朋友, Friend

Try learning this Sesame Street song and substituting the word 朋友(péngyǒu, friend) for amigo.  My preschoolers love this!

朋友, 朋友, another word for friend.

Come with me, 朋友. There's lots of time that we can spend.

Together, 朋友. We'll have a lot of fun.

It's so nice feeling friendly towards someone.

(Refrain:)  La-la La-la La-la La-la La-la 朋友

A-La-la La-la La-la.La-la. I like you.

A-La-la La-la La-la.La-la.You're friendly.

A-La-la La-la la. 朋友

朋友朋友, come on and take my hand.

A friend is a good thing.

A friend can really understand.

And wherever we go, we'll each have someone near.

 朋友 I'm so happy that you're here.

(Repeat Refrain)

So let's you and me go a'running down the hill.

Make wishes, catch fishes.

Or sit awhile and just be still.

I need a 朋友 and I can be one too.

朋友 I'm so glad that I have you.

(Repeat Refrain)

朋友, 朋友!

Chinese Magnetic Poetry- Part Two

This is a follow up of a post called "Chinese Magnetic Poetry."

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So you've purchased or created a set of Chinese Magnetic Poetry (with the pronunciation included as necessary).  NOW WHAT DO YOU DO?

I just started using my magnetic set with my kids this week.  So bear with me as I sort through what works and what doesn't and expand this post.

I decided to start with a question/sentence that they have had lots of experience with lately, the 有 . . . 也有. . .  (yǒu. . . yě yǒu. . .; have . . . also have . . .) grammar structure they've been studying at the heritage school.  This is something they have heard a lot about and is a structure they've repeated back in sentence form, but it is not one they have been successful generating verbally independently.  For example, they can repeat the phrase "我有小狗.  我也有貓咪." (Wǒ yǒu xiǎo gǒu. Wǒ yě yǒu māo mī.), and they can fill in the blank in the example 我有____.我也有____., and they understand the meaning of 有 . . .也有 . . .; however, they can not use the grammar structure 有 . . .也有 . . to answer the question "你有什麼?" (Nǐ yǒu shéme?;  What do you have?).

1. I decided to introduce the magnetic characters by creating my own sentence using the 有 . . .也有 . . grammar structure and leaving them on the board.  I also made sure all the other magnets were off the board so that my kids could easily focus on the sentence without being distracted by other magnet pieces.  Then I had each of them individually come look at the "really cool" Chinese magnets.  I pointed out that most of the characters on the board were ones they had seen before and that the pronunciation was next to each character if they need it.  I also pointed out that some of the characters did NOT include the pronunciation because some of the characters were very familiar to them (ex. 小 (xiǎo, small).  This was a nice way of reinforcing to them that they were making progress in learning the read Chinese!
2. Then I had each child read the sentence I had made.  I listened to his/her ability to sound out the characters using the pronunciation guide when it was necessary.  I found that the first time they read the sentence it was very slow; I know from my education background that when children read slowly, their comprehension decreases.  So after my child read it through once, I read it out loud to them and then checked my child's comprehension.  If you notice that your child's reading speed is slow, you will need to read the sentence for them to him/her before asking comprehension questions.  If s/he has difficulty with comprehension you will need to think about whether the vocabulary or the grammar structure is giving them difficulty and address this before moving on to the next step below.
3. The next step is removing some of the support.  In the case of the 有 . . .也有 . . grammar structure, I left the phrase "我有___.我也有___." on the board and left spaces to be filled in.  Then I placed several familiar and appropriate words that could be placed in the blanks.  I asked each child to read the sentence fragment on the board and then find two words to fill in the blanks.  Then I asked him/her to read the sentence s/he had made.  After s/he read it, I repeated it using as native-like speech as possible (meaning that I read it like someone would really say it--with intonation and without over-exaggerating the tones).  Then I checked her/his comprehension of the sentence s/he had made.  Make sure to stay on this step until your child understand what the 有 . . . 也有 . . . means.
4. In step three, you continue to remove support.  Leave all the words necessary to write the sentences "我有___.我也有___." on the board (including several words choices to fill in the blank), but scramble the words so that they are not in the correct order.  Then ask your child to make a sentence about two things they have using the "有 . . ., 也有 . . ." sentence structure.  Ask her/him to read the sentence s/he made.  Does it make sense?  Are the words in the correct order?  If not, stop and show her/him how to fix the sentence; then have her/him make another sentence.  Before moving on to the next step, your child should have good comprehension of the sentence they made and be able to arrange the words in the correct sentence pattern.  Continue modeling correct pronunciation and intonation to your children.*

