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PeterPan
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and I wish it were.

 

I mean heck I am Chinese and speak it (Cantonese not Mandarin but can't read or write a lick of it). My kids can understand it when I reprimand or command some things in Cantonese (Go to sleep, Hurry Up, Be quiet) but I want us to learn Mandarin.

 

We are having better luck with English (of course) , Latin (I Speak Latin, Getting Started with Latin) and Spanish (Salsa Spanish). My poor kids are being bombarded in a gazillion languages. But hey in a lot of the countries that is the norm. So if they can do it, why can't we?

 

I wish there were better sources for Chinese.

 

Someone did post a Chinese video source for middle schoolers and I can;t remember the name of it but it got to be too hard. Anything for elementary school out there? Kind of like Salsa Spanish? I don;t want textbook/workbook oriented but video oriented. TPR anything?

 

Oh by the way I did go to Chinese school myself and sent first set of kids to Chinese school (and attended with them so I could practice it at home with them) and still to no avail. I bought Chinese videos, had Chinese friends over and bought Chinese games and books. We also had a Chinese tutor who worked with a small group of us. But she taught Chinese the "old fashion painful to learn never want to learn it that way. " No TPR at all and way too much focus on reading and writing. So in the end my first set of kids couldn't speak anything or understand anything. And never want to ever try to learn Chinese again.

Edited by happycc
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Are you doing Chinese with your kids? How is that going and what are you using?

 

My dc are studying Mandarin with a tutor and it is going well. The tutor comes to our house 2 times a week for an hour each time, which costs $45/week. steep but really necessary if you want to learn a tonal language.

 

I am not really pleased with our materials, so I won't recommend any. Beth in SW WA is the go to person on the accelerated board for super cool apps and resources.

 

Ruth in NZ

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I've got links to some educational and some fun Chinese resources on this page of my blog: http://www.thebugslife.blogspot.com/p/mandarin-chinese-links.html

 

The first thing there mentions a GREAT iPad app from Better Chinese. Vol. 1 is out now and I've been told that Vol. 2 may be available by early-Sept. (we'll see :)) Here's a link to their demo video:

 

My dd started with Better Chinese (My First Chinese Reader) and for vol. 2 we're switching to their Discovering Chinese series. We've got their app, as well.

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I have studied Chinese, but my friend has put quite a lot of time, $$, and effort into it.

 

One thing is that all of them are learning, not just the kids. The adults are learning as well. They practice together. They have gone in and out of being in a chinese school, and they almost always have a tutor. Sometimes she hires the tutor to also babysit her two kids (and tells the tutor to speak Chinese to the kids). She buys children's movies etc in Chinese, will have Chinese speaking children over to play with her kids, etc. It is a big job. She uses a variety of materials, like workbooks and DVDs etc, but mostly it is about the in person tutoring.

 

Her experiences with Chinese school and tutors is very much like that of HappyCC. The teachers will sometimes say straight out that they only know how to teach in an 'old fashioned way' and acknowledge it makes people unhappy, but they are not willing to learn new ways. They say that is how they learned everything in China and everyone hates it. Often the tutors are very, very indulgent with the children and give them no helpful feedback.

 

But, there has been progress. Her kids can converse in basic Mandarin. They sound amazing to my totally untrained ears, lol.

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The two books that I use now are Better Chinese and Mei Zhou, both of which come with CDs. Both are Mandarin, not Cantonese. I have DD listen to the CDs repeatedly and memorize poems/songs, sort of like what we do with French.

 

I may have to re-enroll her in a class, but I found that once per week classes were not helpful. We tried that a couple of years ago, and the only reason she may have learned something was that I had to help her during the weekday. But that time I didn't know about the above books and didn't know what to give her during the week to listen on her own.

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The two books that I use now are Better Chinese and Mei Zhou, both of which come with CDs. Both are Mandarin, not Cantonese. I have DD listen to the CDs repeatedly and memorize poems/songs, sort of like what we do with French.

 

I may have to re-enroll her in a class, but I found that once per week classes were not helpful. We tried that a couple of years ago, and the only reason she may have learned something was that I had to help her during the weekday. But that time I didn't know about the above books and didn't know what to give her during the week to listen on her own.

 

We use the same curriculum. I bought better Chinese before we started the HS Chinese class and the teacher picked out Mei Zhou Chinese. I love Mei Zhou, but I don't recommend it for people who don't speak Chinese OR have a Chinese speaking tutor/teacher. My husband and I learned Chinese at the Defense Language Institute, so we can practice with DS8 easily. Our Chinese class is once a week for 2 hours and it's very good. The teacher assigns homework so that there is something to do every day of the week. Some of the other parents, who don't know Chinese, have a tiny bit of trouble, but it's nothing that keeps them from taking the class.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We are and we are doing well. I am semi-fluent in Mandarin and can read, write and speak. We are using Chinese Made Easy series with the CCTV Learn Chinese videos. So far it's going well enough. The kids aren't fluent but I see progress and for that I'm appreciative since we aren't in a predominately Chinese environment. I admit Chinese takes as much time as Math and English so we have put less emphasis on History and Science but we are a strong believer of being multi-lingual and fluent in Chinese and Spanish. Time will only tell. :)

 

Edited to add that we doing four exercises per foreign language that focuses on four different skill sets : reading, writing, listening & speaking. And I found it vital to review a previous lesson every day even from a few years back. *laughs*

Edited by Genevieve
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