andreasro’s husband is studying Chinese in China. This is his last year. I asked them if he’d be willing to teach a toddler
Chinese class. I am posting this to find out if there is anyone else interested in it as well. We probably won’t start for a month or more. He needs to make lessons. Which brings me to another question. My thought was to base lessons off the LR Chinese content, or content from another program, so that the lessons would be a reinforcement of what the children are already working on. Does anyone have thoughts on this? If so, what program would you use?
Thank you, Sonya, for posting this.
My husband has been living in China for few years now and he’s been studying Master Degree in Chinese Linguistics.
Here are his thoughts on learning Chinese:
"There are a couple of issues that need clarifying before starting to learn this language in a productive manner. I’m writing these from my own experience studying both in China and in my country, with native and non-native speakers.
Chinese is best learned by oneself, notebook and pen in hand, just like math. Chinese literacy means firstly that you know how to read and write, so the first couple of years should be devoted more to reading and writing, especially writing skills need to be carefully supervised and grasped correctly, otherwise later on is very hard to correct. The pronounciation is a sensitive issue, American, French and Russian speakers tend to speak it with a more or less heavy accent. It takes skill to teach a child to avoid these issues. The earlier you start, the better.
You need to be aware that Chinese is a language to study for life, so you should be sure that your toddler actually likes it. I remember when I was a kid I was drawing Chinese letters (hanzi), copying them from Chinese products. If you see similar tendencies they might suggest a longterm interest in the language.
Another thing, when you learn the language, you learn the culture - so a good teacher should sense this and adapt his teaching method to it. Sometimes you need more time to understand some peculiarities of the culture, and then the language itself becomes easier to learn. Some other times it’s the other way around, after you learn how they speak about a specific thing using Chinese, you learn how to think about it in a correct manner, you develop understanding.
Objectively speaking, the Chinese culture has invaluable lessons for the Western people, many of which are lying hidden as gems inside the language itself. Studying gradually becomes a way of life, a way of creative problem-solving thinking, it develops diplomacy and communication skills. You don’t just learn how to speak, you learn how to conduct a proper conversation, which is more than just uttering sounds in a foreign language.
I have to add, I learned more Chinese from non-native speakers than from natives, paradoxically. A native speaker can help you later on, after you have a very good foundation. Usually a native teacher of Chinese that specializes in teaching foreigners spends more than a decade learning how to teach it, the cultural and education gap is a big issue. Even then, natives are more prepared to teach upper intermediate and advanced Chinese. So keep it as an option, and use it accordingly to your level.
I’m ready to teach your toddler all these and more. I have experience with teaching children, and inclined to adapt to their needs and particular skills. Most important to language study is the method. We can use whatever books and learning materials your child finds interesting, and start from there.
Emanuel"
PS: He can teach all year round through Skype when he’s outside China and QQ when he is in China.
Andrea
How can you teach Chinese to toddlers using Skype/QQ? I imagine that at toddler’s stage, it is more or less about expanding the vocabulary and correct pronunciation—which is (I think) what LR Chinese is doing. What else can we teach to supplement this?
Here was my thinking when asking. It is important for children to hear conversation, just as in your home when you are teaching children to read, they also hear the words in context with conversation. I am not sure how Emanuel will do it, those are questions we can ask, but I think watching someone pronounce the words and speaking the language in sentences where a child can see the mouth is very important.
I think it’s important for the kids to know the words in context, especially in conversation. The thing particularly difficult about Chinese is, apart from pronunciation and writing, the combination of seemingly unrelated words to form a new meaning. For example, 东 (dong) means “east”, and 西 (xi) means “west”, but 东西 (dongxi) means “things”. There are many many more combinations like this. To me, this is very counter-intuitive, yet kids are expected to know the meaning of each word and the combination. It is impossible to teach the kids all the possible combination. So, we need to somehow foster the kids’ intuition on each word and when to combine words. I couldn’t imagine any other way to do this than to use the language frequently.
In addition, as Andrea’s husband has mentioned, Chinese culture and history are intricately woven into the language. I think it is almost impossible to learn Chinese to fluency without some knowledge of its culture and history. Take for example the idiom 完璧归赵 (wánbìguÄ«zhà o), which means “to return something to its rightful owner”. It literally means “return the jade intact to the Zhao”, which has some historical back story attached to it. Believe it or not, there are a whole host of such idioms that are still in active use today.
Given all this, I really don’t know what else we can do to supplement LR Chinese with some online sessions. I would hope such sessions can address the two important points I mentioned above.
See, this is why we need someone to help us! Thank you for posting robbyjo and perhaps Andrea’s husband will be inclined to answer with his approach.
"
Idioms are the heart of a living language, and they have to be learned as such. English has a rich content of idioms, most of them are almost readily comprehensible, the more obscure ones can be more or less deduced from the context.
