Learning Chinese (Primary/Preschool)

[Chenonceau]

Double post

[Chenonceau]

chamonix:

Your effort in helping your son in Chinese, despite your own handicap in the subject, is indeed applaudable! His results and growing interest in Chinese is the very evidence that you are heading in the right direction. Not everybody has the opportunity to help or teach her child in areas that she herself is lacking in. Hence, the stark differences in views. However, there are many other parents who are on the same boat as you. Even for myself, I have learnt something from your posts on learning Chinese. So, please do continue with your sharing, which I believe will benefit many parents in the same plight. (I know zilch about French, but I can probably work on a thesis on how to learn French with kids. And oh yes, memory work is also part of our learning too. )

:offtopic: Btw, would you mind sharing with me how you mastered the 'r' and 'u' (as in rue) sounds in French? I just can't get these two sounds right...

笑猫日记 is a rather popular series by the China author 杨红樱.I was recommended this series by a sales staff Maha Yu Yi when my son was in K2. (Unfortunately we didn't get the books because there was no stock then.) I just took a quick look on joyo.com and I found the difficulty levels of this series varies.
http://www.amazon.cn/%E6%A8%B1%E6%A1%83%E6%B2%9F%E7%9A%84%E6%98%A5%E5%A4%A9-%E6%9D%A8%E7%BA%A2%E6%A8%B1/dp/B0028QGQWK/ref=pd_sim_b_2

http://www.amazon.cn/%E7%AC%91%E7%8C%AB%E6%97%A5%E8%AE%B0-%E7%90%83%E7%90%83%E8%80%81%E8%80%81%E9%BC%A0-%E6%9D%A8%E7%BA%A2%E6%A8%B1/dp/B003QCJU5U/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301534087&sr=1-1

The above series would serve as a good supplementary for my children to acquire new Chinese words (with the electronic dictionary and my help, of course). So, I'm not sure if this series would be a little too simple for your son, since he has been absorbing a large dosage of good Chinese phrases the last few months. Alternatively, you may want to check out other series by the same author such as男生日记 or 非常校园系列. Unlike笑猫日记, they seem to cater more to the older children. (Another series I have in mind is 皮皮鲁. I have this feeling it would entice my son to continue reading the entire book himself.)

Erm, I mean, that is, if your son is keen in Chinese storybooks.

Hi Chamonix,

Thanks for the references!! We have all the series you mentioned except 皮皮鲁. They are very entertaining. My son giggles and rolls around in bed laughing sometimes. He reads them before bed everyday.

The R in \"rue\" starts at the back of the throat... like those old folks who clear their throats and then spit. You can practise by pretending to clear your throat of phlegm? Hee! No problem pronouncing the French R if you dun mind being gross. :lol:

Once you get it, then you tag on the \"u\" but this time, you shorten the R-at-the-back-of-the-throat to the length of a normal R (or even shorter) so you get just this very very light (almost imperceptible throat clearing). The \"u\" is pronounced exactly like \"fish\" in mandarin.

And many many many thanks for your gracious encouragement. I really appreciate it. :love:

[Chenonceau]

rosemummy:

My girl is fluent in French, but like you, I can't speak a word.

Your daughter sounds very accomplished indeed!! English, Chinese AND French! Congratulations!!

[fristrom]

tamarind:

I do find that using books like 四五快读 and story books are more effective than using computers for learning Chinese.

Was talking to a friend a couple of weeks and she shared your sentiment. At the end of the day, to learn anything (and retain), you need to keep the interest going. For me, books are definitely more interesting than computer, but maybe kids these days have different expectation/experience.

[rosemummy]

Chenonceau:

rosemummy:

My girl is fluent in French, but like you, I can't speak a word.

Your daughter sounds very accomplished indeed!! English, Chinese AND French! Congratulations!!

Thanks, Chenonceau. You're very kind. Unfortunately, she's way below average amongst her peers. All of them speak at least 5 languages fluently. 1 of them is fluent in 7 languages. He's a Korean but speak much better Chinese than my girl.

In Europe, everyone speaks at least 3 to 4 languages. In the Grande Ecoles, you need to be fluent in 4 languages to graduate. When MNCs hire for a position to cover Europe, there's almost never any problem getting someone with the requisite language skills. It's a little more difficult in Asia but increasingly, I'm seeing a lot of Japanese and Koreans who are fluent in English and all the 3 major Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese and Korean). A lot for our kids to catch up.

[laughingcat]

rosemummy:

Chenonceau:

[quote=\"rosemummy\"]My girl is fluent in French, but like you, I can't speak a word.

Your daughter sounds very accomplished indeed!! English, Chinese AND French! Congratulations!!

