Teaching Chinese at Home

[tamarind]

kids_r_innocent:

Hi Tamarind,


U mentioned about ur favourite Jap manga comics in this thread previously. Any titles to recommend? I am keen to read it myself, and can pass to my preschool gal after i have finished...

Thanks!!!

Hi kids_r_innocent,
The Japanese manga translated to Chinese books are actually more suitable for kids 8 or 9 years to teenagers. The words are actually quite difficult, though there are lots of pictures.

For preschool kids, I highly recommend
哆啦A梦
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=9165243&ref=search-1-A

There are tons of them. Preschool kids will not be able to read them independently, parents need to read the words to them.

Popular sells a set of 6 哆啦A梦 in bigger size and full color. My P1 girl has finished reading all 6 of them and she likes them very much. My younger boy also ask my mother to read to him every night. There are probably about 50 more books in small sizes, black and white, and the words are quite small.

[kids_r_innocent]

tamarind:

Hi kids_r_innocent,
The Japanese manga translated to Chinese books are actually more suitable for kids 8 or 9 years to teenagers. The words are actually quite difficult, though there are lots of pictures.

For preschool kids, I highly recommend
哆啦A梦
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=9165243&ref=search-1-A

There are tons of them. Preschool kids will not be able to read them independently, parents need to read the words to them.

Popular sells a set of 6 哆啦A梦 in bigger size and full color. My P1 girl has finished reading all 6 of them and she likes them very much. My younger boy also ask my mother to read to him every night. There are probably about 50 more books in small sizes, black and white, and the words are quite small.

Dear Tamarind,

My gal does not like 哆啦A梦. So i am tempted to buy and read those comics translated from Jap manga for myself first. Any good recommendations....

Thanks!!

[mummy of 2]

I bought the 喜羊羊 DVD, and also ordered the 喜羊羊 books (in comic form) for my kids. Both are a great hit I especially love the Chinese subtitles which come with the DVDs.

[kids_r_innocent]

mummy of 2:

I bought the 喜羊羊 DVD, and also ordered the 喜羊羊 books (in comic form) for my kids. Both are a great hit I especially love the Chinese subtitles which come with the DVDs.

Oh mummy of 2, did u purchase directly from dangdang, wat is the actual titles for both the DVD and comics (sori i am quite blur, i have tried to search at dangdang web but seems to have so many types)? May i ask how much did you pay in all? Thanks for your info in advance.

[mummy of 2]

kids_r_innocent:

mummy of 2:

I bought the 喜羊羊 DVD, and also ordered the 喜羊羊 books (in comic form) for my kids. Both are a great hit I especially love the Chinese subtitles which come with the DVDs.

Oh mummy of 2, did u purchase directly from dangdang, wat is the actual titles for both the DVD and comics (sori i am quite blur, i have tried to search at dangdang web but seems to have so many types)? May i ask how much did you pay in all? Thanks for your info in advance.

I bought the DVDs locally at $19.90 for 20 episodes but they can be bought at dangdang too. For the books I bought from dangdang together with other books, so can't advise on the total price, inclusive of shipping.

For DVD, can consider this:

1) http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20792813&ref=shopping-0-C

2) http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20798335&ref=shopping-0-C

For the books, I bought this:

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20223306&ref=product-0-B

Each books has 4 stories and I read one with the kids every night.

Wish I had bought this instead:

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20647726&ref=search-1-A

The stories are so hilarious that I enjoy watching them too . The song is also very catchy. DS1 has been humming the tune now and then. All in all, highly recommended for pre-school kids like mine.

[pummanuel]

I read from Lianhe Zaobao (21.06.2010) that this year’s PSLE Chinese papers will be taking on a new format. The new format will be more application-focused ie there will be fewer MCQs and more comprehensions with more open ended questions (e.g what do you think, how do you feel, etc). For Higher Chinese, there will be fewer comprehension questions but higher weightage.


To understand this change, I spoke to my friends who are teaching Chinese in primary school and was told this move is help children who detest memorising Chinese but it also makes scoring well for the paper more difficult for those students who did well through drilling. But as marks are computed based on the cumulative curve, i.e with standard deviation, I was told it’s not going to affect the PSLE score drastically.

But surprisingly, this new format will only apply to 2010’s P6 and P5 pupils as the schools have been informed of another new format which will be even more application-based and they are going to teach this new format to P4 pupils this year.