*I'm making this note here since this is the first time in my blog I've addressed sentence formation.  Particularly for children learning Chinese as a second language, it is important for them to hear correct intonation.  Intonation is how voice pitch changes throughout a sentence.  Intonation can convey important information about how a person is feeling or (in the case of English) whether the sentence is a question or a statement.  For example, in English when someone asks a question their pitch raises from the beginning of the sentence to the end.  When they make a statement the pitch drops at the end.  If you're not sure what I mean, try saying the following sentences out loud.

• Did she really go to the store?
• Yesterday, I went to the store.

 Now try saying the two sentences above as if you are angry.  Now try it as if you were excited.  Notice how your intonation changes.  Chinese does similar things when reading with emotion and even when forming questions.  Without learning correct intonation, a person's speech can sound stilted.  However, you probably don't need to teach this explicitly; just modeling will go a long way.  If necessary, enlist a fluent Chinese speaker to help you (a teacher, a neighbor, a friend, etc.).  You can also expose your children to correct intonation by letting them watch movies in Chinese or by listening to Chinese stories on CD.

Chinese Magnetic Poetry

I strongly recommend purchasing a set of Chinese characters like this one particularly if your child is learning Chinese as a second language (as opposed to a native speaker who just needs to focus on reading and writing).  Consider this . . . when learning a second language (think back to high school) how many things did your mind need to juggle in order to form a correct sentence:  vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, inflection, meaning/semantics, etc.  This is just the broad parameters of what you need.  Now, ask yourself, "What was easiest to do: speaking, listening, writing, or reading?  Most people would say reading was the easiest because in reading you are simply repeating what someone else has already written; most of the linguistic choices have already been made.  Now, how can we use reading to help our children learn to produce and practice their own grammatical sentences?  We can have them read books (check out the Mini-books) but this doesn't require them to produce their own sentences.  What if we provide them with a limited number of Chinese characters (pre-written) and ask them to organize the characters into a grammatical sentence?  Now the children can focus on the grammar and vocabulary.  Once the characters are organized, you can ask them to read the sentence while they focus on the pronunciation and inflection.  We've split the tasks they must focus on in half between two related exercises; they're still doing all the tasks, but in pieces.  This is a good place to start for kids learning grammar and leads us back to why I encourage you to purchase a set of Chinese Magnetic Poetry for Kids*.  Just do a search on the web.

*Note that the Chinese Magnetic Poetry for Kids uses simplified characters.  If you are teaching your child traditional characters, you can still use this set.  Just let your kids know in simple terms that this set uses a different "font."  Just like English uses uppercase ABC's and lowercase abc's, Chinese has two "fonts" also.  And just like the uppercase and the lowercase letters in English often look alike, they may notice that the two Chinese "fonts" look a lot alike most of the time too.  Here is an example of how similar the simplified and traditional forms can be:  妈 --> 媽 

Finding a set of magnetic Chinese characters is not difficult; however, if you are looking for a set that has the 注音符號, you may be disappointed.  Although, there is at least one popular set (mentioned above) that includes the mainland China's 漢語拼音 (Hànyǔ Pīnyīn), I have not been able to find a set that uses 注音符號.  However, don't let that stop you from using the strategy discussed above.  You have choices!

• The least time consuming choice is to purchase the set and then write the 注音符號 on the magnet with a permanent marker.  
• The cheapest initial cost is to print out the characters on paper and cut them out.  If you choose this, I recommend printing on card stock so the pieces are more durable.  However, inevitably some of the pieces will get ripped, lost, etc.  
• The third choice is to make your own magnetic Chinese characters.  Using Microsoft Word, create a table with cells that are 1.0 inches high and about 0.8 inches wide.  Each cell fits one character.  Fill in the table with characters your child is familiar with (see this post to learn how to type in Chinese) and include the 注音符號.  Print on card stock and glue onto magnets.  I used old magnets that arrive at my house for advertizing purposes, but you can also purchase magnetic strips at any arts and craft supply store.  The advantage of the magnetic strips is that they come already with a stick side.  Also, if you buy magnetic strips that are about 1.0 inch high, then you reduce the amount of cutting you have to do.

