JustEm Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 The other day I was considering starting to teach my 5 year old Spanish. I was going to do the Salsa videos as a relaxed, fun way to introduce it at this age. I didn't want anything formal just something he could pick up vocab words on. Well when I asked him today if he's be interested in it (he's shown interest before) he said, "No I want to learn Chinese. Will you teach that to me instead." I of course said yes but he needed to give me some time to research and find a program that I feel we'll both like. This is my son who when he wants to learn something he will. At age 3.5 he asked me to teach him to read and can now read at a late 2nd grade level. So I have no doubt that he does want to learn it. But I don't have any idea where to begin. Does anyone have any suggests for program for a 5 year old to learn Mandarin? I'm entirely out of my element. Spanish I know, not so much any other language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I would recommend very strongly working with a native speaker, at least at the beginning. The tones are crucial and are very hard for foreigners to hear. Do you have a local university where there might be a Chinese student whom you could hire? L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leav97 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 What about a family week at Concordia Language Village? http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/newsite/Programs/Families/chinese.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustEm Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 I would recommend very strongly working with a native speaker, at least at the beginning. The tones are crucial and are very hard for foreigners to hear. Do you have a local university where there might be a Chinese student whom you could hire? L Good call. We live in a college town so finding a student would be really easy. My mom used to work in the foreign language department at said university so she would probably have some contacts to help me on that search. I was hoping I could get away without doing that because of money but I suppose if I choose to have him learn it then I might as well do it right. Maybe I can persuade him that for now spanish would be more fun! Although I myself would love to learn mandarin and was planning on doing it with him in the future. Why now!?!? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustEm Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 What about a family week at Concordia Language Village? http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/newsite/Programs/Families/chinese.php that looks like a fun week! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luckymama Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Good call. We live in a college town so finding a student would be really easy. My mom used to work in the foreign language department at said university so she would probably have some contacts to help me on that search. I was hoping I could get away without doing that because of money but I suppose if I choose to have him learn it then I might as well do it right. Maybe I can persuade him that for now spanish would be more fun! Although I myself would love to learn mandarin and was planning on doing it with him in the future. Why now!?!? :) Based on your post about libraries, I believe we live in the same college town-----unless you are downstate somewhere???? You should be able to find a native Mandarin speaker without much problem at all. Geez, just going anywhere in town you can hear Mandarin being spoken. My dh has been studying Mandarin for several years. He took a winter session class a few years ago, has worked with paid tutors, and takes free classes through the Confucius Institute. He regularly meets with Chinese grad students to practice conversational Mandarin and to help them with business English/edit resumes/practice interviewing. He was introduced to the first group of students by professor friends, then he met the students' friends, found out he commuted on the bus with other students (who had internships near his office in Wilm), and so on. Your ds might be able to meet with a student tutor once a week and then work on his own during the week---that wouldn't be too much $$, at least for a beginner. Who knows, you might be able to enter into some sort of a bartering arrangement like my dh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 In my college town there is a 'Chinese School" that meets on Sundays. It is full of kids of native speakers practicing their family's language. The kids are American but the families often expect to return to China and need their kids to be fluent speakers. The school is full of American kids who want to learn chinese. Mandarin seems to be the dominant language. My friend's kids have been going to 'chinese school' for years. She has also hired tutors through the school. Depending on schedule, the kids have gone in and out of the school and tutoring, but their instruction is always with a native speaker. They started at 4 or 5 and there are lots of kids that age at the school. I should add that the 'Chinese school' for kids seems to be a somewhat common thing in communities with a large Chinese community. It might have different names and not all are open to non-native folks, just because that is a different kind of teaching. From what I have seen of my friend's kids it seems to be quite a commitment. But, now it has been years and they are able to have some basic conversations in Chinese with good pronunciation etc. I know it doesn't seem like much, but the tutors have been very happy with the kids progress. She has been assured by the native speaking parents that her kids are doing very well. I think it is just a difficult language to learn well. Oh, I should add that my friend has also been studying. It has been a family activity and a lot of fun. And, boy has my friend learned a lot about chinese culture! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustEm Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 Based on your post about libraries, I believe we live in the same college town-----unless you are downstate somewhere???? You should be able to find a native Mandarin speaker without much problem at all. Geez, just going anywhere in town you can hear Mandarin being spoken. My dh has been studying Mandarin for several years. He took a winter session class a few years ago, has worked with paid tutors, and takes free classes through the Confucius Institute. He regularly meets with Chinese grad students to practice conversational Mandarin and to help them with business English/edit resumes/practice interviewing. He was introduced to the first group of students by professor friends, then he met the students' friends, found out he commuted on the bus with other students (who had internships near his office in Wilm), and so on. Your ds might be able to meet with a student tutor once a week and then work on his own during the week---that wouldn't be too much $$, at least for a beginner. Who knows, you might be able to enter into some sort of a bartering arrangement like my dh! Nope I'm not downstate. what a small world! Yea I know it won't be a problem finding a native Mandarin speaker and once a week tutoring would certainly be