As such, I think our approach to teaching Chinese has to change. Days of getting the children to memorise this and that and do tons of assessment may be over. We will have to enable the children to read independently and besides doing the usual homework and perhaps some assessment books, time has to be allocated for reading books and discussing the content with them. To handle such open-ended questions well, a child has to attain a certain level of maturity. The best way to do so is through reading.

I’m not sure how closely our local Chinese curriculum follows China’s. When I was in China, my Chinese friends told me that their 语文 (ie Chinese) is becoming more application-focused too and they were buying books (somehow in China, they tend to buy and not borrow) for their children to read. And lately, I was told that the Chinese government is revamping the Chinese words again since the 繁体 was changed to 简体. Apparently, the words are going to be simplified further (to my dismay) and it’s claimed that the changes are backed by research on the historical writings. Eg. the 叮 in 被蚊虫叮 will be changed to 丁. My husband’s colleague has been asked to attend a crash course, conducted by her child’s school, on the changes in the words . After the class, the parents were told to do a test and most parents failed. Haha…If China goes ahead with the changes, I believe Singapore will adopt the changes one day, and perhaps we will be called to attend such courses too.

[pummanuel]

mummy of 2:

The stories are so hilarious that I enjoy watching them too . The song is also very catchy. DS1 has been humming the tune now and then. All in all, highly recommended for pre-school kids like mine.

Hi Mummy of 2, I'm glad your kids and you are enjoying the DVDs. After recommending it in the forum, I took my DVDs out from the storeroom and re-watched it with my daughter. Now everyday, we will sing and dance to the song when the DVD is being played.

There is a 喜洋洋与灰太郎 movie too. According to my husband who saw it, it's not as good as the cartoons.

[Brenda10]

pummanuel:

I read from Lianhe Zaobao (21.06.2010) that this year's PSLE Chinese papers will be taking on a new format. The new format will be more application-focused ie there will be fewer MCQs and more comprehensions with more open ended questions (e.g what do you think, how do you feel, etc). For Higher Chinese, there will be fewer comprehension questions but higher weightage.


To understand this change, I spoke to my friends who are teaching Chinese in primary school and was told this move is help children who detest memorising Chinese but it also makes scoring well for the paper more difficult for those students who did well through drilling. But as marks are computed based on the cumulative curve, i.e with standard deviation, I was told it's not going to affect the PSLE score drastically.

But surprisingly, this new format will only apply to 2010's P6 and P5 pupils as the schools have been informed of another new format which will be even more application-based and they are going to teach this new format to P4 pupils this year.

As such, I think our approach to teaching Chinese has to change. Days of getting the children to memorise this and that and do tons of assessment may be over. We will have to enable the children to read independently and besides doing the usual homework and perhaps some assessment books, time has to be allocated for reading books and discussing the content with them. To handle such open-ended questions well, a child has to attain a certain level of maturity. The best way to do so is through reading.

Yes. The child needs to understand the passage well otherwise would not able to answer the P5 CL questions set like:

假若你是当事人，你会怎么做？（2分）为什么？（2分）

从哪里可以看出国王知道错了？（2分）国王做错了什么？（2分）

文中的男孩是个怎样的孩子？（2分）你赞同他的做法吗？为什么？（2分）

文中“他灵机一动”指的是什么？（2分）

Therefore has to read more and grasp reasonable 词汇 in order to attempt to the above.

[mummy of 2]

pummanuel:

mummy of 2:

The stories are so hilarious that I enjoy watching them too . The song is also very catchy. DS1 has been humming the tune now and then. All in all, highly recommended for pre-school kids like mine.

Hi Mummy of 2, I'm glad your kids and you are enjoying the DVDs. After recommending it in the forum, I took my DVDs out from the storeroom and re-watched it with my daughter. Now everyday, we will sing and dance to the song when the DVD is being played.

There is a 喜洋洋与灰太郎 movie too. According to my husband who saw it, it's not as good as the cartoons.

Thanks for your wonderful recommendation. It is indeed a great cartoon series. Am so tempetd to buy the DVDs from Dangdang. My kids have finished watching all 20 episodes and are now on their second round

Thanks for the tip on the moviw. Think I saw it on dangdang too. Your DD must be very fluent in Chinese since you lived there for some time. I believe the immersion must have geiven her an excellent foundation

[sean wife]

Besides Si Wu Kuai Du, are there other books from dangdang that is good for word recognition? find tat the wordings in most of the storybooks are quite tiny, seem quite straining on young kids’ eye…