Ann.without.an.e Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Ds has been asking for years to take Mandarin. He begins HS next year and while I think I will require him to take Spanish because that is manageable for me....I'll entertain it for a moment. How would one even go about taking Mandarin? :confused1: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 I would highly recommend getting a local tutor - maybe a Chinese student? Learning the tones of the language is crucial. Some people have had success with Skype lessons with tutors in China. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa B Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 My dd plans to take one year through our state virtual school starting this fall and then continue through dual enrollment at either our community college or local university. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 My kids are younger, but we hired a tutor. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luckymama Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 You're going to have to spend some money for an effective study of Mandarin. There are online classes. I know CTY and The Potters School offers some--I'm sure there are others. Look for a native speaker as the teacher. You could pay a tutor for once- or twice-weekly sessions. A tutor who will also assign written work is best, because then you wouldn't have to supplement. You could look for a local Chinese cultural center that offers weekend classes. You'd have to supplement that, though. Dh has been studying Mandarin for years. He's used DVD/workbook combinations, podcasts, one university class during a winter session (our friend was the prof), weekly discusssion groups with Chinese language partners (he would help the Chinese economics grad students with business and financial English), and now is studying with free classes at the university for faculty (our friend got him hooked up at first), with one structured grammar class and one more casual speaking class a week. Dh does best when he can hear the tones in person and have immediate correction. Dd is studying a difficult language (Arabic) with an online class. The class also has a dvd component. She says at times it is difficult to hear exact inflections and pronunciation over the computer (a new apple laptop, so not an equipment issue). Next year she will begin in-person classes. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Check to see if your area has a Saturday Chinese school. They are usually relatively cheap and may even offer PS credit. Obviously the Bay Area has so many that it's hard to choose which one. DD is the only kid that actually loves going to Saturday school since it's a treat to be in a real classroom with all the drama that ensues (e.g. crying, ripping up midterms, throwing books against walls, screaming at the teacher); poor kids have to be in school Monday through Friday and then Saturday. If not that, then you could go with something like verbalplanet.com. I've tried various French tutors through that site. I use a different site for Spanish, livelingua.com which also has Mandarin tutors. Classical Learning Resource Center has Mandarin, http://www.clrconline.com/chinese-mandarin-.html, taught by Dr. Godwin whose thesis is based on Chinese texts dating back to 7th or 8th century. Classes are very small so there is a lot of opportunity to practice. Pimsleur is good. I know, I know, what ?!?! But I borrowed a sample audiobook for French from the library and it's been working so well. Of course, DD has now had 2 semesters of French at CLRC. It works best with some grammar foundation. So I think if you could get it from the library or the entire level from audible, it would work really well to hear how the tones are pronounced. The tones are really not that hard to learn. I know some kids will have problems, but there are only 4 with some combination exceptions. It's not Cantonese, which has far more tones. ETA: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learn-chinese Coursera is free but the above class doesn't seem to teach characters. It's more to learn pronunciation and basic sentences. Maybe try this first to see if there is any interest in pursuing further study. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 The tones are really not that hard to learn. I know some kids will have problems, but there are only 4 with some combination exceptions. It's not there are lots of tones, just that (as I'm sure you know) they are crucial to the meaning. I met a lot of foreigners in China who had kind of blundered on with the language, thinking that they were hearing and using the tones, but really not. It worked as an emergency communication tool in simple circumstances, but it wasn't learning a language, certainly not in a way that would pass in academic terms. What I had was a tutor who let me go no further in the language until I could produce the tones well. It made for a really boring month, but it was completely worthwhile. Husband never had that old-school teaching and has regretted it ever since. I am sure that there are some people who instinctively hear the tones and reproduce them perfectly, but I wouldn't want to rely on that kind of luck. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 You would need a Chinese tutor preferably twice a week for starters. Even if your child has perfect pitch for music, it would take him time and practice to get the perfect tone when speaking Chinese. If anyone need more free resources, Chinese textbooks and workbooks for Chinese as a foreign language, including the audio files and video links https://www.chineseculturecenter.org/OnlineTraining/CourseMaterials 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Definitely agree with you Laura. I seldom hear kids communicating in the wrong tones, but I do hear them with adults. I do think kids have an easier time absorbing the tones. I'm in the class every week and there is only one middle school kid that has trouble, major trouble, but I think it's due to something else. Unfortunately he is the loudest in the class and kids tend to follow his tones (more like no tones) if the teacher doesn't correct it immediately. All the other kids have come a long way and I don't often hear a mispronunciation. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 You would need a Chinese tutor preferably twice a week for starters. Even if your child has perfect pitch for music, it would take him time and practice to get the perfect tone when speaking Chinese. If anyone need more free resources, Chinese textbooks and workbooks for Chinese as a foreign language, including the audio files and video links https://www.chineseculturecenter.org/OnlineTraining/CourseMaterials DD has perfect pitch, so whether it's related or not to her language ability, she has had an easy time learning Mandarin. The kid in her class who speaks Mandarin without any tones is such a smart kid, but I don't quite understand why he pronounces it like in English. He knows his characters, and I know he is a strong English reader, but I don't know why he can't read the Pinyin correctly. Would that be considered tone deaf? It's very frustrating to him when he is the only student who has to say it over and over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Would that be considered tone deaf? It's very frustrating to him when he is the only student who has to say it over and over. It may not be tone deaf. It depends on whether he can hear the tones in the first place. If he is really tone deaf (depending how severe), he would have a hard time understanding what the teacher say. While my kids didn't do a formal Chinese program/curriculum, they have repeated scolding words in Chinese, Cantonese and Hokkien since they were babies. They can parrot the correct tones without effort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 It may not be tone deaf. It depends on whether he can hear the tones in the first place. If he is really tone deaf (depending how severe), he would have a hard time understanding what the teacher say. While my kids didn't do a formal Chinese program/curriculum, they have repeated scolding words in Chinese, Cantonese and Hokkien since they were babies. They can parrot the correct tones without effort. In his case, maybe Chinese is not the right language for him. If it takes 10 tries to get the tone correct just that one time, it's embarrassing for him. I do know that some kids are dropping Mandarin and waiting until high school to learn Spanish. They claim that it's easier. You know where I get my socialization time during the week. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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