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Basic, even if small, foundation in
understanding Chinese gives parents
confidence
Lots that parents can and should do to help
their children with Chinese.
 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
No tones needed when singing!
zhu
ni
sheng
ri
kuai
祝
你
生
日
快
Literally:
Wish
you birth/life day
When spoken, add tones: zhù
nǐ
le (repeat 4x)
乐
happy
shēng
rì
kuài
lè
Complete list of all Pinyin sounds
https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php
鸟
岛 是
岛，
niáo dǎo shì dǎo，
Bird Island is an island;
鸟
岛 有
niáo dǎo yóu
鸟。
niǎo。
Bird Island has birds.
鸟
岛 的
鸟 多
得
数 不 清
了。
niáo dǎo de niǎo duō
de
shǔ bù qīng le。
The birds on Bird Island are countless.
要
想
到
鸟
岛，
yào xiǎng dào niáo dǎo，
If you wish to go to Bird Island,
一 定
要
爱
yī dìng yào
ài
you must love birds.
鸟。
niǎo。
你 不
爱
小
鸟，
nǐ
bú
ài
xiáo niǎo，
If you don't love small birds,
就 别
到
鸟
jiù
bié dào niáo
don't go to Bird Island.
岛。
dǎo。
Tongue Twister
Pinyin
Read-a-long
Practice
Some characters are
based on drawings or
concepts
龜 山 火
上 下
Above: turtle, mountain, fire
up, down
Right: door/gate
Characters are usually combinations:
Two drawings or two meanings...
家
牢
明
森
Characters are likely a
Sound/Meaning combination
Ex: Have the sound “gu” from their古 part:
估 咕 姑 故 固 菇蛄 鈷
家=roof + pig = home/family 牢 = roof +cow = pen/prison 明= sun+moon=
bright, light 森=wood+wood+wood =forest
 Ask,
“What is the bushou? “
(bù shǒu “Radical”)
The radical meaning woman 女 is in words for
mother 妈, marry 嫁, little sister 妹 , good 好
Others: eye, water, power, knife, insect, dry,
hand, spear, fire, ice, field, heart, mouth,
sickness, silk...
Examples from characters with 古 part for
sound “gu”
With radical for woman
姑= paternal aunt
With radical for enclosure 固 = solid
With radical for insect
蛄 = mole cricket
With radical for gold [metal] 鈷 = cobalt
Compound words make sense!
electric-brain, electric-vision, electric-talk
电脑，
电视， 电话
These have “fire” in the word: train, match,
volcano, very mad, turkey, rocket, Mars
火车，火柴，火山，火大，火鸡，火箭，火星
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
 Use
the clues
(pictures, sound parts, bushou/radical, etc.)
 Encourage
 Master
guessing
dictionary skills
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”?
 Get
stroke order right from the start
 Practice
calligraphy
(water only version or real ink)
 Download
 Feel
practice apps
the characters:
wax sticks creations, sand, soap lather, back
scratches
Have a common language to use to describe the [basically only]
eight kinds of strokes
觉
学
孝
赏
觉
观
常
Goal: be able to “see” characters well enough to recognize
its match, to make sure are looking up the right character
 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
做
碧
聽
 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
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
 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, Chineselanguage barbers, poetry/speech competition, host exchange
student, “adopt” a grandparent, read to a toddler

Dictionary links:
Try Pleco; Hippodict free versions
(Tip: use “v” to input “ü” sound)

Yes!Chinese
leveled readers, see index at
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.jsp

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://welearntv.vansd.org/chinese-immersion-program
Teachers in Vancouver Washington’s program have made videos of reading books
aloud
(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...”

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/

Silly Lilly, Stinky and a couple other kids’ books in different languages incl. Chinese
http://www.professorgarfield.org/toon_book_reader/index.html

36 Chinese Characters 三十六个字
story told with animated pictographs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VhOCX5WLpw

“The animation of Chinese character”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4bwDfO2h28

International Children’s Digital Library so far has 10 titles in Chinese
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/
(Links continued)

Mandarin Immersion Parents Council
San Francisco Mandarin parents’ website was so popular they started a national
version
miparentscouncil.org

A Parent’s 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/

Utah dual language immersion materials
utahchineseimmersion.org—site not working?
Utah Mandarin Immersion Parent Council
http://utahimmersioncouncil.org/

ChildRoad subscription stories (downloadable, free trial)
https://www.childroad.com/s/
(Links continued)

Taiwan’s 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

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.