Basic, even if small, foundation in understanding Chinese gives
parents confidence Lots that parents can and should do to help
their children with Chinese.
Slide 3
Be able to follow along as child reads Get character AND
character/pinyin versions of classroom fluency practices Read
pinyin to sing songs together Pinyin is the standard romanization
system used for Mandarin
Slide 4
No tones needed when singing! zhu ni sheng ri kuai le (repeat
4x) Literally: Wish you birth/lifedayhappy When spoken, add tones:
zh n shng r kui l
Slide 5
https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php Complete
list of all Pinyin sounds
Slide 6
nio d o sh d o Bird Island is an island; nio d o yu ni o Bird
Island has birds. nio d o de ni o du de sh b qng le The birds on
Bird Island are countless. yo xi ng do nio d o If you wish to go to
Bird Island, y dng yo i ni o you must love birds. n b i xio ni o If
you don't love small birds, ji bi do nio d o don't go to Bird
Island. Tongue Twister Pinyin Read-a-long Practice
Slide 7
Some characters are based on drawings or concepts Above:
turtle, mountain, fire up, down Right: door/gate
Slide 8
Characters are usually combinations: Two drawings or two
meanings... Characters are likely a Sound/Meaning combination Ex:
Have the sound gu from their part: =roof + pig = home/family = roof
+cow = pen/prison = sun+moon= bright, light =wood+wood+wood
=forest
Slide 9
Ask, What is the bushou? (b sh u Radical) The radical meaning
woman is in words for mother , marry , little sister , good Others:
eye, water, power, knife, insect, dry, hand, spear, fire, ice,
field, heart, mouth, sickness, silk...
Slide 10
Examples from characters with part for sound gu With radical
for woman = paternal aunt With radical for enclosure = solid With
radical for insect = mole cricket With radical for gold [metal] =
cobalt
Slide 11
Compound words make sense! electric-brain, electric-vision,
electric-talk These have fire in the word: train, match, volcano,
very mad, turkey, rocket, Mars electric-brain = computer,
electric-vision = television, electric-talk= telephone train =
fire-vehicle; match = fire-kindling; volcano=fire-mountain; very
mad= fire-big; turkey= fire-chicken; rocket=fire-arrow; Mars =
fire-star
Slide 12
Use the clues (pictures, sound parts, bushou/radical, etc.)
Encourage guessing Master dictionary skills
Slide 13
Sample questions to prompt guessing strategies Could the
character be a picture? Do you recognize any pieces of it? What
sound does that piece have? Do you know any words with that sound?
What is the bushou?
Slide 14
Get stroke order right from the start Practice calligraphy
(water only version or real ink) Download practice apps Feel the
characters: wax sticks creations, sand, soap lather, back
scratches
Slide 15
Have a common language to use to describe the [basically only]
eight kinds of strokes
Slide 16
Goal: be able to see characters well enough to recognize its
match, to make sure are looking up the right character
Slide 17
Use games: Speed drills --how many in a minute Stroke
countdown--guess in as few strokes as possible Game apps Watch
online animations Invent zany character stories and mnemonics
Slide 18
End your print desert Use technology: Toggle between languages,
pinyin/characters, sound/mute More than books: subtitles, menus,
signs, tongue twisters... (e.g. concert DVD, exercise video, food
packaging, online chats) Move up: Add idioms; recognize trad.
characters
Slide 19
More on reading: Read to get more context Get in Chinese
reading habit from start Check out area libraries Try graphic
novels Move beyond baby level books, though hard to match reading
level to age/English reading level
Slide 20
Join groups; follow blogs e.g. Mandarin Immersion Parents
Council and Elizabeth Weise: look at their Resources lists Share
great finds Examples of efforts: peer reading groups, online chats
in Chinese, Chinese-language martial arts instruction, Chinese-
language barbers, poetry/speech competition, host exchange student,
adopt a grandparent, read to a toddler
Slide 21
Dictionary links: Try Pleco; Hippodict free versions (Tip: use
v to input sound) Yes!Chinese leveled readers, see index at
http://www.yes-chinese.com/reading/list.do?type=1&level=GR-K&topic=
http://www.yes-chinese.com/reading/list.do?type=1&level=GR-K&topic
Sample story:
http://www.yes-chinese.com/reading/view.do?id=20110726083026 and
bedtime stories:
http://www.yes-chinese.com/story/index.jsphttp://www.yes-chinese.com/reading/view.do?id=20110726083026
pcbaby.com.cn for stories: http://book.pcbaby.com.cn/gushi for
idiom/history stories: http://book.pcbaby.com.cn/guoxue/sj/ for
learning characters: http://edu.pcbaby.com.cn/book/zwsz/donghua/
http://book.pcbaby.com.cn/gushi
http://book.pcbaby.com.cn/guoxue/sj/
http://welearntv.vansd.org/chinese-immersion-program Teachers in
Vancouver Washingtons program have made videos of reading books
aloud http://welearntv.vansd.org/chinese-immersion-program
Slide 22
(Links Continued) HowDoILearnChinese.com
http://howdoilearnchinese.com/ several games for fruit, body parts,
colors etc.; two very catchy songs for learning greetings and
Please give me... http://howdoilearnchinese.com/ FluentU Free
content includes videos such as recent TV commercials, songs, etc.
but captioned in English, Chinese and pinyin, with vocabulary help.
Sorted by difficulty level. Registration needed.
http://www.fluentu.com/chinese/ http://www.fluentu.com/chinese/
Silly Lilly, Stinky and a couple other kids books in different
languages incl. Chinese
http://www.professorgarfield.org/toon_book_reader/index.html
http://www.professorgarfield.org/toon_book_reader/index.html 36
Chinese Characters story told with animated pictographs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VhOCX5WLpw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VhOCX5WLpw The animation of Chinese
character http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4bwDfO2h28
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4bwDfO2h28 International Childrens
Digital Library so far has 10 titles in Chinese
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/
Slide 23
(Links continued) Mandarin Immersion Parents Council San
Francisco Mandarin parents website was so popular they started a
national version miparentscouncil.org A Parents Guide To Mandarin
Immersion, coming fall 2014 by Elizabeth Weise, Mandarin Immersion
Parents Council webmaster Blog by U.S. mom raising bilingual kids
http://haomama.us/ http://haomama.us/ Utah dual language immersion
materials utahchineseimmersion.orgsite not working? Utah Mandarin
Immersion Parent Council http://utahimmersioncouncil.org/ ChildRoad
subscription stories (downloadable, free trial)
https://www.childroad.com/s/ https://www.childroad.com/s/
Slide 24
(Links continued) Taiwans Ministry of Culture many book
selections; subtitles in trad. characters
http://children.moc.gov.tw/home.php Beginning Mandarin lessons by
PeaceCorp pronunciation not by native speaker, but topics covered
are good
http://wws.peacecorps.gov/wws/multimedia/language/lessons.cfm
http://wws.peacecorps.gov/wws/multimedia/language/lessons.cfm
Talking Chinese app, for beginning to learn Chinese, by FLTRP
(Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press) Chineasy by ShaoLan
Hsueh here is her TED talk video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=troxvPRmZm8 Calligraphy Practice
For INKLESS practice, shop online for magic water painting paper or
magic cloth for water brush painting or Chinese calligraphy
practice sheet water only. Also available for purchase
locally.