Teaching Chinese - advice needed

Please don’t get angry if the topic is already somewhere here but I’m short of time, can’t browse now (looked up one page here only).

The thing is - I’m Polish, I know a few languages (English well, others moderately), but I don’t know Chinese. I want to expose my kids to it because it’s so different that it’d be mind broadening for sure. But even though I can download pps with Chinese vocab I have no idea how to READ Chinese to them. I know nothing in that language. Is it then preposterous to try and show it to my children? If not - how to go about it? Show Chinese words but read tell the meaning in Polish/English?

Or if I was to learn - where to start - don’t have any books and Internet is my only resource.

Little Reader Chinese.
They have apps as well.

I’m kind of in the same boat as you (verita), I want to expose my 2 year old to the Chinese language because I too feel it will be mind broadening and I know at this age she will soak up anything I can give her. But I to don’t speak it, read it or even hear a lot of the differences in the sounds so that is why Im going with the Chinese Little Reader curriculum.
I’m not expecting her to be able to speak fluently but I hope she will overtime hear the different sound and learn some of the words and have the confidence to learn more of the language later in life.

Just today I bought the Chinese curriculum as I have been doing the trail for the last 12 weeks. First my daughter wasn’t interested in it at all but now I can see she is taking some of it in. so I feel its worth a shot.

I did read somewhere that its best not to try and pronounce the word unless you actually know it as it can be a distraction and incorrect for the childs learning. Its also best not to translate into English (or Polish) as they are hearing the Chinese language as the languages are so different and the child will be tuning into the tone of the new language. Just trust they will learn to decode it themselves.
But that doesnt stop you from trying to still make it multi sensory by touching the childs head when it show the Chinese word for head, or having the certain food ready for the child to touch and taste as the word flashes up. I’m going to try and do things like that along the way.

Also Im going to make a Chinese word doll for all the body parts and draw the symbols on all the dolls body.

I also try and show my daughter Chinese songs with the words written below,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xB5obEyeHWk

Im keen to hear how others who dont speak Chinese have been getting on with the language and any tips or advice they may have

Looking forward to it

thanks, but I can’t afford LR in CHinese or any other right now…My husband would’t allow it. He takes care of finances and makes decisions - right now we are quite deficient financially…
But I got some important news to ponder on. So thank you :slight_smile:

well you know you dont have to buy it now to give it a go, why not download the free trail and see how it goes. It wont cost you anything and then you could also try and download extra words and see how that goes. Maybe you have to actually have bought the program to get the downloads Im not sure as I bought Little Reader a year ago and have had access to any downloads in any language since then.

let me know how you get on, Id love to share ideas with you as we go along

Hi Verita,
If you have already purchased the Little Reader program in English you can download additional files in Mandarin from the library as mentioned by Kiwimum. You can search the Little Reader Library by language. BrillKids makes everything easy. :smiley:
My son has picked up alot of Chinese through music. You will find an infinite amount available on youtube. Here are a few links to some threads
http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-signing-speaking-foreign-languages/chinese-videos-on-youtube/
http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-signing-speaking-foreign-languages/chinese-songs-in-youtube/
http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-signing-speaking-foreign-languages/basic-guidelines-when-teaching-chinese-to-children-under-eight/
Cokers4life has posted alot of websites you can see some on this thread
http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-signing-speaking-foreign-languages/need-chinese-resource-recommendations/

Now hopefully I can find some time to read through these threads :slight_smile:

I do have to say out of all the foreign languages my son is learning he speaks Chinese with the most confidence and fluency. I credit it to the foundation the BrillKid program has provided. Please keep in mind they usually offer 10% off around holidays and you can add another 10% off by using an affiliate code.

I don’t have any Little Readers that’s the thing. I use my own computer, PPT and such. :slight_smile:

But thank you very much, I’ll look through everything you suggested!

I started teaching sign language, italian and English and I like it more and more. And so am thinking perhaps I’ll ask my hubby for the Little Reader you seem to like so much :slight_smile:
I will give it a free trial for sure.

Try this website which teaches some characters in chinese and with pronunciation also. You could either play it on the website or download and save it on the computer.

It is free.

http://www.iqinbao.com/shizi/

The square with the pencil means to learn instantly and the square with the arrow means to download it.

Hope this helps.

Thank you very much!

I only speak English and Spanish but I have been using Little Reader Chinese, Better Chinese, and a bunch of YouTube videos to teach my kids Chinese. So far we have pretty good success it’s not perfect but not bad either. Little Reader Chinese and the Better Chinese Books are awesome they have really been helping us make great progress. Here is my four year old reading in Chinese.

Thank you c4andy20!

This is a great video and gave us a lot of confidence and motivation to continue with our Chinese learning.

Thank you!

Kristiina

If you can teach your children chinese then chinese course helps children learn Chinese via playing games and discussing fun topics. Our Children Chinese Lessons are divided into 6 different levels, ranging from Beginner Level to Advanced level, which can help your children learn Chinese step by step. Like in first lession the teachers will teach your children Chinese including Pinyin and basic strokes of Chinese characters.

Hello, I’m a mom with a 5-year-old American kid. My kid learns Chinese with a free e-book and he seems to be deeply intrigued by this fun e-book.
I think that is a great start for him. I highly recommend this to you and hope you like it.
http://www.huayuschool.com/experienceBook/en/ebook.htm