Learning Chinese (Primary/Preschool)

[tamarind]

Brenda10:

tamarind:

Brenda10,

Nice to see you in this thread

Book 10 sounds interesting ! I must go and order that, currently I have the first 9 books in the series.

I remember that you show your P5 daughter Chinese TV series right ? Any good ones to recommend ? I must start to let my kids watch Chinese swordsman series, I used to be crazy about these shows when in primary / secondary school.

I think that watching Chinese TV series is a good way to learn Chinese, especially if we can find those DVDs that have Chinese subtitles. Then the child can listen as well as read the words.

Hi Tamarind

Yes. TV series is the best way to buck up the CL especially its come with only Chinese sub-title. Last year dd watch the 还珠格格 and 9 pm CL show, . This year she finished 倚天屠龙记 and now we are watching 三国。 I would highly recommend 三国 DVD (95 episode) as the show is very interesting. Many cheng yu were originated from those historical stories and by watching all these shows in fact are the best channel to understand and apply it.

Thanks brenda.

I will definitely look for 还珠格格, I enjoyed the show when I watch it years ago. For 三国, is there a lot of talking ? Any action ?

I wonder if 仙剑奇侠传 is good, the lead actor and actress are very pretty.

[Brenda10]

tamarind:

Thanks brenda.


I will definitely look for 还珠格格, I enjoyed the show when I watch it years ago. For 三国, is there a lot of talking ? Any action ?

I wonder if 仙剑奇侠传 is good, the lead actor and actress are very pretty.

Hi Tamarind

You're welcome.

Yes. This show has quite a lot of talking, 斗智，战争的情节和场面。 I believe dd can enjoy the show is because she had read Romance Of the Three Kingdoms (English comics – 10 books) last year and had some basis understanding of stories like Sworn Brotherhood, Battle at the Red Cliff etc and also we had watch the CL Movie show Red Cliff 1 and Red Cliff 2.

As for 仙剑奇侠传, I'm no so sure about this show but only know was acted by 胡歌.

[Chenonceau]

tamarind:

Chenonceau,

One very good series of Chinese story books 笑猫日记 is available in Singapore. My girl likes this series very much. It is very suitable for P6 kids, in fact, many P6 kids may find it challenging to read. These books are some of the best selling books in China. It is written by a well established author in China. I believe that 12 year old kids cannot possibly write better than an experienced adult author.

I will be adding more books to the long list of good books in my blog.

There is no need to feel hopeless because you don't know Chinese. You can also send your son to enrichment classes like Tien Hsia and Berries. I know that they have many non-Chinese students who scored A* in Chinese every year.

Berries use 笑猫日记 in their upper primary classes, while Tien Hsia uses 马小跳 series, both are written by the same author. Both series of books are available at Popular bookshop.

For your information, it is very easy to order books from China through dangdang.com which has a huge collection of good books.

I found this book of 1000 best essays :
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20383611

It can be shipped to Singapore for a shipping charge of about ￥18.

Thank you Tamarind and Brenda for the very very generous sharing.

I am interested in the videos and Chinese shows... but I don't understand the Chinese characters that you've written in here. I will try and get my husband to translate.

Could you share where to get these shows? I borrowed Long Men Ke Zhan... Red Cliff... Ip Man etc... for Little Boy through an online video subscription. Is that what you do too? Or are the shows you mentioned on Cable TV... or Channel 8. I have trouble with the content of Channel 8...

[Brenda10]

Chenonceau:

Thank you Tamarind and Brenda for the very very generous sharing.


I am interested in the videos and Chinese shows... but I don't understand the Chinese characters that you've written in here. I will try and get my husband to translate.

Could you share where to get these shows? I borrowed Long Men Ke Zhan... Red Cliff... Ip Man etc... for Little Boy through an online video subscription. Is that what you do too? Or are the shows you mentioned on Cable TV... or Channel 8. I have trouble with the content of Channel 8...

Hi Chenonceau

You're welcome.

I remembered get the DVD either from Poh Kim Video or TS Video.

[tamarind]

Brenda10:

Chenonceau:

Thank you Tamarind and Brenda for the very very generous sharing.


