love Faye Wong and some of her songs have excellent lyrics.

Aiyoh not primary school lah! RGS was at Jalan Kuala for a while.

these days the good lyrics are by 方文山。 without him, jay chou is (almost) nothing.

[daisyt]

toddles:

Aiyoh not primary school lah! RGS was at Jalan Kuala for a while.

these days the good lyrics are by 方文山。 without him, jay chou is (almost) nothing.

Haha, they are a pair (We are gg to Jay's concert in July!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
MayDay Ah Shin also nice

My dd likes to copy lyrics ...

[tamarind]

toddles,

I belong to the older generation I was in RGS when the old school was at Stevens Road before they rebuilt it.

[toddles]

学姐，我拜你为师！ I’m also not young, some years in J.Kuala, and moved back with the sch to Anderson Rd. These days when I pass by, the sch looks a bit worn down… to think it was spanking new when we first moved there… what’s that chinese saying? 岁月不留人…?


my kid is still young but I’m quite inspired to teach her chinese after reading your generous sharings.

am going to queue up for a copy of 四五快读, anyway i got quite a lot of time before I need to use it. heh heh.

pity that my hubby got no love for mandarin. so the immense task has fallen on my shoulders! am hoping that if I put in some effort from the start, dd doesn’t need to let berries earn money. haha.

[toddles]

daisyt:

toddles:

these days the good lyrics are by 方文山。 without him, jay chou is (almost) nothing.

Haha, they are a pair (We are gg to Jay's concert in July!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
MayDay Ah Shin also nice

My dd likes to copy lyrics ...

i think that's a great start! i also like to copy lyrics.

some mandarin lyrics are really 诗情画意... english lyrics are so banal compared to them. so much emotion can be encapsulated in just a few words. i love mandarin. :love: even though i'm no LEP scholar. sometimes i wish i were haha.

[daisyt]

tamarind:

toddles,

I belong to the older generation I was in RGS when the old school was at Stevens Road before they rebuilt it.

Oh ... I always hear those kids saying, RGS is more of English environment. Its good to know both of you have strong affection in Chinese.