Why learn Mandarin Chinese 中文? 

My question to you is “why not?”  Mandarin Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world.  Research has shown that lack of students fluent in a foreign lauguage in the United States will eventually weaken the competitiveness of the country.  When I went to China this year, young children starting in preschool are learning English.  It seemed like every other street had a school for teaching English.  In a world where everybody speaks English, being a native speaker does not, by itself, carry much weight. (This explains, in part, the loss of US jobs to international outsourcing.) However, if you can speak several different languages could prove to be extremely advantageous.  Kids who learn Chinese will put themselves at the top of the multilingual list. Today, nearly 1.4 billion people speak Chinese—nearly three times the number of English speakers.

Mandarin is the official language of Mainland China and Taiwan, and is one of the official languages of Singapore and the United Nations. Learning Mandarin is more than learning a language, it opens the door to one of the most ancient cultures as well as future opportunities in the global economy. The name “Mandarin” was first used by the Portuguese to refer to the magistrates of the Imperial Chinese Court and the language they spoke. Today, Mandarin is the term used through much of the Western world. Chinese people refer to the language as Pǔ tōng huà (in Mainland China), Guó yǔ (in Taiwan) or Huá yǔ (in Singapore). On this website, I will use the word Mandarin and Chinese interchangeably.

I created this website to provide FREE resources for learning Chinese.   I am starting my 7th year teaching in Los Angeles. Wanting my daughter to be fluent in Mandarin growing up in the U.S., I started developing my own curriculum using a variety of fun activities and cultural stories. As a teacher and mom, I know that children learn in many different ways.  I have created a variety of games, small books, songs, short reader’s theater plays, and other resources which help children learn. I realized that the more Chinese words a child learns the easier and faster it gets. For example, I taught my students at school the words 口 “ko3″ mouth ,大 “da4″ big, and 小 “xiao3″ small. From these three words we made new Chinese phrases 大口big mouth, 小口 small mouth, and 大小 size. So we really learned 6 new vocabulary from just three words. We then acted them out and illustrated big mouth and small mouth on people and animals.

Another example of how learning Mandarin becomes easier when you know more words is after my students learned how to count in Chinese it was very easy to learn the months which is simply a number word plus the word 月”yue4″ month. For example, January is the first month or 一”yi1″月”yue4″ which is literally means “one month”. Therefore, if you can count to 12 in Chinese then learning how to say the 12 months is a piece of cake. You just need to add the word 月”yue4″ month after a number word.

One of the games that my American students enjoy playing during recess is called 鸭鸭鹅 ya(1)ya(1)e(2) which is simply the translated name for Duck Duck Goose. Duck Duck Goose is a popular game that kids like so I thought why not teach them some Chinese vocabulary by playing in Chinese. Within a few minutes, the children were able to play the game completely in Chinese. I also taught them to say “跑”pao(3) instead of run. For example, now when they play, they yell “跑”pao(3) Sara, “跑”pao(3) Sara instead of Go Sara, Go Sara. What lessons have I learned here? Children learn best through play! Make it fun and the kids will learn! A little Chinese here and a little Chinese there can add up to be A LOT of Chinese later! And remember, praise the kids and build up their confidence level whenever they speak Chinese.

I am teaching a Chinese Art and Music class from April through June 2012.  I will be updating with pictures and lesson plans every week.  Click here to view the class.

Read what people are saying about Chinese class!

Martha wrote: You are doing a very good job, Mrs. Chen. Penny enjoys your class. She does beautiful Chinese art.
I hope that I can teach Penny more Chinese at home this summer.  I hope I will meet you some times.

Best regard, Martha Hsu, Penny’s grandmother

Clara wrote: Very creative way to teach the fish character!

 

I taught Chinese and Art summer camp in July.  We had so much fun learning, playing and creating! Click here to access summer camp pages.

Read what some people said about the camp!

Elaine wrote: Mary, you are amazing! Isabelle loves you and we hear her singing in Mandarin all the time now! The artwork she created just blew us away. And we love all the documentation – this website is wonderful and her binder too. It’s great fun to see how she spent her time at camp and the Friday performances were fantastic. You seamlessly wove creative learning throughout the days and weeks in a way that made it fun and kept Isabelle engaged. Looking forward to Isabelle learning more Mandarin with you…

Colette wrote: Thanks so much for a great summer camp. Simon had so much fun. We really enjoyed seeing how proud Simon was of his artwork after just the first art activity. And he was really inspired to practice the Chinese on his own – at bedtime we could hear him practicing before falling asleep. 

Shaunyi wrote: Summer LOVED mandarin camp! She had so much fun, brought home lots of beautiful art, and loved singing the Chinese songs you taught them. You really make learning so fun for them!

Visit the site map for Mandarin For Me!

I am constantly adding new FREE resources, so check back often.  Tell others about this website.  Help me make this site better by contacting me at mary@mandarinforme.com with comments, suggestions or requests.  

 

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