Teaching Chinese at Home

[Brenda10]

Herbie:

Hi Brenda10,


May i ask, so you purchase the book from the china website is it??

Tq

Hi Herbie,

Yes, don't think can find here lah!

[puff]

Hi

My DD is 5 yr old this year … I tried to teach Chinese at home by giving her 听写, but I realized 1 or 2 days after her 听写 she will forget the words.
Any ideas or method that I can try so she will remember the words?

[jedamum]

puff:

Hi

My DD is 5 yr old this year ... I tried to teach Chinese at home by giving her 听写, but I realized 1 or 2 days after her 听写 she will forget the words.
Any ideas or method that I can try so she will remember the words?

听写 for 5yo? :faint:

what sort of words do you give her for 听写 ? is it school based?

if it is for word recognition purpose, you don't have to give the kid 听写 for her to learn to recognise the words.

[tamarind]

Hi puff,

You cannot teach Chinese words by 听写. Children need to know at least a few hundred Chinese words before they can read independently. The best book that describes the correct way to learn Chinese is described in the first 30 pages of the Si Wu Kuai Du book 1:
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/teaching-chinese-at-home.html

Parents need to be able to read Chinese well in order to understand these instructions. Otherwise I recommend the Ji Chu Han Zi books :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/basic-chinese-500.html

Before the age of 6, children must focus in word recognition, it is not necessary and useless to make them practice writing words at that age.

[MandyMummy]

About 8 years ago, I asked some experienced and the older generation of JC Chinese teachers on their views on how to teach Chinese to young children. They pretty much told me that they would teach Chinese in the approximate order of 'ting' , 'shuo', 'du' and 'xie' which is listen, speak, read and lastly write.

So for very young children, try to focus on the first three. Teaching them to write before their psychomotor skills is ready kills the joy of learning the language.

[tamarind]

MandyMummy:

About 8 years ago, I asked some experienced and the older generation of JC Chinese teachers on their views on how to teach Chinese to young children. They pretty much told me that they would teach Chinese in the approximate order of 'ting' , 'shuo', 'du' and 'xie' which is listen, speak, read and lastly write.

So for very young children, try to focus on the first three. Teaching them to write before their psychomotor skills is ready kills the joy of learning the language.

I totally agree 听, 说, 读 can happen all at the same time by asking a child to read out loud from story books, or using excellent resources like Si Wu Kuai Du and Ji Chu Han Zi

I have heard many parents said that their children hate Chinese and they blamed it on Chinese being too difficult to learn. The truth is that the parents are using the wrong methods to teach. Another big mistake is to teach Hanyu Pinyin before learning the Chinese characters. I have even read about parents who cannot read a single word of Chinese, but can advise other parents on how their children should learn Chinese, which is disastrous.

Chinese is actually a very easy language to learn and it is entirely possible for children to enjoy it.

[MandyMummy]

tamarind:

MandyMummy:

About 8 years ago, I asked some experienced and the older generation of JC Chinese teachers on their views on how to teach Chinese to young children. They pretty much told me that they would teach Chinese in the approximate order of 'ting' , 'shuo', 'du' and 'xie' which is listen, speak, read and lastly write.

So for very young children, try to focus on the first three. Teaching them to write before their psychomotor skills is ready kills the joy of learning the language.

I totally agree 听, 说, 读 can happen all at the same time by asking a child to read out loud from story books, or using excellent resources like Si Wu Kuai Du and Ji Chu Han Zi

I have heard many parents said that their children hate Chinese and they blamed it on Chinese being too difficult to learn. The truth is that the parents are using the wrong methods to teach. Another big mistake is to teach Hanyu Pinyin before learning the Chinese characters.[/color] I have even read about parents who cannot read a single word of Chinese, but can advise other parents on how their children should learn Chinese, which is disastrous.

Chinese is actually a very easy language to learn and it is entirely possible for children to enjoy it.

Yes, I also remembered the Chinese teachers advising me not to teach my child Hanyu Pinyin first. They advised me to teach him to recognize Chinese characters first. Hanyu Pinyin should come later. Young childern are very sensitive to image and their shapes. You will be amazed at how easy they can recognize Chinese characters. Once they learn to recognize the characters, it helps them in reading and later on, spelling (ting xie).
Actually I didn't bother to teach him Hanyu Pinyin at all. He learnt it only in
P1 from his own school teachers.

[puff]

jedamum:

puff:

Hi

My DD is 5 yr old this year ... I tried to teach Chinese at home by giving her 听写, but I realized 1 or 2 days after her 听写 she will forget the words.
Any ideas or method that I can try so she will remember the words?

听写 for 5yo? :faint:

what sort of words do you give her for 听写 ? is it school based?

if it is for word recognition purpose, you don't have to give the kid 听写 for her to learn to recognise the words.

I give common words like 的, 你 etc. Of course I do read to her too but I feel in order to remember n recognize the word better is to be able to write.
She is in K1 this yr n her sch do give her writing for Chinese too.
I am surprise that you :faint: when I mention 听写 for 5 yo, many well known kindergarten already giving their k1 kids 听写, isn't it?

[Brenda10]

Hi Tamarind,


Share with you something interesting while we were discussing the appropriate phrases to put in 一段作文情节，，DD suggested to add in 仿佛中了邪似的 as it was quite suitable for that situation. I asked her how to write 邪 and she tell me this word is same with 辟邪剑法！

I find that she has better phrases and more ci yu after reading of so many CL story books.

[tamarind]

Brenda10:

Hi Tamarind,


Share with you something interesting while we were discussing the appropriate phrases to put in 一段作文情节，，DD suggested to add in 仿佛中了邪似的 as it was quite suitable for that situation. I asked her how to write 邪 and she tell me this word is same with 辟邪剑法！

I find that she has better phrases and more ci yu after reading of so many CL story books.

Hi Brenda,
Your daughter reminds me of myself when I was in school, I loved to use 仿佛...似的 though teachers never taught us. I knew perfectly how to use it because I often read it in books.

You are absolutely right that reading extensively is the best way to learn good phrases !