affordable. Shoot if we could come up with some sort of barter that would be even better! Its funny, I've lived here my entire life and when my son said thats what he wanted to learn the college didn't even register as an option. Silly me! My mom even worked in the foreign language department computer lab for 20+ years so I know all the resources available! I guess he just really caught me off guard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustEm Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 In my college town there is a 'Chinese School" that meets on Sundays. It is full of kids of native speakers practicing their family's language. The kids are American but the families often expect to return to China and need their kids to be fluent speakers. The school is full of American kids who want to learn chinese. Mandarin seems to be the dominant language. My friend's kids have been going to 'chinese school' for years. She has also hired tutors through the school. Depending on schedule, the kids have gone in and out of the school and tutoring, but their instruction is always with a native speaker. They started at 4 or 5 and there are lots of kids that age at the school. I should add that the 'Chinese school' for kids seems to be a somewhat common thing in communities with a large Chinese community. It might have different names and not all are open to non-native folks, just because that is a different kind of teaching. From what I have seen of my friend's kids it seems to be quite a commitment. But, now it has been years and they are able to have some basic conversations in Chinese with good pronunciation etc. I know it doesn't seem like much, but the tutors have been very happy with the kids progress. She has been assured by the native speaking parents that her kids are doing very well. I think it is just a difficult language to learn well. Oh, I should add that my friend has also been studying. It has been a family activity and a lot of fun. And, boy has my friend learned a lot about chinese culture! There is a Chinese school in a town near by. My dh's martial arts school performs at a yearly event they have. I really didn't think I'd be outsourcing so soon so I'm all thrown off. Thanks for reminding me of that option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TianXiaXueXiao Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Miss panda is someone I would recommend for your child's age. She has many lessons on her website, but I would strongly recommend purchasing her cd. Since you live in a college town, there may be a better chance of finding Chinese Saturday school nearby. I live in a small rural area but there is a Saturday school here. Look for it through your local public schools and private schools as they are usually feeders for Saturday school. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beishan Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 You also need to determine what system you want your son to learn. There are Traditional Chinese and Simplfied Chinese. For pronounciation, there are pinyin and zuyin. For 5 years old, you may start with youtube or some DVD. I ordered DVDs and books from my home country and read to my son in Chinese was 2. We all speaks Chinese at home. It could be hard for non-Chinese speaking family. It will be better to get a real tutor or send him to Chinese school. Our Chinese school offers bilingual track for non-Chinese speaking family. Teachers will use English to explain in class and most of materials will have English translation on it so parents can understand and provide some assistance with homeworks. If you want to take it seriously, it is huge time commitment to keep up Chinese learning even for Chinese speaking families. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happycc Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 Do not send your child to Chinese school.....Get a private tutor. Speaking from experience....went to Chinese school (Cantonese) as a kid. It was pure torture and really didnt retain anything. It was a horrible way to spend Saturday mornings. Then thought maybe things changed and sent my older set of kids to Chinese school (Mandarin) locally. It was pure torture for all of us as I also sat in during the class in order to learn and help them. Just did not work at all. Now my older kids want nothing to do with Chinese. With my second set, I am in a process to search for someone bilingual in Chinese and English to implement TPR methods. If anyone lives in San Leandro, CA and wants to teach my kids and I Mandarin please contact me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berta Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 My daughter is Chinese and I hired a native speaker from the local college to teach both of us. He wasn't that good lol. My daughter was bored to death and he jumped around so much that I was completely confused. I bought the Better Chinese program and I was lost. We decided to wait another year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustEm Posted February 8, 2014 Author Share Posted February 8, 2014 My daughter is Chinese and I hired a native speaker from the local college to teach both of us. He wasn't that good lol. My daughter was bored to death and he jumped around so much that I was completely confused. I bought the Better Chinese program and I was lost. We decided to wait another year. Sometimes waiting a year changes everything. I'm not ready to start him with lessons just yet. I'll consider it when I start planning for next year. My mother worked in the foreign language department at the university in our town so she'll have some connections to bilingual people who will be good at teaching also so hopefully we'll find someone who is better than who you found. Being able to speak 2 languages is one thing, being able to teach a language is completely different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pronghorn Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 There are a lot of good resources at chinasprout.com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 Being able to speak 2 languages is one thing, being able to teach a language is completely different. I shortlisted my choice of potential Chinese tutors from observing tutors at the library. While I can teach my own kids, a tutor would help them progress in a more systematic way as well as prepare for the SAT and AP exams. I did find one that hubby and I are comfortable with for future purpose. Maybe it helps that I can interview potential tutors in Chinese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin'sMom Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 No advice, but totally impressed that your five-year-old spoke up with a language preference, and that it was Mandarin! :hurray: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happycc Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Ok after checking out a ton of online programs. I have found one that I could literally stick with and has gotten our whole family listening and speaking Chinese more. http://www.graspchinese.com/learn.aspx It isn;t per se for kids but it works perfectly minus the one episodes or two about businesses and ordering wine. But my kids still got a kick out of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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