OK, I think you totally misunderstood me.
I did NOT cite translated Chinese as the best way for small children to learn characters. I only cited it as an example of how in English we Can and Do have the ability to write meaningful sentences in three words of three or two letters that rhyme. We were just marveling about how wonderful Chinese is in that way: using three characters to rhyme to form a complete sentence with meaning. That is the ONLY reason I wrote the last post. Because I saw “Hop on Pop” and laughed at seeing the situation flipped.
Yes I have been learning Chinese myself for over three years now, and can read things like “Hop on Pop” and “Go Dog Go” in Chinese because the concepts are simple and the words used are high frequency, even though they do not rhyme in Chinese and are not succinct. I still can use the vocab and sentence structure when practicing spoken and read chinese with my son. He hops on the dog, for instance. We say “stop!” and “go!” at red and green lights, and I can say “Do you like my hat?” “I do not like our hat”… We are familiar with the story and thus it is easier for us to pick up new chinese characters when there is no pinyin.
I don’t think it is possible to compare teaching chinese as a second language and teaching chinese characters to chinese speaking children. There are some similarities, but usually chinese speaking children already know normal sentence structure for speaking in Chinese, as well as culture, and thus can understand the large meaning behind complex ideas rendered in only three characters. They are memorizing the characters, but aren’t memorizing the meanings at the same time: they already know most of the words spoken: that “gou” means “dog”… “ren” means “person” etc. The chinese speaking children aren’t only learning the language in school: they learn it in context all day long on the street, home, etc.
I do think it would be possible to flash characters with images to teach characters without any translation to small children’ or in some cases even adults (which is what Doman… ie Baby Learns Chinese, and Pimsleur does) and have them grasp meaning, and make connections intuitively about the radicals. Of course many words are not precise enough with just images. In BLC, I couldn’t tell without translation if a certain character meant “sweater” “top” “cardigan” “pullover” etc… Even for a dog" does the character mean “greyhound” or “dog” or “hunting dog” if the photo is of a greyhound…
And I still submit that this San Zi Jing is a wonderful classic, but for a child who knows very little or no chinese, given no context, no images, such adult concepts that are foreign to our culture and lifestyle… very little “character learning” would go on… though listening to it might be good for hearing the sounds of chinese language, and looking at it might be good for recognising chinese (vs korean or english or arabic) script.
Thanks for the links to the preschools… it is interesting to see the curriculum. And I do see that they do learn characters “Berries Read & Recognise Programme lays foundation for interest in reading through short sentences created using words the child has learnt” as well as nursery rhymes etc, which makes perfect sense to me.
Anyways, I did order the Dr. Seuss books… we know them by heart in English, and so I am sure that reading the chinese will go well. (note my son is nearly 4, not a baby either. :D)
And I do want you to know I do very much appreciate the info in the San Zi Jing… I find it so important to know about Chinese traditions and culture.
