7 Ways to Help Your Children Learn Chinese Better

The world, as we know it today, is profoundly interlinked and interdependent. So expertise in other languages will give you an edge that one day can prove crucial for success. As parents, we owe it to our children to help them get prepared for the best possible way so that they won’t lose their way around when we are no longer available to provide guidance.

One such way to help our children is to help them learn Chinese better.

In all fairness, a Chinese language is essentially a group of words that are somehow connected to each other. But the problem is there is no mutual intelligibility among these languages. So if you know anyone of them, it won’t guarantee that you would get the other languages as well.

Among the group, as mentioned above of languages, Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken by about 960 million people. And it is also the standard variety of Chinese used as the official language of the People’s Republic of China. When referring to the Chinese language, it is generally assumed that we are talking about Mandarin Chinese. Also, Chinese and Mandarin can be used interchangeably. In short, if we talk about learning the Chinese language, we mean learning Mandarin Chinese.

That’s just about enough about linguistic technicality! Now let us focus on how we can help our children get a grip on one of the world’s most complicated and technical languages.

Learning a language may warrant many approaches. Let me tell you about the easiest and time-saving method that I employed for my kid when she was about ten years old. I opt for private Chinese tutoring. The young lady helped my daughter a lot, and she laid the foundation for her future learning of the language.

But that is not the only effective way to learn Chinese. Let me tell you about seven other pragmatic approaches to help your children take on the Chinese language.

Let Your Child Be Absorbed In Mandarin

The linguists generally believe that children can apprehend a language easier when they feel it around in their surroundings when it becomes a part of their daily lives. In his book, ‘Whole in Whole Language,’ the renowned Professor Kenneth Goodman said,

“In homes, children learn oral language without having it broken into simple little bits and pieces. They are amazingly good at learning language when they need it to express themselves and understand others, as long as they are surrounded by people who are using language meaningfully and purposefully.”

Use Chinese in conversation with your child if you can and encourage him to listen to Chinese songs. Instead of adorning your walls with life-sized pictures of superheroes, hang colorful posters with Chinese words. What about creating a menu for the weekend dinner or preparing his class routine in Chinese? These little gestures signal the practicality of the language to their brains without ever letting them know.

Express Your Actions With Words

To strengthen the vocabulary of your child, verbalize your actions in Chinese. For instance, when you straighten his or her school uniforms with a flat iron, go through the chore process in Chinese. Or while cooking, when you say ‘I am cutting vegetables into pieces with a knife’ in Chinese, your child will pick up nouns like ‘vegetables’ or ‘knife.’ It’s a well-known practice to associate visual aids while memorizing something. In this case, your child will associate the actual thing in front of his or her eyes with the word they are trying to remember. And eventually, the words will be embedded in their memories.

Reading Stories Will Always Work

Every child loves stories. You have to manage them by hearing it in Chinese. Just select some age-appropriate books written in Chinese portraying similar sorts of fables that your child loves most. When you read to your child, just bear one thing in mind, don’t make the experience resembling anything like studying. Instead of sitting in the reading room, you can choose the drawing-room sofa and sit side-by-side, giving the impression of spending fun time together. Or you can pick the slot for ‘bedtime stories,’ and it will just be as efficient as it can ever get.

Make The Chinese Resources Available To Your Child

There are some worthwhile resources available to invest in helping your child learn Chinese.

• A Dictionary
• The Writings Of Confucius
• A Chinese Grammar Book
• A Chinese Vocabulary Book

To make reading a book while learning Chinese words fun, you can collect books containing rhymes. Some books are very rich in content and introduce Chinese culture, symbols, basic forms of elementary sounds etc. smoothly and fluidly. This experience will establish the base of your child’s efficient language learning.

Don’t Leave The Digital Sources Out:

Kids these days are extraordinarily adept in manipulating technologies. For some, tech-savvy applications would be way more fun than be engaged in traditional resources I just have mentioned above. Websites developed by the Chinese Government, mobile apps, YouTube tutorials suited for children, digital versions of every support I mentioned earlier, etc. are all wonderful sources to learn Chinese. Encourage your child to use them under your supervision and watch them flourish in learning Chinese.

Be A Student Again – Learn The Language

You might not feel strong enough in Chinese to be able to guide your child through. Then this is your chance to re-energize the language dying inside you. Seek help from your children and tell them to teach you what they are being taught in schools, in digital resources, in cultural workshops you arrange them to participate – in short, tell them to be your teacher. Believe me, and this will inspire them tremendously and help them practice what they have been learning.

 Go, Visit China

Well, why not? Maybe not right this very moment, but when everything will get back to normal.

You don’t have to visit China only for your child’s language exposure. As you might guess, the country itself is a wonder, and to explore it ultimately may require a few lifetimes. So, you need to plan the holiday in connection with the availability of learning opportunities for your children. It will do wonder for your child’s language learning because there are a plethora of options available in China to help your child learn Chinese:

• Classes for language learning in the morning
• Cultural activities in the afternoon
• Workshops
• Millions of talking, walking teachers to teach you and your entire family!

There you go. You now know my seven best ideas for helping your children to learn Chinese. I sincerely hope you find them applicable, and your child will be benefited following them.