Re-kindling my Chinese and teaching my son... some advice, please!

[Diana82]

Hi everyone!  First time poster here.  I have studied Chinese before, but I haven't really used it much in the last 10 years, so it is pretty rusty.  However, I would like to re-learn it so that I can help teach it to my 3-year-old son.

 

A little background about me... I am of Chinese descent but born in the US.  I grew up speaking both English and Cantonese.  My Cantonese level is conversational... I can't talk about science or politics, but I can speak enough to get by in everyday life.  In college, I studied Mandarin Chinese for 3 years, and after I graduated in 2004, I went to Taiwan to study Chinese for an additional year.  Knowing Cantonese really helped make it easier for me to learn Mandarin Chinese grammar, vocab, and pronunciation.  My speaking and listening skills were decent by the time I left Taiwan, but I still couldn't write very well or read the newspaper.  (I really have a hard time learning and remembering all those darn characters!)  Once I left Taiwan, I hardly spoke Chinese anymore, so I've regressed a lot since then.

 

Now that I have an interest in helping my son learn Mandarin Chinese, I feel somewhat motivated to pick it up again.  However, the idea of having to learn all those characters really intimidates me.  I also feel awkward speaking to my son in Chinese, because it doesn't feel natural and because my speaking skills are so rusty.  I do know though that the earlier I introduce my son to Chinese, the better, so I really would like to stop procrastinating and just get started.

 

My question is... how do I get started?  I know there are lots of at-home Chinese learning resources for kids out there, but I have no idea which one is the most engaging and effective.  Does anyone have any recommendations?

 

I think my son might still be too young and restless for a formal Chinese class at the moment, since he's still a very active 3-year-old.  I'm hesitant to enroll him in a Chinese class even when he gets older though, because I don't want him to be turned off to the idea of learning Chinese due to boredom in the classroom.  I remember rebelling against going to Chinese school as a child for that very same reason, and also because I was just tired of having extra homework and going to school 6 days a week (regular school Monday through Friday, and Chinese school on Sundays).  I don't want him to view learning Chinese as a chore, but I also don't know how he would advance past the basic level without taking a formal class with a native Chinese speaking teacher, unless he has a lot of motivation to study and seek out Chinese speaking partners on his own (which I doubt a kid would want to do).  Am I worrying too much about the future?   I guess some exposure to Chinese is better than none at all...

 

Also, what are some fun ways to help me re-learn Chinese and stay motivated?  I know I won't stick with it if I'm just going to be staring at characters in a textbook, so does anyone have any recommendations for some engaging Chinese-language shows, games, lessons, etc.?  Part of my problem is that I do have some background in learning Chinese, so starting lessons from the beginning would bore me, but I also don't think I'm fluent enough to understand mainstream TV shows.  I'm sure subtitles and a dictionary would help with that, but I'd need to motivate myself to have the patience to rewind over and over again.  Maybe I could also look into doing a language exchange through Skype or something.

 

Sorry for the long and rambling post, haha.  Thank you in advance for any advice you could offer!

[ParkeNYU]

As far as (traditional) Chinese characters are concerned, this website is absolutely the best learning tool there is (nothing else I've found even approaches its greatness):

 

http://home.abcsofchinese.com/

 

As far as the spoken language is concerned, I recommend teaching your son Zhuyin/Bopomofo (it should be easy for you to learn if you haven't already in Taiwan). Once he has achieved a sufficient grasp of Mandarin phonology and can read these symbols, you can give him digital textbooks like these (thanks edelweis):

 

http://media.huayuworld.org/interact/ebook/default/default.html

http://media.huayuworld.org/interact/ebook/default/medium.html

http://media.huayuworld.org/interact/ebook/default/hard.html

 

At his age, the more immersion the better. It's best to learn Chinese organically and not through another language at this age.

[Diana82]

Thank you very much for your reply!  I will definitely look into the resources you mentioned!  I also agree with the benefits of learning Chinese organically.  I am hoping that my mother will be able to come live with us in the not-too-distant future, since her Mandarin is better than mine and she'd be able/willing to speak it with my son.  Someday I'd love to be able to take him to Taiwan and get him enrolled in activities where he can meet and befriend Taiwanese children... I think that would be a great way to learn Mandarin fast.  But I don't think that will be happening anytime soon, unfortunately.

[skylee]

Watch Chinese TV programmes. Get a domestic helper / babysitter who speaks Mandarin or Cantonese.

[Shelley]

I agree with skylee, watch TV together. I would also start some very basic and short "formal" lessons with your son. I think the key is to make it fun and part of everyday activities. keep it short so it doesn't become a chore or boring. There is a lot of children's mandarin learning material out there and I can't tell you what to chose but I am sure you could chose something appropriate.

 

I am not going to get into a "which is better discussion" here but I would use pinyin as this is what is usually used.

 

Introduce characters early, I know this book is considered controversial but I found the book Chineasy by Shaolan to be excellent for colour and interesting stories. I think it would be great for kids, she did after all write it for her kids. If you have a tablet there are games on the playstore designed for kids learning mandarin.

 

As for your own learning I think you may have to sit down with a text book or 2 but not from the very basic level. You could try reading books from the Chinese Breeze series. These are graded readers so you pick something at your level and when you want you move up to the next level.

 

A Chinese Skype exchange might also be very good for practicing talking.

