I wanna make sure if I heard it right or not? According to some research and data, It’s better to learn Chinese from an early age; I’m already 32, is there still chance to learn Chinese?
The thing that I want to tell you is: as long as you want to learn! Willing to work hard to learn Chinese! It is never too late to start learning Chinese!
Let me tell you a real story – From learning Chinese to starting a business: How to start a successful career by learning Mandarin
For non-native speakers of Chinese, Online Chinese class for adults is an extremely challenging task.
Chinese has intricate strokes and thousands of characters, most of which take at least a year or even longer to understand and master, plus the difficulty of pronunciation makes many people daunted.
Although Mandarin is one of the most difficult languages in the world to master, there are many benefits to learning Chinese.
Mandarin is considered to be the second most common language in the world, therefore, being able to speak Mandarin can open you up to many employment opportunities and give you more opportunities to advance in various fields.
That’s why the story of Malaysian-born Shah Farid Rashid is so fascinating. As a Malay, he grew up with little exposure to Mandarin, but was eventually able to master the language.
He told Study International: “As crazy as it sounds, I grew up listening to Chinese people speaking Mandarin. Even though I couldn’t understand what they were saying, I still found it very interesting.”
He decided to challenge himself and went to Beijing Foreign Studies University to study Chinese language and literature. His strong determination and hard work attitude have allowed him to master Mandarin in only six months, an amazing achievement!
From self-study to international education Rashid spent his childhood in the Malaysian state of Kelantan, one of the poorest states in Malaysia. Like his hometown folks, Rashid comes from a modest family.
He shared, “My life was restricted a lot when I was a child. Due to my poor family background, I couldn’t pursue many things I was interested in.”
Therefore, Rashid has always believed that education is the key to changing destiny. He vowed to create a better future for himself and his family, so he resolutely decided to apply to a famous local university in Malaysia.
In this regard, he said, “I believe that only by working hard on my own can I realize my life-changing dream. For the future of me and my family, I must do my best to achieve success.”
Like his college classmates, Rashid worked hard to win a scholarship to study abroad. But, unlike other students, Rashid chose a unique path. “Most students either study maths or accountancy and I want to make a different choice,” he said.
And just as he expected, Rashid also received the admission letter from Beijing Foreign Studies University majoring in Chinese as he wished.
He explained, “I was very excited and had been waiting for the admission letter. I knew there wasn’t much competition because not many people realized the importance of Mandarin at the time.”
Master Mandarin in six months After coming to Beijing, Rashid faced another new challenge: adapting to life in the city. “I didn’t know anything about the city, and the language barrier got me into a lot of trouble,” he recalls.
“Not being able to communicate well prevented me from going out shopping, taking public transport, etc. I had to ask others for help from time to time.”
So Rashid doubled down on learning Mandarin. He thinks a lot of it has to do with his determination and self-discipline, but also with the interesting lessons he’s had.
He enthused, “Those lessons were so much fun. All the colors, songs and learning activities put me in kindergarten, but the students were adults. This unique and fresh way of learning was really different. “
Rashid’s five years in Beijing have been very fulfilling. He spent a lot of time exploring China and felt the rich and colorful culture and characteristics of this country.
And Online Chinese class for adults also brought great help to his job hunting process after he returned to Malaysia.
“I feel very lucky because I have been interviewed by many companies. Although I majored in languages, I have received high-paying offers from many large companies such as Google, Xiaomi and several fashion companies.
Although I did not Not having all the required skills, but the key to these employers is that I can speak Mandarin. They told me that other skills on the job can be learned by doing, but languages cannot.”
Faced with a plethora of job opportunities, Rashid found himself happiest in a teaching environment. In addition, he realized that learning Mandarin could help impoverished communities like his own, which prompted him to give back in what he believed to be the best way: through education.
The Beginning of Entrepreneurship: Fasih Mandarin (Fasih Mandarin) Rashid got his first job as a Mandarin teacher at a local university, a profession he loved. However, he also faced the limitations and many limitations of the existing curriculum.
He explained: “The school’s teaching goal is only to let students pass the exam, and the curriculum is very rigid. I try my best to make my class interesting and lively, but there are still various restrictions.
