Children to learn Mandarin
Hi,
I'm thinking of sending my 2 nieces to learn Mandarin. Some questions thought:
1º At what minimun age can they start, in order to start learning the language convicingly? I'm thinking at 5. Not before as they are to young and even don't understand their mother tounge broadly.
2º The learning will be only at Saturday afternoons by playing games and singing songs and so on. Will they be able to get high proficiency in Madarin through this? If so, how much time will it take? (Sure as they get older the lessons will shift to story telling and so on).
Thanks all
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2º The learning will be only at Saturday afternoons by playing games and singing songs and so on. Will they be able to get high proficiency in Madarin through this? If so, how much time will it take? (Sure as they get older the lessons will shift to story telling and so on).>>
No, they won't get to a high level doing this. To learn a language you have to be serious. It's not all fun and games.
I think about these kinds of classes as they keep cropping up in my city. While I don't think kids will become fluent, they will start to develop an ear for languages (similar to kids developing an ear for music/being able to sing on pitch) and that may be valuable in itself.
Is there a curriculum or will it be the same simple things repeated as new children join the class to sing songs and play games? It may not be easy to get answers, but a good school should be upfront about goals at each level, imo.
<<No, they won't get to a high level doing this. To learn a language you have to be serious. It's not all fun and games.>>
Children generally learn languages through fun and games (interaction), and not pedantically through formal training.
example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnJ5KVtqNik
What is so impressive about that kid? Clearly he's lived a while in China. I saw a little Chinese-American kid the other day speaking English with some white kids, and I wasn't impressed. Of course he will speak English, just like that kid will clearly speak Chinese if he's surrounded by it.
lol, as someone said in the video comments, that kid was probably kidnapped from the States, passed through Russia and landed on China. ^^!
The most important thing for children is to inspire him or her wants to learn more about the language,you may check
http://www.learnchinese.bj.cn/student.html
to find a Chinese school in your neighborhood or an online Chinese school most closed to you
> 1º At what minimun age can they start, in order to start learning the
> language convicingly? I'm thinking at 5. Not before as they are to young
> and even don't understand their mother tounge broadly.
Any age is a good time to start. Children learn differently at different ages. The younger ones learn a second language similar to the way they learn the first language (i.e. through play and games). Older ones (i.e. older than 8) have better study skills and can learn a language more quickly but they start to lose the ear for the sound of the language and thus may not achieve native pronunciation.
> 2º The learning will be only at Saturday afternoons by playing games
> and singing songs and so on. Will they be able to get high proficiency in
> Madarin through this? If so, how much time will it take? (Sure as they
> get older the lessons will shift to story telling and so on).
Studies show that to achieve fluency in a language, children need exposure to the language about 2 hours a day. That's a lot and can be difficult to achieve. I've found that with the Saturday afternoons classes (just enrolled my 5.5 and 3.5 year old), there is some structure around which we can start to have a conversation in Chinese. We practice the vocabulary words learned (5-10 words) maybe twice a week (whenever I remember). I think being in a class helps them realize that other kids are learning/speaking Chinese too (not just their mom).
I also supplement with Chinese learning videos like 'Journeys to the East - The River Dragon King'.
http://www.MandarinAdvantage.com. It's like Dora and Diego but teaches a lot more Chinese.
In one way I can understand that China is a huge and important country but in another way...isn't that a bit too much? Let your kids be kids and if they will want to learn Chinese in the future they will do it. I don't want to be rude saying this, and please forgive me if you perceive it in that way, but you can't force them to have the interest you have.
Even if you do it to give them something like an "extra qualification" but I still find it a bit unfair.
>>but you can't force them to have the interest you have.
Indeed, I'm afraid that parents of such kind would regret very deeply. We should be pretty open to foreign ideas - which has been quite obvious at least in where I live - but getting into the business of my people is quite another matter. Can't be that pragmatic, really.