The Chinese idioms are a bit different, they are rarely taught to students straight from the beginning, because of the innate complexity. Some basic notions of Chinese grammar have to be mastered first, as well as history, literature – some idioms are parts of poems or novels! The Chinese often spice up their conversations with idioms, which gives their discourse a touch of elegance. The idioms DO have a basic meaning, but context can broaden it wider than you would expect, to the point that some Chinese people have different understandings about the same idiom! (happened to me more than once!)
Chinese word formation has interesting rules, that can be grasped easily, Chinese grammar is very logical. Of course a Chinese word can have countless meanings depending on the context, but when two words combine to form a new word, the resulted meaning is a ‘sum’ of their basic meaning.
Forming an intuitive sense of the Chinese language (called è¯æ„Ÿ yu gan by the natives) requires time and practice, as everything Chinese, one needs 功夫 gong fu. This acquired sense of discipline and commitment is extremely valuable, as it can be later on applied to various other things in life.
As you might have already guessed, all of the above notions aren’t directly taught to kids, they need to be embedded in the teaching method. Many teaching materials for kids are very helpful with this, even if they can’t be a substitute for a teacher, at least not until upper intermediate or advanced levels.
Emanuel"
PS: we prefer him posting through me cause it’s easier for us. He’s not attracted much to have forums membership :biggrin: Andrea
Even though I don’t fully understand how the studing will go, I would love to try! My son is 3,3 y.o. We’are doing the Brillkids Chinese course, and Skype lessons would be a greate addition to that!
Just thought that a similar thing in English would be great. If anyone decides to give English lessons to kids from non-english speaking countries, please let me know! 
"We will start with teaching your toddler formulas of introduction, presenting himself/herself, making short and simple sentences in Chinese about daily events, like waking up, eating, meeting new people, playing with toys (describing toys). It very much depends on the vocabulary that he or she is already familiar with, but that’s not an issue, because vocabulary needs countless repetitions to settle in. It should be progressively easier for the child as time goes by.
It is challenging, of course, but it can be done.
Emanuel"
Thanks for details. I already like it. My child’s vocabulary is very limited - we are in the middle of LR Chinese course, but no one in our family speaks Chinese, so LR is the only source.
Thanks Andrea and Emmanuel:
Can you share more details (when, frequency, cost if any)?
"I forgot to add, little songs in Chinese are also on the ‘menu’!
The usual fees are 15 Euro / 1 hour session, I hope you understand that the time I spend teaching your toddler means less time spent with my family or my studies, so it’s only fair that it should come with a cost.
We are trying to make it more accessible, with the hope that parents and toddlers alike (yes, parents WILL definitely learn too!) will have the chance to give it a try, therefore the final fee is 10 Euro, only for the parents with kids on the Brillkids forum.
As for frequency, I recommend at least two sessions per week, a few days of rest in between. The schedule can be convened upon in private, we accept your suggestions and if there’s any problem we can reschedule the session accordingly.
Prior to starting the sessions we need some basic info about what is your toddler familiar with, so that we can adjust the level of difficulty.
Emanuel"
I never actually started one on one lessons with her because we enrolled our son in Spanish, French and recently Chinese classes.
I was taking Chinese lessons with my son with http://www.chinesehour.com/privateclass/lessons/chineseforchildren/ I was actually very happy with them (special program for kids, good teachers). Were taking for quite some time but have to stop one year ago due to the family issues.
Jane, thank you for the link and recommendation! Were they native speakers? The reason I ask is because my husband grew up speaking Chinese and he believes that for small kids native speakers is the best option, especially during the period of time when they are still using right brain and don’t need left brain explanation and methods.
For those in Maryland / Washington DC metro area, I’d recommend:
https://cbcm-cs.cbcm.org/Index.aspx
I’ve been in its parent church years ago and know some of the people there. They have Mandarin and Cantonese classes available. I even plan to put my kids in that school.
Skylark,
All their teachers are native Chinese. We had lessons with several teachers during the year and I must say that I was quite happy. Martin was sitting on my laps and we were studying together (he was only 9 months when we started). I have VIP pas (it will give a discount while ordering) if somebody needs. I am also thinking may be to take lessons with somebody else like a group lesson? It will be cheaper in this case. I must add that they become quite strict with the valid date of bought lessons. You can extend if you go on holiday but you need to take a lesson every week.
You can always request for trial lesson, it is free. Let’s see if you and your kids will like.
Any further questions, please let me know.
Jane, thank you so much for that information. We are traveling at the moment, but we might be interested come September! :yes:
All the different options have their pluses and minuses, and I think the key is to try each approach with your child and see what he/she likes the best. It may be with native speaker or non-native one, Skype lesson or au pair, immersion school or playgroup.
Great thread, everyone!