Hardage Chinese Language School

You might be wondering how you can support your child's Chinese learning at home, considering that you yourself do not speak any Chinese.

Even parents who do know some Chinese may feel self-conscious or that they are lacking the resources to support their child's language development at home. Keep in mind that the best thing for you to do is to make the language that your child is learning seem relevant and vital. Also, the more time spent hearing and producing the language, the better - chances are that your child is only receiving one to two hours of formal instruction in the language per week. In order to encourage use of Chinese at home, you do not necessarily need to be fluent in the language yourself. In the following paragraphs, I will make a few suggestions that should be relatively easy and inexpensive (if not free) to implement. These suggestions are made with Chinese as the target language in mind, but could be adapted for other languages.

Consider hanging posters or mobiles in your child's bedroom that feature Chinese characters. For very young children, you can choose the material, but for older children, this might be something fun that you could do together, either by selecting and purchasing, or by creating the material themselves. Chinese characters are typically one of the most challenging parts of learning Chinese for adult learners, and so having the visual exposure in their everyday environment might help to make them more familiar. Then, when your child is old enough to start learning characters, you can incorporate the posters into a bedtime routine. ChinaSprout carries a selection of double-sided educational vocabulary posters covering various topics:
http://www.chinasprout.com/shop/BLP117/

Even if you don't know how to say anything aside from ni hao, learn how to read and pronounce Pinyin romanization. With this knowledge, you can sing and read with your children, even if you don't always know what you are saying (and at this point, you can always refer to the English translation of the song, or the English version of the bilingual storybook). ChinesePod has a very useful interactive Pinyin chart which you can download as http://chinesepod.com/resources/pronunciation. And, if you're feeling self-conscious, you can always look to your children as pronunciation guides!

Create a regular space for Mandarin in your everyday activities, so that using the language becomes part of an enjoyable routine that your child looks forward to. This can work for parents who know nothing, to fluent speakers and everyone in-between. Learn a few of the verbs that the children learn while playing paobu during HC classes, and you can incorporate this into a walk or playtime outside. Sing Mandarin songs with your child during bath time. Designate an evening when you cook a Chinese meal as a family and speak Mandarin as much as possible during dinner preparation.

If you start trying out any of these ideas and have feedback (questions, comments, suggestions, tips of your own), please let me know about it.

Have fun, and good luck!
Jamie