Learning Chinese (Primary/Preschool)

[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.

[rosemummy]

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.

I fully agree. It should not be difficult to read / write the European languages if you can speak since it's all aplphabet-based. But it's a different story with Asian languages, except for Bahasa.

[JRLam]

Chenonceau:

Hi... here is an update of some encouraging results from memorizing Chinese Compositions...


http://petunialee.blogspot.com/2011/01/reaching-tipping-point-for-chinese-part.html

Hi Chenonceau,

I am very keen to know how does the 1000 essay compendium series look like - I mean the standard of the language used, content, descriptive words etc. I am very desperate with my P5 boy's progress in mastering CL too. He attended Tien-Hsia's essay writing, has a 1-to-1 tutor (just started beginning of the year after pull him out from Berries). Somehow, he just seems to have mental block when it comes to write CL compo. I know it is due to his insufficient grasp of the CL vocab to express his thoughts. I do agree that reading is more effective, but it is just inefficient, and there are just too much other things he needs to work on now, not just CL I almost had a heart-attack when I read the most recent CL compo hw he did - it was like a P2 work!

If the 1000-essay's standard is just too difficult for him, I am contemplating for him to use those 'model' essays used by the Tien-Sia teacher as a leading whenever introducing a topic for every week....

And I do agree, he must be a willing party to understand the benefit of memorizing - which is hopefully it will come to the point when he has enough vocab to express himself, builds his confidence and roll from there ..

Would u mind, to scan 1 or 2 essays from the 1000-essay and PM me? I will like to compare the standard of these 1000-essay to those from local publications. Of course, pls do it at your convenience ...

Thank you in advance!

[Chenonceau]

JRLam:

Chenonceau:

Hi... here is an update of some encouraging results from memorizing Chinese Compositions...


http://petunialee.blogspot.com/2011/01/reaching-tipping-point-for-chinese-part.html

Hi Chenonceau,

I am very keen to know how does the 1000 essay compendium series look like - I mean the standard of the language used, content, descriptive words etc. I am very desperate with my P5 boy's progress in mastering CL too. He attended Tien-Hsia's essay writing, has a 1-to-1 tutor (just started beginning of the year after pull him out from Berries). Somehow, he just seems to have mental block when it comes to write CL compo. I know it is due to his insufficient grasp of the CL vocab to express his thoughts. I do agree that reading is more effective, but it is just inefficient, and there are just too much other things he needs to work on now, not just CL I almost had a heart-attack when I read the most recent CL compo hw he did - it was like a P2 work!

If the 1000-essay's standard is just too difficult for him, I am contemplating for him to use those 'model' essays used by the Tien-Sia teacher as a leading whenever introducing a topic for every week....

And I do agree, he must be a willing party to understand the benefit of memorizing - which is hopefully it will come to the point when he has enough vocab to express himself, builds his confidence and roll from there ..

Would u mind, to scan 1 or 2 essays from the 1000-essay and PM me? I will like to compare the standard of these 1000-essay to those from local publications. Of course, pls do it at your convenience ...

Thank you in advance!

I know how you feel... I am in the same situation.

I posted a pic here in this thread. Do let us know your son's progress.

http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14433&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=1130