A rainy Sunday afternoon. The storm raged around our house and we were bored to death. Time for a movie afternoon. It became an oldie... 'Finding Nemo'. What a fun movie that is. Especially the part in which Dory 'Waaaaalvihiiss ’ speaks. Hilarity everywhere and the boys just keep imitating. “Nice mom, learn whale language!” Yes, definitely nice. A lot funnier than my own homework. I have been taking Chinese lessons for a few weeks now. Our boys are half-Chinese but unfortunately are not raised bilingually. And that's because my love only speaks the dialect from his region and only has a little command of Mandarin or General Civilized Chinese. Now I think it's important that not only me, but also my boys learn Chinese, but my child learn Chinese in a fun way, how do I do that?
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At school, my children have been learning English since kindergarten, a lot earlier than I used to. But what if you also want to teach your child Chinese? I know it's already being taught in some schools, but far from everywhere. And a private tutor like Princess Amalia has is not in it for us either. Still I want to do something about it, but how? Could I send them to the same class I'm taking? The Chinese course that I follow in the evenings is also given to children. An adult English-Chinese lesson on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
But how does that ever fit into our already very busy week? We both work, the children go to school and after-school care and are also involved in clubs and sports. Also on Saturday of course 😉 . But that's not the only obstacle. I saw how my nieces also had to go to Chinese school one by one, every Saturday. And my husband used to have to go there too. And all, one by one, unfortunately with great reluctance. Which I can somewhat imagine. Three hours of Chinese lessons, with a 15-minute break. And not in Dutch, but in English. The textbooks are also in English-Chinese.
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Only now am I a real Tigermom 😉 . We are going to work at home. If you also want to introduce your children to the Chinese language a little bit, I have a number of tips for you on how to teach your child Chinese. That whole learning at home turns out to be quite possible, and can also be done in an interactive, child-friendly way! The best digital tools are listed for you below!
A very nice free app with different games. You practice numbers, colors, animals, etc. You get the first part for free and those are the numbers. The children practice and as the game progresses it becomes more and more difficult. You have to pay for each subsequent part and that costs € 1.99 per part or € 12.99 for all parts.
A free app that basically only contains pictures and the spoken Chinese word and that varies from animals to vehicles or colors. You can also do a test in which you see four images and after hearing the word you have to choose what exactly you hear.
An app that teaches you how to draw simple characters, followed by a fun animation. Also a free app, but of course all extra extensions cost money.
I just discovered this app. Actually also images where you can choose in which languages you want to know the word. So Chinese and English for example. But also Spanish, German and French are included. Fun and also free!
And as a closing I have this a video on sale:
There are many nice videos on youtube. Very difficult to make a choice, but I really liked this one myself. Basically you learn here in 3 minutes what I learned in my first lesson in 3 hours. Namely a first greeting! Funny video and the tune stuck well. My youngest sang 'Nihao Nihao' for days, haha. This way, your child will also have fun learning Chinese.
You see, in this way you are suddenly a so-called 'tigermom', but then on the couch with a cup of tea and a biscuit. Have fun!
Image used via Shutterstock
