All About Your Child

This year, being a Primary 2 kid, the Chinese language teacher has started the ‘intense’ way to Study Chinese. Every other day, Keatkeat had to rewrite an entire Chinese story.

Though it can be hair-pulling when there are countless times Allan and I had to remind him to “Write the words Smaller!” (he is always writing out of the given box for each Chinese character), I still think that this is one of the best way to help any child to learn how to write and recognise frequently used Chinese words.

Key to learning any language: Read more, Write more and Speak more.

Studying Chinese  is more like a ‘no-choice-subject’ to Keatkeat. Not much of an interest, but thank goodness, having a patient Chinese teacher did help in his studies for this subject.

Since the school is doing the ‘tough’ part, I continued to do the ‘soft’ part, which is to increase his interest in studying Chinese with this:

Shi-Wan-Ge-Wei-Shen-Me, direct translation to English would be “100,000 Whys”, was something that I grew up with. Watching cartoons is what most kids love, so I decided to try out what used to work for me when I was a kid, on my boys.

I fell in love with this cartoon when I was a kid because I am always inquisitive and asking questions. Sad to say, few could be answered by the adults around me back then. But they were clearly answered by ‘Professor Tortise’ in the cartoon. I still remember treating him like my idol… *laugh*

The set comes with a book with written English and Chinese for every story told in the DVDs. It also comes with cute bookmarks too *smile*

We bought the Shi-Wan-Ge-Wei-Shen-Me (Tell Me Why?) from Popular Bookshop back in 2009 when they were having a promotion. The photos were taken back then too. (Just in case you noticed the change in Keatkeat’s features.)

Even though after so long, I still continue to play the DVDs for my boys. Well, simply because it helps his science too… *smile*

Did you buy this to help your child to Study Chinese too?

Hanyu Pinyin WAS a piece of cake to me in the past. After so many years, I find myself turning to Google for Hanyu Pinyin converter and dictionary. *embarrassed*

Then again, learning a skill, or a language, or rather learning anything in life, there must always be one essence present : INTEREST.

Without interest, learning or mastering ‘the thing’ would be swimming against the current.

Hanyu Pinyin is focused only during Primary one and Primary two in schools, in the hope that kids from English speaking backgrounds can pick up Chinese language more easily. Sad to say it backfires as well. With Phonics and Hanyu Pinyin being taught in school, it is undoubtedly that children would get confused with the pronunciation.

For example, ‘UN’ in the English word ‘UNDER’ and ‘UN’ in the Chinese word ‘YUN’ (clouds) have totally different pronunciation. It was a hilarious ride when I started to teach Keatkeat Hanyu Pinyin during Kindergarten 2. Actually, it is quite the same now too. *laugh* I tried my best not to laugh most of the times, ‘cos laughing would make him remember the wrong pronunciation that much more. Simple logic: Laughters creates impressions.

Due to the confusion he had between Chinese Hanyu Pinyin and English Phonics, his interest in learning Hanyu Pinyin went down the hill on roller skates. I tried Hanyu Pinyin Table, but pure memorising simply sucks!

So I worked on building his interest. ‘GAMES’ was the first thing that came to my mind. Let’s face it, kids simply love Games! I tried creating all sorts of Hanyu Pinyin games for him. But what really helped was this:

Before he went to Primary One, my cousin gave me a spare box of zi-bao-bao. Zi-Bao-Bao is used in many Primary Schools to help children recognise newly-learned Chinese words. I turned that box into a card game.

Every week, I would focus on 10 words. After Keatkeat can recognise the 10 Chinese words, I would then turn the card over and write the Hanyu Pinyin behind the Chinese Words with the diao-hao.

So whenever he said the Chinese word correctly, I would ask him to turn the card over and look at the Hanyu Pinyin. After seeing the confidence in him, I would put the Chinese Character facing down. Therefore, just by looking at the Hanyu Pinyin, he could pronounce the Chinese word correctly.

When he said it correctly, he gets to keep the card, otherwise, I would keep it. At the end of the game, whoever that has more cards is the ‘Winner’. *smile*

Every Saturday would become an ‘Add-On’ day. Meaning, I would include the cards that were taught before. Till the whole box of zi-bao-bao is completed.

Do you play games with your child to help him or her improve Hanyu Pinyin too?