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!!