Rhythms and Tones

Rhythms and Tones- This is a wonderful book to expose kids who are learning Chinese as a second language.  It includes a CD with 24 songs that reinforce learning things such as:

• How to say hello/goodbye,
• Using tones,
• Asking basic questions,
• Titles of family members,
• Actions,
• Body parts,
• Numbers and measure words,
• Animals,
• Common phrases,
• Food,
• Radicals and how they look in characters,
• Weather,
• Asking for and saying the time,
• Days of the week,
• Seasons,
• Colors, and
• Chinese holidays.

At the back of the book, the piano music for each song is provided as well as a dictionary of the characters covered in the book.  This book uses mainland pinyin and simplified Chinese characters.  I should also point out that is available at the Iowa City Public Library; The title is Rhythms and Tones and the call number is j495.1834.

Read a Grocery List

Once your child has learned how to sound out characters using ㄅㄆㄇㄈ or pinyin the next step is to practice it in meaningful context.  One example of this would be at the grocery store.  You might be thinking to yourself, "Really?"  But lets look at some of the advantages:

• Captive audience- your child has to be with you there anyway.
• Willing helper- most kids I know are begging for something to do while mom marches up and down the aisles.  This gives them that "something" while feeling helpful.  AND kids really like to cross off items!
• The foods you are buying are the words your kids are most likely the words your kids will want to know how to say. 
• Kids see that Chinese is a language that is being used not just studied.  Seeing mom and dad using Chinese reinforces that the Chinese language is important and a useful tool.  Kids want to imitate their parents!

So help your family practice Chinese by writing part or all of your grocery list using ㄅㄆㄇㄈ/pinyin (with or without the characters). What foods should you start with?  It's common for kids to learn the names of fruits early in their exploration of Chinese.  Here's some of the most common fruit names:

• 平果 (ㄆ一ㄥˊ  ㄍㄨㄛˇ, píng guǒ, apple)
• 香蕉 (ㄒ一ㄤ  ㄐ一ㄠ, xiāng jiāo, banana)
• 葡萄 (ㄆㄨˊ  ㄊㄠˊ, pú táo, grapes)
• 橘子 (ㄐㄩˊ  ㄗ˙, jú zi, orange)
• 番茄 (ㄈㄢ  ㄑ一ㄝˊ, fān qié, tomato)
• 桃子 (ㄊㄠˊ  ㄗ˙, táo zi, peach)
• 杏子 (ㄒ一ㄥˋ  ㄗ˙, xìng zi, apricot)
• 木瓜 (ㄇㄨˋ  ㄍㄨㄚ, mù guā, papaya)
• 李子 (ㄌ一ˇ  ㄗ˙, lǐ zǐ, plum)
• 梨 (ㄌ一ˊ, lí zi, pear) OR 梨子 (ㄌ一ˊ  ㄗ˙, lí zi, pear)

Consider including the number of each fruit you want to buy in your list.  If you are not sure what Measure Word  (MW) to use between the number and the fruit, use 個 (ㄍㄜˋ)- it's the generic MW.  As your family's skill in Chinese advances, you'll learn the proper MWs for nouns, but for now don't let imperfect grammar stop you from practicing. (If it is absolutely driving you crazy that you don't know the correct MWs, click here.)

• Remember to use 兩 (ㄌ一ㄤˇ, liǎng) instead of 二 (ㄦˋ, èr) for two.
• Examples,
• 一個蘋果
• 兩個蘋果
• 三個蘋果
• 四個蘋果

If your child is flying along, ask him/her to help you write one or two words on the list using ㄅㄆㄇㄈ or pinyin.  This is also a great way to introduce new vocabulary.  You can come along later and write in the characters.  Not sure how to write the word?  Use an online dictionary such as YellowBridge.com* or ask a friend or teacher-  they'll LOVE to help!

*YellowBridge does not allow you to look for characters based on the ㄅㄆㄇㄈ system.  There is a conversion page between the pinyin system and the ㄅㄆㄇ system here.

loveChinese iPad App

loveChinese 小宝宝学中文- This is a quiz-type program.  The primary purpose of the app is to reinforce already studied basic vocabulary, not to teach the vocabulary- so you'll need to introduce the vocabulary to your kids before they use the app.    The lite version (free) will quiz your child on numbers (Chinese characters 1-9), shapes, and colors.  There are nine additional packs (fruits & vegetables, transportation, animals, daily necessities, occupation, insects & birds, numbers (Arabic), basic words (1), and basic words (2)) that you can purchase.

Kids earn e-stickers as rewards, and parents can determine how often those rewards are earned on the Settings page.  The nice thing about this app is that you can set it to display注音符號(ㄅㄆㄇㄈ), or Mainland Chinese pinyin.  You also control whether simplified or traditional characters are displayed. 

GenkiChinese.com

GenkiChinese- written by Richard (sorry, no last name) this website posts songs and simple games that can be used to teach and reinforce simple vocabulary and sentence memorization.  Types of vocabulary include:  numbers, colors, body parts, names of fruits, the months of the year, directions, names of countries, and different types of drinks.  

There are two components to most every game on the site.  The first is the vocabulary introduction.  This is where the user can click around the screen and hear the vocabulary.  The simple characters and the pinyin pronunciation also flash up on the screen to help reinforce character recognition.  The second component is the game.  Typically the game asks the user to listen to a vocabulary word and then correctly identify it on the screen.  These games are easy and anyone with a mouse can play- even my five-year old!

I would suggest reviewing the fruits vocabulary with your child before having him/her play the game.  There are two reasons:

1. During the game, the picture for grape is a picture of one grape; however, during the review the picture is of a bunch of grapes.  This may be confusing to some students.
2. Some of the vocabulary is new/different.  Some children learn 菠蘿 (bōluó, ㄅㄛ ㄌㄨㄛˊ ) and some learn 鳳梨 (fènglí, ㄈㄥˋ ㄌㄧˊ ).  Depending on which word your student learned for pineapple, you may need to introduce the alternative.  Remind your student that English also has many words that mean the same thing.  For example: sofa & couch; road & street; child & kid; etc.

The site also has songs to help language learners remember sentences.  For example, he's produced a song called "你好吗?" (ㄋㄧˇ ㄏㄠˇ ㄇㄚ˙?, Nǐ hǎo ma?, How are you?).  It's a good representation of the types of songs he creates.  Be careful- the songs tend to stick in your head!

Please, preview the songs first before sharing with your children.  In the song called "请给我" (ㄑㄧㄥˇ ㄍㄟˇㄨㄛˇ, Qǐng gěi wǒ, Please give me) the word "beer" appears.