lewelma Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 ETA: My older boy can read about 1000 characters, but is currently only reading and rereading his textbook. I need to find some other materials rfor him to read. He really needs pinyin along side the characters. Any suggestions? books, websites, newspapers, magazines, etc. Graded readers would be the best I think, but I'm not sure where to find them. Thanks, Ruth in NZ I have just found this. It looks to be a newspaper for children with graded levels of difficulty and pinyin included with the characters. http://www.mdnkids.com/english_hp/index.asp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Daily_News http://www.mdnkids.com/ Has anyone used this? Where do I get it? Is it published in simplified characters? Thanks for any information, Ruth in NZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Didn't see an option for simplified Chinese. If you are looking for a children's newletter which has simplified Chinese option, the below link has option for both simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese. I didn't subscribe, just read what is free on their web and it looks good. Demo page in chinese 5-8 years old http://www.daily7online.com/demo/ 8-11 years old http://www.daily10online.com/demo/index.php Information about the Chinese digital edition page (in English. unfortunately the print samples are in English too) http://www.daily7-daily10.com/daily10/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beishan Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 it's traditional Chinese with zhuyin. It's from Taiwan. That's what I was reading when I was kid. Very good materials. The schools in Taiwan and parents today still subcribe it to improve their students/children's Chinese reading and writing abilities. As far as I know, it does not mail to US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted April 9, 2014 Author Share Posted April 9, 2014 Thanks for the info. I'm very disappointed that it is not available in simplified and pinyin. It looked just perfect. sigh. Arcadia, the links sent me to english sites. Where do you find the online chinese version? Also, do either of you have any suggestions for 'readers' for my kids? My older knows about 1000 characters, but reads only his textbook. He needs to be reading other material, but I don't know where to get it. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhotoGal Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 These are the best we've used: www.cheng-tsui.com/store/products/step_step These are designed to start with pinyin, but then the pinyin phases out. Note: I didn't realize when I was ordering, but "level B" and "Phase II" are almost the identical books. If I were to order again, I would buy level A and Phase II (Phase II has more pinyin and is a little easier than level B ). We finished all of these readers and I wish they would come out with more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alef Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 I think you are not a religious family but if you don't mind using a Bible for reading practice this could be an option http://www.chinese-bible.com/?mc=&searchlang=en&livre=40N&chapitre=1&verset=1&go=Ok&nb_versets=20&en=1&py=1&cn=1&langue_princip=en Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted April 9, 2014 Author Share Posted April 9, 2014 Thanks for the additional ideas. I just found this one. http://www.uiowa.edu...rdng/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 Arcadia, the links sent me to english sites. Where do you find the online chinese version?! There is a globe icon (left of contact us icon) on the web pages near the top where you can choose english, simplified chinese or traditional chinese. Simplified chinese is the last item in that popup/pull down list. For reading materials, your son can read the BBC chinese website for short news article. He should be able to listen to news in chinese and understand most of it. (the front page news is about baby Prince George visit to your country :) ) http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/ Look for books on chinese idioms for kids. Those tend to be bilingual and have illustrations. ETA: Since he has his first 1000 words, it would be better not to rely on pinyin anymore and just try to reach a 5000 word vocabulary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted April 9, 2014 Author Share Posted April 9, 2014 There is a globe icon (left of contact us icon) on the web pages near the top where you can choose english, simplified chinese or traditional chinese. Simplified chinese is the last item in that popup/pull down list. For reading materials, your son can read the BBC chinese website for short news article. He should be able to listen to news in chinese and understand most of it. (the front page news is about baby Prince George visit to your country :) ) http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/ Look for books on chinese idioms for kids. Those tend to be bilingual and have illustrations. ETA: Since he has his first 1000 words, it would be better not to rely on pinyin anymore and just try to reach a 5000 word vocabulary. My concern is that he 'knows' 1000 characters because he is reading them in context of the passages he already knows in his textbook. I think it is going to be a rude awakening when he tries to read something new. My guess is that he is going to need to look up a lot of words, and it seems to me (an extreme novice) that doing so in pinyin would be easier than with characters. He definitely prefers characters over pinyin because the book he learned from (Boya) keeps all pinyin isolated to a small location, and the rest is written in characters. He just thinks in characters which is really cool. So I don't think he would use the pinyin as a crutch. I just wish the Mandarin Daily News was in simplified! it just looks so good. How easy is the BBC website? Looked pretty hard to me (I know only about 50 characters, so everything looks hard) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 How easy is the BBC website? Looked pretty hard to me (I know only about 50 characters, so everything looks hard) Below link is to the Prince William's visit to NZ and your son should be able to read the photo captions easily. http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/multimedia/2014/04/140409_pic_prince_george.shtml Below link is to the PA school stabbing article and your son should be able to read it comfortably knowing all the words. http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/world/2014/04/140409_pennsylvania_stabbing.shtml Below link is to a MH370 news article which may have some words your son are unfamiliar with but can guess the meaning within context. http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/world/2014/04/140407_mh370_recovery.shtml Looking Chinese words up on the iPad by writing the characters is faster than guessing the pinyin. When I learned Chinese in preschool, we had to look up the Chinese (not bilingual) dictionary the words we don't know by counting character strokes. If we don't know the word, we don't know how it sound and pinyin won't be useful. If he forgot how to write a word that he can say, than looking by pinyin in a dictionary is useful. ETA: If you have an iPad, the storybook apps by Ryebooks are good for Chinese fables/folklore. The apps have simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, you can turn pinyin on or off and also audio on or off. So he can try reading and then have the story read to him. e.g. