Teaching Chinese at Home

[tamarind]

pummanuel:

If 《笑猫日记》is the 'in' storybook for Chinese primary school children in the 21st century, I would like to recommend the highly popular storybook for Chinese primary school children in the last century - 《阿凡提》(Afanti). My husband and I both read 《阿凡提》when we were young as our own parents were 阿凡提's ardent fans when they were young. Hence, I always feel that 《阿凡提》is an evergreen.


Till today, 阿凡提's nationality remains hotly contested (Uighur, Turk, Uzbek or Iraqi) and it remains unknown whether he’s a real or fictitious person. The only agreed upon facts are the stories are set in the 12-13th century and 阿凡提 is Turkic speaking.

The name 阿凡提 means 先生 as he’s highly regarded in the community. He travels around on a donkey, donning traditional Arab clothes and a turban. Wherever he goes, he will help the poor peasants who are oppressed by the rich landlords or autocrats. The stories are simple but the unexpected twists and 阿凡提's ingeniousness made the reader asking for more.

I thought 阿凡提 will be suitable for bedtime reading for younger children and perhaps independent reading for upper primary school children. It seems that Dangdang has various editions ranging from wordy ones to comics, so parents can choose based on their children's preferences.

I’m not sure if 《阿凡提》 will appeal to 21st century children but I read from Dangdang that 《阿凡提》is one of the Ministry of Education's recommended reading for primary school children in China and one particular edition also won 冰心儿童文学奖.

When my daughter is older, I’m going to pass her the edition I read when I was a child (if I can still find it at my parents' home). She will be the 3rd generation to read 《阿凡提》.

pummanuel,
Thanks for recommending 阿凡提. I will definitely order it

[tamarind]

hui siang:

Hi Tamarind,


Any more good books to recommend before I make my order from dang dang. Many thanks !

Hi hui siang,
Have you seen the list of books in my blog ?
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-raise-bilingual-child.html

[tamarind]

hquek:

Then again, I don't advocate TCS shows anymore. Every 2 days, there will be something violent or with physical intimacy connotation etc on tv. My kids are now scared of clowns after one of the shows depicting a clown kidnapping children - good for me, but I do take in mind what else they absorb thanks to the telly.

hquek,
I totally agree with you. TCS shows are really horrible. There were articles in the newspapers complaining why there are rape scenes in every series.

[tamarind]

numericrhapsodies:

hello all.

I personally think the best way to teach your child Chinese at home is to surround him or her with Chinese influences.
I come from a English-speaking family, and disliked Chinese when I was younger, due to the americanized environment i grew up in.
Everything around me was Caucasian, from the brands I used, to the television I watched.
I was influenced by the american entertainment virtues of money, materialism, and looks.
I was very foolish back then, and when I look back on it I feel ashamed of myself.
Sadly, many children, even those around my age, do not realize the beauty, the grace, and the quirks of the Chinese language.
They are under the delusion of white supremacy, that anything that is foreign and out of Asia is good, and that the Chinese language is all rough and uncouth.
That is why children today have lost sight of the traditional Chinese values.
In order to reinstate, or instill for that matter, a sense of interest in the Chinese language, the child needs to be interested in the culture.
I was weak in Chinese in my P1 to P2 years. At P3, I saw that my grades were slipping from A to B, and I decided had to do something.
No, I didn't go crazy and sign myself up for Chinese tuition seven days of the week.
I'll admit, i'm the laziest person you'll find, in fact, I spent my precious PSLE studying time reading manga and watching the telly!
So i thought of the best way for myself. Watching TV.
My Chinese has been exceptionally good ever since. I further expanded my exposure to Chinese culture by reading Chinese novels (the reallyyyy old type), and conversing with my grandparents in Chinese.
This wasn't enough to satiate my appetite and hunger, so i requested my parents bring me to China for our annual year-end holiday.
In the twelve years of my life, I have gone to China 7 times, and I am proud to say that my Chinese is very proficient.
Or maybe its just because I have a weird Chinese accent when I speak Chinese that makes people think I come from Beijing.
cheers,
numericrhapsodies.

numericrhapsodies,
Thank you so much for sharing.

My parents also could not help me with Chinese when I was young. They never read any Chinese books to me, and we spoke only Cantonese at home. However, they allowed me to take a bus to the National Library once every week since I was 7 years old, and I read as many Chinese story books as I could. I wrote Chinese compositions effortlessly since P2, and I often scored the highest marks in Chinese while I was in RGS and RJC. This is not because I am naturally good in languages. I used to find English very difficult and I could only read long English novels only after 18 years old.

That is why I always think that it is not true that kids from English speaking families are not capable of doing well in Chinese.

[twinkle70]

tamarind:

I actually sent both my kids to Berries to learn Chinese. I just calculated that it is going to cost me a total of $9000, over 3 years, sending 2 kids to Berries !


I plan to let both my kids attend Berries until the end of K2 only. Then I will try to \"enrich\" their Chinese at home. That's why I am starting this thread, hopefully parents can share how they teach their kids Chinese at home, and any good resources to recommend.

hi...hi... after two years, are u successful in teaching your kids chinese at home?

