Learning Chinese Mandarin using television or online videos

 As you know, we are a homeschooling family who decided to learn Chinese Mandarin as our second language.  It's been an interesting experience and though we have been doing this for some time, it feels like we have barely scratched the surface of this amazingly musical language.  I spend hours researching different resources and techniques to stimulate further learner or just to add variety and interest.

There are a few websites we visit to watch various cartoons in Chinese Mandarin.  I enjoy these especially because they are familiar to us and so does not feel so "foreign".  These programs could keep you busy for the whole year, because there are so many episodes to watch.  My children have also started learning Chinese characters and though the characters appear very quickly on the screen, they like to test their knowledge of what they are learning all the time.

Dora the Explorer
Bob the Builder
Adventures of Little Carp
Handy Manny
Berenstein Bears
Spongebob Squarepants

We also make use of Chinese TV which has so many channels, where both you and your children can choose programs from news, to documentaries or cartoons if you look around (you will obviously need to screen them just like you do at home.)  I have found the site quite difficult to navigate around but I often ask Google to translate the page for me, as I don't want to be heading off to any strange sites or advertisements.

Remember that Barnie or any of these characters are not able to teach you Chinese Mandarin but are rather a way to supplement the method you use, when learning the language.

If you are learning Chinese Mandarin as a second language, whether you homeschool or not - why not share what websites you have found to learn the language or that have made lessons really fun.

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Can Barnie teach you Chinese Mandarin?

Can you put your child in front of a television and find that after a month or two that he has started speaking a new language?  Dora the explorer, Thomas the Train and the Berenstein Bears can all be found in Mandarin.  Could they teach your child the intricacies of the language.  Unlikely, I do not believe that television can be used to teach a second language like Chinese Mandarin but I do think it can be beneficial in the following ways:

*  Becoming familiar with the sound of the language and real time talking
A lot of programs that teach you a second language, speak at a speed which is beneficial for learning but is not the speed with which most native Chinese people speak.  Watching television in Mandarin will give you a far more realistic awareness of the language and what Mandarin sounds like by a native speaker.
*  Practise
Writing Chinese characters, learning Pinyin and vocabulary can all be practised.  This is especially relevant when you use television programs aimed at little children as the presentation is far simpler and easier to understand.
*  Fun
Ever tried to watch the Lion King in Chinese?  It can be both entertaining and fun, especially if your children know the story in English.  We have had some really funny moments listening to Simba speaking with in Mandarin.

I also find that the children get tired of doing the same programs every day (even if you alternate them), adding a bit of telly seems to bring the language to life
*  Culture

Part of our language study includes culture.  We have done some cooking, some social studies and some online research into the Chinese culture. Language cannot exist without the understanding of the culture too.  We might not always understand the language but the understanding of the culture, will definitely help you to navigate in certain situations.


So don't expect the likes of Barnie or Thomas the Train to do the hard work for you but it certainly will make a difference in your child's language learning and they will enjoy it even more.

Nutcracker on Ice and Homeschooling

So you heard about our wonderful experience when we were invited to the World Premier of The Nutcracker on Ice, and of course like the good homeschooling mother that I am, I am VERY good and telling everyone else how to do things.  So I am going to tell you how you can take an experience like this and turn into an educational moment.  Of course the whole experience in itself is educational in nature but if you want to take it a step further here are some ideas.

*  A composer study of Tchaikovsky
 
 * You could even create a mini book on Tchaikovsky.

*  Read the different versions of the story of the Nutcracker to your children which you can get from the library.  


* Printable lesson plan for the Nutcracker which includes turning a pine cone into a Xmas Tree


*  Make some Nutcracker puppets


*  Mapwork: Russia and surrounds, take out some books on Russia


*  A quick quiz

*  Listen to the music

*  Crafts:  Make a Nutcracker from a toilet roll