Thanks, Chenonceau. You're very kind. Unfortunately, she's way below average amongst her peers. All of them speak at least 5 languages fluently. 1 of them is fluent in 7 languages. He's a Korean but speak much better Chinese than my girl.

In Europe, everyone speaks at least 3 to 4 languages. In the Grande Ecoles, you need to be fluent in 4 languages to graduate. When MNCs hire for a position to cover Europe, there's almost never any problem getting someone with the requisite language skills. It's a little more difficult in Asia but increasingly, I'm seeing a lot of Japanese and Koreans who are fluent in English and all the 3 major Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese and Korean). A lot for our kids to catch up.[/quote]
Oh my goodness! Speak fluently in 3-4 languages! :!:

I wonder at what age the child starts to be taught in so many languages? Are they only speaking only? What about the writing portion?

[Chenonceau]

laughingcat:

Oh my goodness! Speak fluently in 3-4 languages! :!:


I wonder at what age the child starts to be taught in so many languages? Are they only speaking only? What about the writing portion?

Not that difficult lah... The languages occur in families. If you know French, it's easy to pick up Spanish and Italian. The North Germanic languages occur in another family Norwegian, Swedish, Danish.

If you know French and Danish, then access to four other languages is greatly facilitated. It's also easier now that there are many many exchange programs and travel within the EU is much facilitated. It's easy enough to pick up Spanish and Italian of you are French because you just spend a summer in both countries and voilà! After, 1 week in Spain and Italy, I was speaking enough and reading enough to get myself understood.

We're planning a holiday to Italy. Many websites are in Italian, with my French base, I can roughly understand.

It's a bit like how we speak dialects in Singapore. Many of our Malays speak Mandarin, some Hokkien, English and Malay. Many Chinese speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, English... these are about as different from each other as French, Spanish and Italian.

English and Mandarin are vastly different languages. Much easier to be bilingual French-Italian than English-Mandarin, I think.

[tamarind]

fristrom:

tamarind:

I do find that using books like 四五快读 and story books are more effective than using computers for learning Chinese.

Was talking to a friend a couple of weeks and she shared your sentiment. At the end of the day, to learn anything (and retain), you need to keep the interest going. For me, books are definitely more interesting than computer, but maybe kids these days have different expectation/experience.

I totally agree with keeping the interest going. This can be done by looking for interesting books that kids will love, books that can be picked up by kids to read at any time, over and over again.

We cannot possibly allow kids to turn on the computer anytime that they like.

I have read about parents who teach kids to read Chinese books simply by reading lots of picture books to them, pointing to every word as they go along. Young children can learn at an amazing speed using this simple technique.

[Chenonceau]

rosemummy:

Chenonceau:

[quote=\"rosemummy\"]My girl is fluent in French, but like you, I can't speak a word.

Your daughter sounds very accomplished indeed!! English, Chinese AND French! Congratulations!!

Thanks, Chenonceau. You're very kind. Unfortunately, she's way below average amongst her peers. All of them speak at least 5 languages fluently. 1 of them is fluent in 7 languages. He's a Korean but speak much better Chinese than my girl.

In Europe, everyone speaks at least 3 to 4 languages. In the Grande Ecoles, you need to be fluent in 4 languages to graduate. When MNCs hire for a position to cover Europe, there's almost never any problem getting someone with the requisite language skills. It's a little more difficult in Asia but increasingly, I'm seeing a lot of Japanese and Koreans who are fluent in English and all the 3 major Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese and Korean). A lot for our kids to catch up.[/quote]Things must have changed. I'm familiar with Grandes Écoles. Dun remember the 4 language requirement. But that was more than 2 decades ago.

[rosemummy]

Chenonceau:

rosemummy:

[quote=\"Chenonceau\"]
Your daughter sounds very accomplished indeed!! English, Chinese AND French! Congratulations!!

Thanks, Chenonceau. You're very kind. Unfortunately, she's way below average amongst her peers. All of them speak at least 5 languages fluently. 1 of them is fluent in 7 languages. He's a Korean but speak much better Chinese than my girl.

In Europe, everyone speaks at least 3 to 4 languages. In the Grande Ecoles, you need to be fluent in 4 languages to graduate. When MNCs hire for a position to cover Europe, there's almost never any problem getting someone with the requisite language skills. It's a little more difficult in Asia but increasingly, I'm seeing a lot of Japanese and Koreans who are fluent in English and all the 3 major Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese and Korean). A lot for our kids to catch up.

Things must have changed. I'm familiar with Grandes Écoles. Dun remember the 4 language requirement. But that was more than 2 decades ago.[/quote]I'm not familiar with the Grandes Ecoles. Could be that it's only applicable to those few commerce ones that I looked at.

I've started a thread hoping to find out more.

http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19804

Would very much appreciate your contribution. You're such a treasure trove of knowledge.