Learning Hanyu Pinyin

[tankee]

er ..... must wait till I go MIL's place as I can't recall. :oops:

[mummy of 2]

If it's not too much trouble pls check and let me know also what is the format? Is it animation? Thanks very much.

[prata_queen]

Hi Tamarind, my gal’s childcare in introducing hypy in K1. She’s currently in Nursery where they learn chinese by recognition of characters which i think should be the way.


Are you aware of when hypy ideally should be introduced to young children?

[tamarind]

prata_queen:

Hi Tamarind, my gal's childcare in introducing hypy in K1. She's currently in Nursery where they learn chinese by recognition of characters which i think should be the way.


Are you aware of when hypy ideally should be introduced to young children?

Hi prata_queen,
I wrote in my blog that Hanyu Pinyin should only be taught after the child has learned to read as many Chinese characters as possible.

http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-raise-bilingual-child.html

Hanyu Pinyin is mainly tested during the first half of P1. After that all tests and exams will be in Chinese characters and if a child is not able to read without hanyu pinyin, he is going to have a lot of problems.

Personally I think that we should leave it to the teachers in kindergarten and primary school to teach. I think they have done a good job teaching Hanyu Pinyin to my kids who are very good in it even though I never practice with them. Nowadays every kindergarten teach Hanyu Pinyin in K1 or K2 and I think that is sufficient to prepare a child for P1.

Before the age of 6, parents must focus on teaching children to read Chinese books independently and it is not necessary to teach Hanyu Pinyin at home.

Both my kids are able to read long Chinese novels by P1 :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2011/06/reading-long-chinese-novels-by-7-years.html

I believe that kids must have read many long novels before P3, otherwise they will struggle when they start to write Chinese compositions.

Instead of teaching Hanyu Pinyin, you should focus on teaching English Phonics now. Both my kids, now in P1 and P2, can spell all the words in their spelling lists without the need to spend time learning the words, all thanks to their strong foundation in phonics.

For a child who is already very good in English phonics, learning Hanyu Pinyin is very easy

[lee2004]

多读，多听， 买VCD ok

[miaoster]

Hi e3nity,

I have this website to learn and it follow the MOE textbook.
http://xuele.edumall.sg/xuele/slot/u107/index.html
My son loves this website very much when he was in N1/N2. Now he is K1 and he pick up Han Yu Pin Ying already. He can follow the sound accordingly.
Hope this help you.

[prata_queen]

thanks tamarind for your advice.

[jamespon]

tamarind:

Hi smurf,

There are some rules :

http://www.learnchineseeveryday.com/2009/07/25/pinyin-tutorial-change-of-tones/
In Chinese it happens that sometimes we change the Tones of certain Pinyin syllable to improve the clarity or ease pronunciation difficulties, here are some general rules:

When two 3rd tones come together, the first tone changes into the 2nd (but its tone mark remains unchanged), e.g. “你好 nǐ hǎo” (How are you) is actually pronounced as “ní hǎo”.
When a syllable in the 3rd tone precedes a syllable in the 1st, 2nd, 4th or neutral tone, it is pronounced in the half 3rd tone, that is, the tone only falls but doesn’t rise, e.g. “你们 nǐ men”.


Change of Tones of “不” and “一”
“不 bù” is pronounced in the 2nd tone (bú) when it is put before a syllable in the 4th tone or a syllable in the neutral tone developed from 4th tone, e.g. “不谢 bú xiè” (Don’t mention it), “不是 bú shì” (No, it isn’t). But “不” is still pronounced in the 4th tone (bù) when it precedes a syllable in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd tone, e.g. “不新 bù xīn” (not new), “不来 bù lái” (not come), “不好 bù hǎo” (not good).

“一 yī” is pronounced in the 2nd tone (yí) when it precedes a syllable in the 4th tone or a syllable in the neutral tone developed from the 4th tone, e.g. “一块 yí kuài” (a block/bar), “一个 yí gè” (a piece). But “一” is pronounced in the 4th tone (yì) when it precedes a syllable in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd tone, e.g. “一天 yì tiān” (a day), “一年 yì nián” (a year), “一起 yì qǐ ” (together).

Nice explanation!!

[asunnyday]

For those who have iPad, here is a small tool I thought it would be useful for your kids to learn Pinyin in a fun way:


http://itunes.apple.com/sg/app/fun-pinyin/id460776312?mt=8

Well, at least both my boys liked it and used it _for_a_while_

[sembgal]

Hi, wonder if anyone can share some tips with me on how you help your child to distinguish the four pitch by listening. Thanks.