sea_mommy Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Any suggestions on a curriculum for teaching Mandarin Chinese? I searched the forums and found a thread, but it was from 2008, so I am just checking to see if there is anything else available since that time frame. Background: It would be for a 5 year old and 9 year old. I can find a tutor, but they would not speak English. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wenti Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 I am a native Chinese speaker. My DD is 5 years old. I use "si wu kuai du" (total 7 books) to teach her. You can buy the whole set from iPad App store. For your older child, I'd suggest use HSK Standard Course books (total 6 levels). You can see the sample book here and get it via eBay. My DS (12-year-old) currently uses the level 3 book. The most difficult part is the Chinese Pinyin (phonics). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hisforhomeschooling Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 We tried Chinese school on Saturdays and it did not go well. Might look into these suggestions, too! My husband is Taiwanese, we have 3 bio boys (7, 5, 3) and we just adopted a 2yo daughter from China who is learning English, but we don't want her to lose her Mandarin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoaniP Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Hi, we are a non Chinese native family trying to learn Chinese. After trying to teach them " phrases" and vicab on my own and with flashcards, to no avail, I found this curriculum wich I use with my 7 year old. https://www.betterchinese.com It teaches through a mini book a week- which is how he learned to read English. They have worked well and I will continue to use them with my younger kids. We also bought the music cd which we are lazy about, and the teacher guide, but it hasn't been very useful and I won't buy it again... But the books and workbooks are great. He also goes to the local Chinese school on Saturday mornings. He doesn't learn that much there-they are very relaxed but that's okay. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 I am a native Chinese speaker. My DD is 5 years old. I use "si wu kuai du" (total 7 books) to teach her. You can buy the whole set from iPad App store. For your older child, I'd suggest use HSK Standard Course books (total 6 levels). You can see the sample book here and get it via eBay. My DS (12-year-old) currently uses the level 3 book. The most difficult part is the Chinese Pinyin (phonics). Is there a similar set of texts using traditional characters? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Governess Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Better Chinese is a good one. I also like Liping Ma's Chinese curriculum, but you will need to rely on a native speaker to implement it for you (no English teacher manual or even pinyin). It comes with an iPad app that is used to practice character recognition. Better Chinese has supporting materials available in English, and uses pinyin when introducing new characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wenti Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Is there a similar set of texts using traditional characters? Shuang Shuang Chinese Textbooks (total 20 books) have both simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese versions. You can preview the simplified Chinese version here. Please contact the author to order the book. email: sszw.admin@gmail.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
That70'sLisa Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hisforhomeschooling Posted March 22, 2017 Share Posted March 22, 2017 Hi, we are a non Chinese native family trying to learn Chinese. After trying to teach them " phrases" and vicab on my own and with flashcards, to no avail, I found this curriculum wich I use with my 7 year old. https://www.betterchinese.com It teaches through a mini book a week- which is how he learned to read English. They have worked well and I will continue to use them with my younger kids. We also bought the music cd which we are lazy about, and the teacher guide, but it hasn't been very useful and I won't buy it again... But the books and workbooks are great. He also goes to the local Chinese school on Saturday mornings. He doesn't learn that much there-they are very relaxed but that's okay. What are you using? Did you start with preschool? It's hard to tell from the website where to start or what pieces to get. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoaniP Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 I started out with the preschool set - My first Chinese words, it says it's for 3-5 but I used it for my 6 year old since he was just beginning. It wasn't to babyish in fact it's too hard for my 4 year old. The set will last us for 1 1/2 years so I think it was a good investment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sea_mommy Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 I am a native Chinese speaker. My DD is 5 years old. I use "si wu kuai du" (total 7 books) to teach her. You can buy the whole set from iPad App store. For your older child, I'd suggest use HSK Standard Course books (total 6 levels). You can see the sample book here and get it via eBay. My DS (12-year-old) currently uses the level 3 book. The most difficult part is the Chinese Pinyin (phonics). Wenti, Do you think that this could be taught by someone with no experience teaching? I can likely find a tutor, but it would be someone without teaching experience. Are you familiar with BetterChinese? My thought was maybe to start something like that first, see how serious they are about learning, and then maybe jump to something else . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wenti Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Wenti, Do you think that this could be taught by someone with no experience teaching? I can likely find a tutor, but it would be someone without teaching experience. Are you familiar with BetterChinese? My thought was maybe to start something like that first, see how serious they are about learning, and then maybe jump to something else . . . This set could be taught without teaching experience. I am not familiar with BetterChinese. It's hard to teach phonics with no teaching experience. I also hire a professional mandarin teacher for foreign students in China (The teacher can speak English very well) to teach my son once a week (My son learns mandarin with me every day, and the teacher helps me teach grammar usages.) via Skype (25-minute 60 Chinese Yuan). http://www.prcba.com/online/9637.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen08 Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 Maybe you can take Chinese lessons online which is more flexible so that you can manage your schedule.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renai Posted March 1, 2018 Share Posted March 1, 2018 (edited) Better Chinese is a good one. I also like Liping Ma's Chinese curriculum, but you will need to rely on a native speaker to implement it for you (no English teacher manual or even pinyin). It comes with an iPad app that is used to practice character recognition. Better Chinese has supporting materials available in English, and uses pinyin when introducing new characters. This teacher uses Liping Ma's curriculum to teach on Outschool: Xiaoling Hong https://outschool.com/teachers/Xiaoling-Hong#abjch1hxpn. My daughter took her Part 1 for Young Learners class. It was a good class, and she likes the teacher a lot, we just weren't ready to put in enough time to make it more successful since this is her 3rd language. There is a code on the book that gives you the online or iPad access. My daughter enjoyed the games. We also use Lingo Bus, which are one-to- one lessons online (referral link): https://www.lingobus.com/home?referralCode=8ZMEL6 Edited March 1, 2018 by Renai 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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