My Review of 'My First Chinese Words Teacher/Parent Guide'

Originally submitted at Childbook.com

Handy Parent Guide

4out of 5

Pros: Detailed, Educational

Cons: A little confusing

Best Uses: Education

Describe Yourself: Parent

I have found this book quite helpful and full of useful ideas to help my son learn Chinese with the My First Chinese Words set. For each of the 36 books, you get the vocabulary list, sentences taught, teaching objectives, songs & rhymes, craft activities, games, references to the corresponding activities in the exercise book that you can buy as an extra, references to online activities, and homework.

To do some of the activities and work, you do need to purchase extra items such as the 'Sing With Better Chinese' CD set, 'My First Chinese Exercises' books, and subscribe to the online learning.

The parts of the book that are in Chinese are also in traditional Chinese which is a bit of a pain if you are using the standard Chinese set of books like I am. Some parts are confusing because they reference specific products or songs/activities that I don't know how to find. Despite this, I am still very happy with the book because the rest of it is very useful and has given me some great, practical ideas that I can use at home or with a class.

Flash Cards for Lesson 3

I'm on a roll tonight! Here's the flash cards for lesson 3. Just click on the link below and away you go!

Flash Cards for Lesson 3

If you want to know more about these flash cards, just take a look back through my posts (see links below) for previous flash cards and a little more info on what they are for and how to use them.

Flash Cards for Lesson 1 Post

Flash Cards for Lesson 2 Post

My Review of 'Sing With Better Chinese' CD Set

Originally submitted at Childbook.com

Great Songs!

5out of 5

Pros: Funny, Educational, Entertaining

Best Uses: Education, Entertainment

Describe Yourself: Parent

This is a great set of songs to help learn Mandarin. Its hard to find good Mandarin CD's for kids but I am very happy with this one. It is also great that it goes with the 'My First Chinese Words' set of books. There are 36 tracks across the 4 Cd's. You get a little booklet that has all the lyrics so you can really learn each song well. It is a big help that some of the songs have the same tune as childhood songs we know. For example, 'Old Mr Wong Has A Lot' is sung to the tune of 'Old McDonald Has A Farm. Each song has parts in English and Chinese so you don't get a full song in Chinese only. I don't mind this because it makes it a bit easier to learn. My set of Cd's came in a different type of packaging to that shown in the photo so I've attached a picture so you can see what it looks like.

This is what the set of Cd's I received looks like.

Flash Cards for Lesson 2

It's been ages since I've been on here. I've still been busy learning Mandarin...although this has had a setback over the last few months. My teacher had to go back to China for a few weeks and we had a new teacher who really put me off learning Mandarin. She stressed me out so much I didn't even want to look at any of my work. My normal teacher was meant to be back for this term however, so I was looking forward to that and was trying to motivate myself to catch up and get prepared over the holidays.

Well...my normal teacher never came back!!! :-( I'm partially annoyed and sad but our new teacher (still the same teacher I didn't like from last term) at least goes through our textbook more thoroughly (although nowhere near what she should) so I guess I am partially learning better. If only she would slow down and write the characters neater on the board so we can actually copy them down. On the plus side, we have new adult students in the class so she is focusing on them more and leaving me in peace. lol I feel so sorry for them though. She is going through stuff way too fast for them and they are so confused.

Anyway, I've decided that I can't always choose my teacher or have one that I really like so I will have to do the best with what I've got right now and just be thankful that I even have this opportunity to learn Chinese. I'm going to make the most of what I've got right now.

Ok, on to the real topic of this post. Here's the second set of flash cards for lesson 2. Just click on the link below.

Flash Cards for Lesson 2

Again, they follow the same format of the flash cards for lesson 1. Simply print them out, write the translation and pinyin on the back, laminate them if you wish, and then practice. :-)

Arch Chinese - Pinyin Syllable Table

This is an amazing website for learning Chinese. Most of it is free but to get the full use of it's functions, you need to subscribe. I have found however, that I have all I need in the free functions and it has been a big help with my learning.

Today I'll tell you about the Chinese Pinyin Syllable Table. It is a complete list of all pinyin syllables used in standard Mandarin. It gives you every possible pronunciation you will ever need to speak standard Mandarin. You can click on each syllable to hear it's pronunciation, view all characters with each pronunciation in each tone, and also view each character's definition. You can also click on each character and you will go to a page that gives you further info on the stroke order, radicals used, and definition. It is simply fantastic and an invaluable tool.

I am currently using the table to remind me of pronunciation because I often forget it after I go home from class. I have flash cards for all the words I have learnt so far and I simply look at the flash card and then click on the corresponding pinyin syllable and choose the correct tone. I make sure I do this without checking my flashcard first to try and memorize the pinyin for each character. After I find the syllable I think is correct, I then choose to view the characters that have that pronunciation and see if the one I am looking for is in the list. It seems quite a simple task but it really helps me to memorize the correct pinyin and even the meaning of characters.