[jaewee]

hihi


does anyone use 汉字宫 for teaching chinese? Any feedback?

[tamarind]

twinkle70:

tamarind:

I actually sent both my kids to Berries to learn Chinese. I just calculated that it is going to cost me a total of $9000, over 3 years, sending 2 kids to Berries !


I plan to let both my kids attend Berries until the end of K2 only. Then I will try to \"enrich\" their Chinese at home. That's why I am starting this thread, hopefully parents can share how they teach their kids Chinese at home, and any good resources to recommend.

hi...hi... after two years, are u successful in teaching your kids chinese at home?

Hi twinkle,
I started to teach my girl at home after she stopped attending Berries at the end of K2. I am amazed by the results. By the end of P1, she is reading long novels like 笑猫日记 and she enjoys the books very much. These books have about 200 - 300 words a page, take a look at a section from the book :

杜真子感冒了，没去上学。当然，我今天也不会去翠湖公园，我要在家里陪伴杜真子。讨厌的是杜真子的妈妈也不去上班，她要在家里照顾杜真子，可杜真子好像并不需要她，杜真子真正需要的是我。现在的孩子，内心都十分孤独，所以他们喜欢跟动物交朋友。对杜真子来说，我就是她的最好的朋友。杜真子宁愿把心里的话跟我说，也不愿跟她的妈妈说，因为我比她的妈妈更能理解她。
听，她的妈妈又在唠叨了。
“杜真子，你能不能少让我操点心?”
“谁让你操心了？”杜真子用被子捂住脑袋，“你这是瞎操心。”
“你说我瞎操心?你这孩子，还有没有良心?”杜真子妈妈的话匣子打开了，“要不是因为你，我早就到美国享福去了。我把所有的希望全部寄托在你的身上，我这么辛苦，还不是全为了你?你说，你对得起我吗?”
这样的话，杜真子的妈妈就像念经一样，每天都要念上几遍。连我都听烦了，更别说杜真子了。
杜真子掀开被子坐起来：“我没有良心，我对不起你，我是小罪人。你满意了吧?”
我真的不明白，像杜真子的妈妈这样的大人，难道他们就没有自己的追求?为什么要把所有的希望都寄托在孩子身上?为什么他们活着都是为了孩子?难道没有孩子，他们就不活了吗?这些家长有没有想过，他们会让自己的孩子瞧不起?反正，我是瞧不起杜真子的妈妈这样的人。瞧人家马小跳的爸爸妈妈多好啊!他们除了爱他们的儿子，还爱他们的工作。马小跳的爸爸，是玩具设计师；马小跳的妈妈，是橱窗设计师。他们从来不说把所有的希望都寄托在马小跳身上，马小跳才活得这么自在，这么快活，心里一点压力都没有。难怪杜真子羡慕马小跳，难怪杜真子喜欢到马小跳的家里去。也许她经常想：如果把马小跳换成她，那该多好啊!杜真子有太多的烦恼，我不知道怎么安慰她才好。我只有守候在她的床边，静静地陪伴她。


These books are actually used by Berries for their P4 to P6 classes. My girl knows more than 95% of the words when she reads out loud to me. Most importantly, she tells me that she likes Chinese books Before P1, she refused to speak mandarin to me. Now she actually likes to speak mandarin to me. I believe that reading out loud from books everyday really builds up her confidence. She also enjoys writing in Chinese.

If I have found these good resources earlier :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-raise-bilingual-child.html

She could have been reading long Chinese novels by 5 or 6 years old, she can read long English novels just before she turned 5 years old because I taught her at home. I could have saved so much money.

Teaching Chinese at home is not difficult at all, parents just have to find good resources and good story books, and be persistent enough to teach about 30 minutes a day. My girl only spends about 20 minutes reading out loud to me everyday.

[Trapwithin]

Hi Twinkle


I have tried Tamarind’s method and it is showing results.
Though I am only doing about 20-30mins of reading with my child daily, it does help a great deal. She is able to pick up new words daily and we converse in Chinese during these times. Though the time is short, it does provide daily exposure to Chinese. The Key is parents involvement.

Hopefully she can move into some books like Tamarind’s children in 1 years time.

[Brenda10]

Yes. Agree that Tamarind’s method is correct. Now dd (this year P6) reading the 窗边的小豆豆 without much problem after completed the 12 books of 笑猫日记.


As such, parent involvement is definetly very important. DD learn plenty of phrases like 吴下阿蒙, 赔了夫人又折兵, 机不可失，时不再来etc during watching the CL show.

[hquek]

tamarind:

Teaching Chinese at home is not difficult at all, parents just have to find good resources and good story books, and be persistent enough to teach about 30 minutes a day. My girl only spends about 20 minutes reading out loud to me everyday.

Very true, I totally concur. My kids used to hate chinese reading time, me too actually. The books that I could find in Popular are quite boring.

It was only after picking up those gems from Dangdang (eg bu yi yang de ka mei la) that they were excited to continue reading. Have gotten most of the books on Tamarind's list, and some others I picked up on the stray.

Chinese reading is now full of fun and a must during their pre-bedtime activities. DS1 has no problems with his tingxie even though I hardly coach him; and his reading is quite ok (though not to Tamarind's kids' standards).