Teaching Chinese at Home

[apple79]

wow. Where got enough time to teach english and also chinese at same time?

[mintcc]

can lah. 5 words a day/every other day. Bedtime story telling/poems/songs.


probably less than 20 mins a day lor.

[apple79]

Just wondering. would u do english one day and chinese the next day or would u allocate say 15 mins for english and 15 mins for chinese everyday?

[amylqf]

Carrotree:

hi tamarind , thanks for starting this thread!


amylqf which popular did u buy the king of chinese from? it is the books whereby they show pictures of objects and relate it to how the strokes of chinese characters go? been hunting for this series...

Since many people will interest to know about this book, I have just written a book review on this, you can view it from my blog below:
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/blogs/amylqf

As far as I know not all popular carry this books, I can give you the ISBN No. 981-00-8518-4, so that you can search the net or ask popular staff.

[amylqf]

apple79:

wow. Where got enough time to teach english and also chinese at same time?

for me, in order not to confuse the child, I focus on english reading and phonics when she was 4. Once she can read english, I switch the focus to chinese.

You can do it at night before bedtime.

[mintcc]

I think there is no need to worry about confusing a child for language teaching.


Check this out :
\"Children are not confused by hearing more than one language. We have known for a long time that bilingual children separate their language from the age of 2: current research suggests they separate them from the beginning.

People who grow up in bilingual communities like Singapore take bilingualism for granted. Parents typically speak both languages to children, and parents and children often mix languages in the same sentence. Even mixing languages in the same sentence doesn't confuse children. The children have to be exposed to mixtures of language in order to learn the complex rules for when to use which language (and when you can use a mixture). They start to demonstrate that they know these rules by the age of 2. By the age of 2 we can clearly see that bilingual children faced with a monolingual adult will do their very best to speak in the language the monolingual knows. \"

http://www.linguistlist.org/ask-ling/biling2.html

[sunflower]

For pre-schoolers, speak A LOT of Chinese to them, but do not mix Eng and Chi in one sentence. You can try one day one language, or one language at different situations on the same day, or one parent speaks only one language to the child. The last case was unsuccessful for me as hubby supposed to speak Chinese but his will power not so strong so ended up speaking English to children when they start to converse in English with him! :roll:


Popular also has those 儿歌 and 唐诗 with CD. Let children listen to the CDs regularly to get them used to and interested in the language.

[tamarind]

apple,

Actually kids will learn english and chinese when they enter nursery and kindergarten. What we are doing at home is "enrichment" only.

For example, a child goes to Berries once a week for 1 hour 45 mins. If we teach the child at home for 15 mins everyday, that means for one week it will be 1 hour 45 mins of learning time ! So all we need is 15 mins of Chinese, and 15 mins of English everyday.

mincy,
I totally agree that young children are capable of learning more than 1 language. In fact, my kids are trilingual, they can speak English, Mandarin, and Cantonese ! My girl claims that she knows some Malay too(from my maid).

sunflower,
I think that one parent speaks one language to the child is the best. However, because both my hubby and I are working, we have no choice but to both speak in English to the kids. My mother only speaks Cantonese. So my kids speak Mandarin in their kindergarten and Berries only. My girl’s kindergarten chinese teacher told me that she can speak mandarin fluently, so I am relieved.

[ImMeeMee]

Disney Playhouse allows toggling between English and Chinese for some of the programs, eg. mickey mouse clubhouse, animal mechanicals. so if my kids want to watch the programs, i negotiate with them to watch in chinese.


for those dvds that my kids want to watch, i negotiate with them that i will only buy if they watch in chinese. most of the time it works.

and i try to speak to them in chinese whenever i can. though not perfect yet, i can see my kids’ chinese improving.

[sunflower]

tamarind:

sunflower,

I think that one parent speaks one language to the child is the best. However, because both my hubby and I are working, we have no choice but to both speak in English to the kids. My mother only speaks Cantonese. So my kids speak Mandarin in their kindergarten and Berries only. My girl's kindergarten chinese teacher told me that she can speak mandarin fluently, so I am relieved.

It's great that your child take to Chinese well. My hubby and I actually converse in Chinese at home, but we speak to our kids in English most of the time, (as mentioned before, my hubby didn't speak as much Chinese to them as I wld like to) so by right, they should be quite comfortable with both languages. They do not have any Chinese enrichment and mostly learnt Chinese in CC (DD1) and nursery (DD2). Their Chinese OK only, wished it cld be better.