Go here to check it out: Arch Chinese

Miao Miao Chinese School Caboolture

I got an invitation today for my Chinese school's 2nd birthday and it reminded me that I should tell you a bit about the school.

My Chinese school is called Miao Miao Chinese School. It is one of the largest in Queensland with over 400 students at 4 different locations around Brisbane. The main center in Sunnybank is now 13 years old! They have classes at Sunnybank High, Centenary High, Southport High, and Tullawong High in Caboolture. Classes run for adults and school age children during school terms and each term is usually 9 or 10 weeks long. They teach simplified Chinese in the Beijing dialect which is the standard Mandarin taught throughout China.

I go to the branch in Caboolture. It holds classes on Saturday morning from 9:30-12:30. It consists of 3 50min lessons with breaks in between. There is a beginners class and an advanced class. Our teachers are native Chinese speakers and are very friendly and helpful.

I am in the beginners class. We learn pinyin (pronunciation), characters, speaking, reading, and writing. The class is a mix of children and adults. Because there is such a wide range of ages, we start out learning very simple things but these are very valuable foundations for more complex sentences and words.

I almost forgot, the classes cost $12/day or if you pay for the full term, it works out at about $10-$11/day. I found that this is very cheap compared to other places. You are in a class setting though so if you want really intensive lessons, then this isn't for you.

Here's the link to their website. You can view it in English or Chinese.

http://www.miaomiao.org/

'Teach Yourself Beginners Chinese Script'

I just stumbled upon this little book that has some very interesting info on Chinese writing. I wouldn't recommend working through this book for a beginner (despite the title) because it gets complicated quite quickly and expects you to remember a lot of stuff very early on but the information it has in fantastic and worth a read.

The reason I think it is so good is because it explains the origins of the language, how words are formed, how characters are written and also looks at using a Chinese-English dictionary. This info really helps you to understand why certain words are the way they are in Chinese and I found it really helps me to remember words now that I understand how and why they were created that way. Some of these basics are very helpful foundations if you are learning Chinese.

You can check the book out here for free and you can also buy it online at Amazon or other websites.

This is the book's most recent cover as far as I know.

Flash Cards for Lesson 1

Ok. So maybe sometimes I have a little too much time on my hands but I was given a sheet with flashcards for lesson 1 when I first started and I hurried home, cut them out and laminated them. Since then, I've made flashcards that match these original ones exactly and have done this for every lesson in the book.

The flashcards are very simple. They have the Chinese character on one side and on the back, it is blank. On the back of mine, I write (in pencil so it doesn't show through) the English translation, the pinyin, and then if it is hard or unusual to pronounce, the pronunciation. I get this info from my teacher. It is not found in the book which is why I recommend you find someone who speaks Chinese (a native speaker is best) to help you if you use these books.

Here's the flash cards for Lesson 1 including their translation. Just click on the link below and you can print them out for yourself. Hope you find them helpful!

Flash Cards for Lesson 1

My Textbook

This is the textbook I am using in class. It is the first book in a series of 12. As far as I know, each textbook comes with 2 workbooks to practice what you are learning. We usually do 1 lesson each week (there are 12 lessons in the first book) and I've found that if you do your homework, it's not too hard to keep up. You do need a Chinese person to translate for you though. Each word you learn has the Chinese character, pinyin and a picture. There is no English translation for the words in the books.

This series of textbooks is printed in China specifically for students from other countries.

The textbook teaches reading and writing characters as well as giving the pinyin pronunciation. I'm not totally sure what the title of the book is called but I found an American website that sells it by typing 'zhongwen chinese textbook' into google. The website is http://www.ccdcus.com/id75.html if you're interested.

I guess, from the design, the books are aimed at children, but I find them fantastic even as an adult because they are not too complicated and quite clear. I find that learning to write the characters really helps me to remember them so I can read them and recognise them in amongst Chinese text.

Yay! I finally have something worth posting. :-)

Hi! I've been learning Mandarin for about 4 months now and have decided to start posting all the study resources I make and helpful things I find on the internet. I have sometimes found it very hard to find useful websites to help with learning Mandarin and hopefully I can make it easier for you.

To get things started, here is a website my Chinese teacher recommended and I have found this particular page extremely helpful for practicing pinyin pronunciation. It is aimed at kids but is so valuable that I think everyone should make use of it. You will need to have a decent internet speed and sound. Go to http://kid.chinese.cn/pinyin/index.html.

Hope you find this stuff useful!

再见!!