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/journey-eight-immortals-crossing/id493903726?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ryebooks-wolf-seven-little/id380920895?mt=8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted April 9, 2014 Author Share Posted April 9, 2014 Looking Chinese words up on the iPad by writing the characters is faster than guessing the pinyin. When I learned Chinese in preschool, we had to look up the Chinese (not bilingual) dictionary the words we don't know by counting character strokes. If we don't know the word, we don't know how it sound and pinyin won't be useful. If he forgot how to write a word that he can say, than looking by pinyin in a dictionary is useful. Got it. I was just picturing him counting the character strokes and using a paper dictionary, and thinking that this would not be very efficient. But we do have an app to practice writing characters, so I'll go see if it also tells you what they mean in english and how to pronounce them in pinyin. Will have him try the captions, so see how much he knows. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 But we do have an app to practice writing characters, so I'll go see if it also tells you what they mean in english and how to pronounce them in pinyin. We are using the free Pleco dictionary app on the ipad and kindles. It's not perfect but good enough for learning. ITunes link https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pleco-chinese-dictionary/id341922306?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 Andriod link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pleco.chinesesystem Kindle link http://www.amazon.com/Pleco-Software-Chinese-Dictionary/dp/B00BJ98T40 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted April 9, 2014 Author Share Posted April 9, 2014 Well, he didn't know much, but he had a great time using the app to figure out all the words he did not know. I am starting to get a bit of a plan: 1) use the graded readers to get him started (I'm going to buy them for my younger) 2) advance to the site from U Iowa 3) this should build him up to the BBC site. I'm assuming Quizlet has the top 1000 words somewhere, looking for that next. My ultimate goal is to get him to the HSK, so open to suggestions for resources that lead in that direction. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 I'm assuming Quizlet has the top 1000 words somewhere, looking for that next. For HSK level 1 http://quizlet.com/2212743/hsk-1-writing-flash-cards/ Main HSK quizlet page http://quizlet.com/subject/hsk/ HSK study links http://www.chinaeducenter.com/en/exams.php http://www.tanos.co.uk/hsk/skills/vocab/ New Zealand University of Auckland link with sample exam papers http://ci.ac.nz/examinations-competitions/hsk-chinese-proficiency-test ETA: Just for fun, below links are to Primary 1 Singapore past years Chinese school tests. Primary 1 is 6 years old by Jan 2 of school year. http://eduplus.com.sg/wp-content/chinese_learning_skills/P1SA2-P1C.pdf http://www.misskoh.info/08/primary1-peichunsa2-chinese.pdf http://www.misskoh.info/08/primary1-nanyangsa2-chinese.pdf easy one http://www.misskoh.info/08/primary1-acsca2-chinese.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted April 9, 2014 Author Share Posted April 9, 2014 Do you have preferred materials to use for the HSK? Boya does not seem to align. Obviously, they all converge in the end, but I think it would help my son to start at level 1 HSK, rather than jumping in the deep end after many more years of boya. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Do you have preferred materials to use for the HSK? Boya does not seem to align. Obviously, they all converge in the end, but I think it would help my son to start at level 1 HSK, rather than jumping in the deep end after many more years of boya. I'm not prepping my kids for the HSK so I don't know what materials might be more useful. The Peking University Press test prep books were recommended in one of the HSK forums. New Zealand also has a Youth Chinese Test (YCT) and the YCT Level 1 is easier than the HSK Level 1. It is NZ$30 and by the same company as HSK. Maybe let your son take that test first as a dry run. The YCT Level 2 would match to HSK Level 1 http://ci.ac.nz/examinations-competitions/youth-chinese-test Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HejKatt Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Here are some pins for Chinese materials here. I pinned them over the past couple of years so some may be dead but I think the mainland Chinese ones are quite stable (the Singaporean ones have a habit of moving, alas) http://www.pinterest.com/duplorers/elementarymiddlehigh-chinese/ Another website/iPad app that I like for stories is ChildRoad. It gives a monthly subscription to online stories for age ranges 4-12 years old. From listening to the youngest age range, I think the age range refers to native speakers. http://www.childroad.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2girls&amom Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 Lewelma, I am not sure where you are located, but this is where I order most of my graded readers in the US: http://www.chinasprout.com/shop/education/chinese-books/story-books/readers . They also have a lot of materials for HSK: http://www.chinasprout.com/shop/education/chinese-books/learn-chinese/hskmaterial Hope this helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaughingCat Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 2girls&amom, can you recommend any particular set of graded readers from that site? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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