 

Hope you and your son enjoy learning Chinese, this is important, it should be fun and pleasurable, as well as productive.

[ParkeNYU]

Oh, and label things around the house in Chinese (traditional characters annotated with either Zhuyin or Pinyin). I've always loved that!

 

If you do decide to go the Zhuyin route (preferable in Taiwan, after all), I recommend this extremely simple website wherein you click on the Zhuyin letters and hear their pronunciations:

 

http://www.mdnkids.com/BoPoMo/

[victorhart]

Diana82, I believe I have the answer for your son, or at least a big part of it. Have you heard of the show Qiao Hu? He's still young enough to enjoy it, I think. It's valuable programming for kids beyond just the language, since it teaches good values and reinforces things like potty training and washing your hands. And if you get him to watch it daily for at least an hour, I am sure he will be understanding basic Mandarin before too long, and will even begin recognizing characters.

 

You can watch endless episodes on YouTube, but if I had a kid below the age of 4 or 5, I would probably invest in some DVDs and especially get books and toys to go along with them. 

 

My daughter is 100% bilingual (English/Portuguese), even though she's never spent much time outside of Brazil, and I credit a significant part of that to shows and movies in English. I have a Brazilian friend who only allowed his daughter to watch cartoons in English, and as a result, when she was around 5 years old, she entered directly into advanced classes. I write more about Qiao Hu and teaching kids through video here.

[oceancalligraphy]

Although your focus is on at-home resources, make sure to remember the social aspect of languages. Part of learning and retaining a language is constant use and feedback. While your son is still young and is probably not ready for formal Chinese school, it might be helpful to find a Chinese playgroup. Depending on where you live, there might be play-based Chinese instruction as well. It just depends on finding what works for you and your son. But solely relying on studying at home and watching videos will only go so far.

[victorhart]

I stumbled again upon a website which I had seen earlier and might be very helpful for teaching your son:

 

http://www.teachkidschinese.com/

[Diana82]

Thank you all very much for your advice and resources!!  I am going to look into all of them!  I'm happy to say that you have all inspired me to finally take the first step in teaching my son Chinese, and so far it's been going really well!  victorhart, you mentioned the Qiao Hu series, so I looked it up and played some episodes for my son.  I thought he would rebel against it like he often does with new shows, but surprisingly, he sat down with me and watched all of the episodes that were available on YouTube (we couldn't seem to find that many of them), as well as a bunch of other Chinese lessons for kids on YouTube.  He seemed particularly interested in learning about colors, so we watched a few episodes about colors.  Afterward, he ran around the house pointing at every red object he could find and yelling, "hong se!  hong se!!!"  He was SO excited about it.  Ever since then, he has been asking me to say the Chinese names for different colors.  I am trying to keep it light and fun for now... I'll indulge him and answer all his questions as long as he is excited about it, but once he starts getting bored, I don't push it.  We will keep watching fun videos and learning the names for stuff in our environment for now, and like ParkeNYU mentioned, I'm also going to print out English/Chinese/pinyin charts for colors/numbers/etc. and label things around the house.  I still need to do more research and select an at-home learning program for him though.  A friend recommended the Little Pim series... anyone have any experience with that?  And I absolutely agree with yst about the importance of using language in a social setting.  There's a play-based Chinese program for preschool-aged children not too far from here that I'm strongly considering enrolling my son, in as long as there's space still available.

 

I've decided I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself to improve my Chinese before I teach my son.  Since I am so rusty, it's actually benefitting me as well to re-learn the basics along with him.  I think that a Skype language exchange (or even just a phone call in Mandarin with my mom) would be a fun way to help me feel more confident about speaking again and help increase my vocab too.  My pronunciation and grasp of grammar are still pretty decent, so at least I have that going for me.

 

Thank you to everyone again for your help!  I will keep you all updated on our progress!

[victorhart]

Diana, I'm so glad all the suggestions were helpful.

 

I'm surprised you had trouble finding lots of Qiao Hu episodes online. If I type those two words into YouTube, I get dozens or perhaps hundreds of episodes easily.

 

Given what you say about his positive reaction, I will repeat my suggestions. Make Qiao Hu readily available (turn it on) for him every day. And as you go through all the ones that are available online, go about figuring out how to order actual Qiao Hu DVDs, books, and toys - oh and please let me know if you do figure that out ;)

 

DVDs have made all the difference in making my daughter fully bilingual, at a native level, which is one reason I tout their value so much. And fortunately, even if finding great kids' content in English is much easier than in any other language, there is a lot of good content for kids in Mandarin as well, and I imagine it will only get better in the future.

[Demonic_Duck]

As far as (traditional) Chinese characters are concerned, this website is absolutely the best learning tool there is (nothing else I've found even approaches its greatness):

 

http://home.abcsofchinese.com/

 

I can't speak to the actual course they offer, but the very first video on this site is wildly inaccurate and uncritically repeats the idiographic myth. The narrator even stresses that "all of the components within a character contribute to its meaning", which is blatantly (and widely known to be) incorrect.

[miaomiao]

We are starting to make chinese videos with our kids that you might like

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCLAju7YVDWiKJrKnY5xx96g

And definitely get an iPad and download Chinese apps! They are fun, we've got some recommendations on our blog with lots more we haven't written about yet.