I chose to do a combination of choices 1 and 3 above.  I bought the Chinese Magnetic Poetry Set for Kids and wrote the 注音符號 on each piece.  I also made my own magnetic characters in order to include those my kids have learned at school.  The set I bought had some duplicate characters (for example, there are several 我 (Wǒ, I) pieces, which makes sense since this is a frequently used character.  Also, because I have two kids who like to save the Chinese sentences they've written, I also make some extra of the frequently used characters.

Be sure to check out the post "Chinese Magnetic Poetry- Part Two."

Measure Word List

Chinese uses something call Measure Words (MW).  MW are the classifiers stuck between "the number of something" and "the noun."  For example,  in English we say "four grains of rice."  If we said "four rice," we would have left out the classifier that is necessary for proper English grammar.  As I said before, Chinese also uses MW; however, unlike English, Chinese uses MW everywhere!  Every Chinese noun has a MW.  Chinese employes several dozen measure words; it takes finesse to use them properly.  When you are unsure which MW to use, you can rely on this one basic rule to get you through:

When in doubt, use 個 (gè).

There are some imprecise rules governing the pairing of MW to nouns.  You can view them at Wikipedia.

For precise MW usage for a particular noun, I recommend checking with a dictionary such as YellowBridge.com.  Please, keep in mind that different regions sometimes use different MW to express the same idea (for example, see the MW for apple listed below).

And, because like you I sometimes need a quick "Go To" page to find a MW I know I've looked up before, below is a list of MW I've used recently.
apple- 顆 (kē) OR 個 (gè)

animals, in general- 隻 (zhī)
banana, a single- 根 (gēn)
bananas, a bunch of- 串 (chuàn)
flower, single- 朵 (duǒ)
grapes, a single- 個 (gè)
grapes, a bunch- 串 (chuàn)
moon- 個 (gè)
orange- 顆 (kē)
peach- 顆 (kē)
people- 個 (gè)
stars- 顆 (kē)
tomato- 顆 (kē)
umbrella- 把 (bǎ, used in mainland China) OR 支 (zhī, used in Taiwan)
watermelon- 顆 (kē)

Balloon Extravaganza

Balloon Extravaganza- I just tried this one with with a group of kids ranging in age from 4-6 years and it went really well.  Blow up a bunch of balloons; we had 10 balloons for 7 kids.  Then, use a thick permanent marker to write a Chinese character along with the pronunciation. 

If you are teaching colors, think about whether you want the color of the balloon to match the character.  For kids who are learning color vocabulary, color-coding the balloons may be a great idea; however, if you are targeting reading skills, you should avoid matching the names of the colors with the same colored balloon.

Have your kid hit the balloons into the air until you say "stop."  Then ask them to pick up one balloon and read it.

Ridiculously simple, but a lot of fun!  Best of all, you can have many repetitions and get lots of practice in while playing this "game."

Mini-Book 2- 我有很多

我有很多 (Wǒ yǒu hěn duō; I Have a Lot)-  Here's the second book in the series.  To locate other Mini-Books, click on the "Mini-Book" label on the right hand side of the web page.

The second Mini-Book is designed to reinforce the 有 . . . 也有. . .  (yǒu. . . yě yǒu. . .; have . . . also have . . .) . practiced in the previous Mini-Book.  It also introduces 多 (duō; many) and 少 (shǎo; a few) as well as continuing to expose the reader to everyday vocabulary such as fruits and animals.

This Mini-Book file is much smaller than the first, so if you had difficulty downloading the first you may be more successful with this one.  Also when you print, print on both sides of the paper.  Page 2 prints on the back of page 1, etc.  Then stack the pages so that when they are folded along the center line, the page numbers proceed in numeric order.

我有很多- traditional characters with 注音符號
我有很多- simplified characters with 漢語拼音 (Hànyǔ Pīnyīn)

Create Your Own Handwriting Sheets-Hanlexon

Create Your Own Handwriting Sheets-This website was free up until September 2012.  I very much enjoyed it.  However, now it requires a membership fee.  Here is another awesome free website- Hanzi Grids.

"Hanlexon believes that only you know what your kids/students need to practice in order to learn Chinese efficiently, so we give you this tool to:

• Create and save worksheets and lessons out of any Chinese text.
• Annotate your text with pinyin and/or stroke orders.
• Share and search Chinese learning material.
• Create flash cards and big-sized worksheets.
• Browse what's popular in Hanlexon.
• Scamble Game Added!" 
 

 

Here's a sample worksheet of numbers 1-10:

Tracing

Copying