Ms. Su, who lives in the United States, often communicates with her eight-year-old son in Chinese. Once, when the child was about to take an exam, Ms. Su said, “Come on, baby! Do you know how to learn Chinese?” The child asked curiously, “How?” Ms. Su dumbfounded.
This kind of situation is actually not uncommon. Many Chinese parents say that children are often puzzled by some commonly used idioms that they blurt out, but they feel that idioms “can only be understood, not expressed in words”, and it is difficult to explain to their children. . So, how can Chinese children learn idioms well? The editor provides four ideas for parents today, you might as well go back and try.
1.Choose a good story and match the animation
When many parents buy idiom storybooks for their children, they choose one at random in the market. They think that their children have good Chinese skills and can understand, so they just throw it to their children. （If you want to know more about Chinese learning, please feel free to click here!）
In this case, the child will generally just rummage through it and throw it aside. When parents buy books for Chinese children, try to choose books with short storylines, colorful pictures, easy to understand idioms, and easy to use in daily life. If there is no such finished book, parents must choose the story themselves.
For example: Stories such as Carving a boat and seeking a sword, It’s not too late to make up for it after a dead sheep, and “Putting seedlings to encourage growth” are easy to understand and easy to use, and they are all suitable for Chinese children to learn.
If the child can’t sit still and the parents spend less time with them, it is a good idea to match the corresponding Chinese animation. Parents can try the APP “Children’s Animated Idiom Stories”, which will contain elementary school idioms cartoons.
2.Divide into categories and gradually refine
Idioms are an advanced learning for Chinese children. We parents don’t need to put too much pressure on our children to study. Under normal circumstances, there are not many idioms used in daily life, and learning about a hundred is enough for reading, writing and communication.
Parents can classify these idioms into categories. For example, first divide daily idioms into two categories: commendatory and derogatory, after the child can probably judge the emotional color of the learned idioms. Then divide into idioms of location, numbers, etc. in detail, and gradually refine these idioms, so that children can use idioms more accurately.
- Get closer and use what you have learned
How to learn Chinese? Idioms are also often used in people’s daily life. If the child encounters some obscure idioms, the best way is to accompany the child to reproduce the scene, which will help to narrow the distance between the child and the idiom. After learning an idiom, parents should take the initiative to give their children the opportunity to use it and give more real examples.
For example, the idiom “Self-recommendation”, parents can ask when picking up their children from school: Has the teacher assigned any new tasks? Did you recommend yourself in class? If you want a little help from your children at home, you can also ask: Who can help mom, and I will see who can recommend themselves. Use idioms in life, so that children can master idioms and apply what they have learned.
4.Comparing with cultural differences, understand the meaning of idioms
For Chinese children in the “non-Chinese character cultural circle”, they often face some cultural conflicts that they do not understand. For example, when describing a lot of things, the Chinese will use an idiom: “喷金如土”, while the English expression is “spend money like water”.
At this time, parents can explain to their children the national conditions of the two countries. The UK is an island country surrounded by water. Therefore, for the UK, the most resource is water. However, China is a large agricultural country with rich land resources, so soil is often used to describe a lot.
This kind of comparative introduction can help children have a more comprehensive understanding of China’s national conditions and culture, and better understand the meaning of idioms.
The learning of any language is inseparable from the constant consolidation of the children. Our parents should pay more attention to scientific methods and spend more time with their children in learning. I believe that the children will be able to master daily idioms proficiently soon!
- Learn to write
Many Chinese children will face a problem: they can’t write! Can’t remember!
It is true that many domestic children are also like this when learning Chinese characters. In fact, there are ways to solve this problem. Both English and Chinese characters have certain characteristics.
Some Chinese characters are pictographs, which are Chinese characters composed of pictures or signs. That is to say, they can be strengthened and memorized by connecting pictures, which is much easier than rote memorization.
There are also some pictophonetic characters, “shape” refers to the shape, and “sound” refers to the sound. As long as you know the pronunciation of the sound of the character, you can usually pronounce the word correctly.
In the process of learning, teachers or parents should also reduce the difficulty appropriately, and use some metaphors to illustrate the structure of Chinese characters. For example, the Chinese character “one” in Chinese characters, in order to facilitate memory, you can tell the child: “one” is a horizontal branch, use the method of association, connect the things that you often see in life, so that children can learn more easily. Remember the characteristics and structure of the word.
Respect the original copyright!
- Learn to understand
After many children have accumulated a certain vocabulary, parents and teachers will encourage children to form words, make sentences, and read. But if you don’t understand Chinese enough, you will definitely make many grammatical and word mistakes, which will often make you laugh.
At this time, children can properly watch some Chinese-related cartoons, picture books, and variety shows. When watching cartoons, reading picture books, and watching variety shows, parents and teachers can also give certain explanations. Explain some words and sentences so that children can understand the meaning of the sentences and words.
You can also give some simple words for children to make sentences, and encourage them to use the same words to form different sentences. In this way, the purpose of flexible use can be achieved.
You can also play some lighter games with your children, such as word matching games. For example, “apple , weather , breakfast _“, “big, sunny, delicious” let the children fill in the predicate after the subject that can be matched.
After the child has been able to make sentences and understand short passages smoothly, he can read some easy-to-understand storybooks, such as “Easy Cat: Graded Chinese Readers”. I believe this set of books will be of great help to children in learning Chinese .
So now do you know how to learn Chinese?