I am interested in the videos and Chinese shows... but I don't understand the Chinese characters that you've written in here. I will try and get my husband to translate.

Could you share where to get these shows? I borrowed Long Men Ke Zhan... Red Cliff... Ip Man etc... for Little Boy through an online video subscription. Is that what you do too? Or are the shows you mentioned on Cable TV... or Channel 8. I have trouble with the content of Channel 8...

Hi Chenonceau

You're welcome.

I remembered get the DVD either from Poh Kim Video or TS Video.

Hi Chenonceau,
Just curious, is your nickname inspired by this beautiful castle ?
http://www.chenonceau.com/media/fr/index_fr.php

Note that Poh Kim Video and TS Video shops can be found in most major shopping malls like Plaza Singapura.
http://www.pohkim.com.sg/Pohkim_asp/Home/Index.asp?LangId=1
http://www.tsgroup.com.sg/

I think that long TV series are better than movies. There are usually about 30 to 40 episodes per series. You can ask the staff to recommend some interesting ones for you, tell them it is for your son. Get those swordsman series, kids love action.

Also get the Doraemon series in Chinese :
http://www.time.com/time/asia/features/heroes/doraemon.html
There are many episodes in the series.
Also try to find this fantastic movie :
Doraemon the movie Nobita's Dinosaur, 大雄的恐龙

http://postimage.org/image/2x9x0x49w/

You can ask your hubby to write out the Chinese characters of the recommended series and bring it to any video shop, the staff can help you find it.

[tamarind]

I also want to add that every library has a very good collection of children’s books. When I was young, my parents also could not help me with Chinese. But they allowed me to take a bus to the National Library since I was 7 years old. I went to the library every week, and read any thing that I found interesting.


Parents can bring their kids to the children’s Chinese book section at least once every week, and just let them choose whatever they like to read.

Also note that reading a few books a year is not enough. In P1, aim to read at least 1000 words a day, and increase that as the child grows older. By P3, the child should be reading about 1 book a week (100 to 200 pages, 200 - 300 words a page).

[Chenonceau]

Hi Tamarind…


Beautiful castle… yes.

[gooeydarkchocolate]

As PRs here in Singapore, we have no background whatsoever with regards to reading, writing and speaking Chinese.


My son recently started school at a PAP near our place and every weekend the Chinese lesson teacher would send some homework for him to complete.

She would send a worksheet where there are Chinese characters that must be copied.

There is another sheet that is filled with Chinese characters that looks like sentences.

Yes, we are clueless.

The writing part isn’t doing any good at all. We don’t know what it means.

We tried to ask the teacher for supplementary books that would help us teach our son, she didn’t recommend any.

We have decided to embrace the local language and in the near future, we would like our son not to get an exemption from Primary Mandarin lessons as well.


With the government emphasizing English to be used on daily conversations, wouldn’t it be helpful if the Chinese lessons have an actual English translation? It would be easier for foreigners and locals alike to mirror the lessons together.

I am wondering if we need to get a tutor for Mandarin as early as now? Would it be more effective than the current teacher at school?

[hquek]

Hi gooeydarkchocolate,


Mother tongue is a part and parcel of life here in SG. I think for those who resettled from other countries, other languages are allowed as mother tongue - doesn’t HAVE to be Chinese. One of the top PSLE kids in SG had mother tongue of German (becos she grew up in Europe) even though she was ethnically chinese.

To me, language is a living subject - one must use it and be surrounded in it for it to take effect. 1 hour lesson each day is ok, but so not enough if one expects proficiency.

In fact, in my sons’ case (my family is chinese and we converse in both english and chinese), I started them in pre-school chinese classes when young becos they didn’t want to use chinese. The amount of time offered in their kindy I felt was simply not enough.

If you want your child to learn and embrace chinese, even though none in your family uses this language, I would suggest that you look at the offerings available - either a chinese tutor or pre-school chinese classes like Berries etc.

[gooeydarkchocolate]

hello hquek


There are limited options for Pre-school secondary languages. I think, the other two were Tamil and Malay? not sure.

Thank you for your suggestion. We will look into that.

It’s just that, having to start school, all these Mandarin lesson is stressing him too much. School should be a fun.