More importantly, I found that students don’t enjoy the course. They just take my class for credit and have no interest or value in the course content.”
Rashid realized that the real meaning of teaching is to stimulate students’ interest and interest in learning, rather than simply learning to meet graduation requirements.
Therefore, in 2018, he founded his own language center, which provides Mandarin training for non-native Chinese speakers.
Most of the teachers are also Malay. The Online Chinese class for adults school currently has branches in seven regions in Malaysia, with more than 8,000 students, making it one of the largest chartered Mandarin language institutes in Malaysia.
Faxi Mandarin is an academy for students of all ages, including young children and working professionals. The Academy’s courses are lively and engaging, employing many of the teaching strategies that Rashid employed while studying in Beijing.
However, according to Rashid, the really meaningful aspect of Faxi Mandarin is how helpful they are to students.
He shared: “One of our students came back to thank us for teaching her Mandarin. Because of her ability to speak Mandarin, she got a raise.” This story gave them new motivation to continue to make greater contributions to society.
Study International asks Rashid: Any advice for students looking to follow a different path?
He replied: Trust your instincts. Believe in yourself first, because if you don’t have confidence, others won’t trust you either.
If you want to experience a new life and challenge yourself, come and join in Online Chinese class for adults!
Referring to O level higher Chinese tuition for children, what do you think about?
Most of these children are between 3 and 7 years old. Generally speaking, they have the following characteristics:
Inability to concentrate for a long time, often study may lead to desertion.
I am very tired of boring repetition. If it is just memorization, it will make them very boring and reduce their interest.
Inability to remember abstract concepts
During this period of time, I often see such a question, how to teach children who are three or four years old or slightly older?
In other words, how can children learn Chinese with zero foundation?
This problem frequently occurs in overseas Chinese families. Most of their children do not have a pure Chinese language environment, and most of them do not use Chinese in daily life.
Therefore, if you want to learn Chinese from scratch, you must have a suitable teaching form and lively and interesting teaching materials.
In our daily teaching experience, we have found that young children have difficulty concentrating and are easily distracted.
Many times the teacher’s teaching makes them feel bored, they will unconsciously look out the window, or fiddle with the stationery in their hands.
Therefore, the best way for O level higher Chinese tuition is to catch the children’s attention all the time and keep them very interested in your courses. The following are some commonly used methods in the teaching process:
The most suitable way for zero-based children to learn Chinese is interactive teaching.
We can find some related nursery rhyme resources before class, and let the children sing and dance together before or during class.
This behavior will be difficult at the beginning. Most children can’t keep up with the speed of the song at all, let alone rap and dance, and more are just dancing with the music.
Repeat it several times, and start to speed up the song when some children can keep up, so that the children are happy, and the teaching effect is often not bad.
Watch animated videos with kids. Watching cartoons is not learning for children, but a kind of reward and a kind of relaxation.
Children learning Chinese with zero basics cannot learn boring grammar and knowledge points all day long like adults learning foreign languages. No child can sit still and listen to you finish a class.
The colorful pictures are a wonderful world for children, and they will deeply remember the important knowledge points in the classroom while wandering in the beautiful animation.
Here I recommend several youtube channels, you can go there to download the animation videos you need.
Rubik’s Cube Chinese Little Fox Chinese Liuyi Children’s Network
Recommend children to read picture book stories There is no child who does not like listening to stories, and there is no child who is not interested in picture books.
Which picture book stories are worth reading? Which picture books can children learn Chinese with zero basics?
Books for O level higher Chinese tuition Children Learning Chinese——10 Classic Picture Books You Must Read
As a simple and light teaching tool, it plays a pivotal role in the growth of many Chinese children. When we were young, we often begged our parents to buy us a new picture book after school.
4) Chinese mini-games
Games are one of the most effective channels for children to learn Chinese.
There are many Chinese games, including You Draw My Guess, Bingo, Story Solitaire, etc. You can choose the game according to the specific level of the child.
Making good use of games can make children learn Chinese more happily.
Build children’s confidence in speaking Chinese
For many overseas children, Chinese is a foreign language, and it is a long process to master a language proficiently. Then in this process, teachers and parents must give children timely affirmation and encourage their efforts.
Don’t be afraid of them making mistakes, but cultivate them to speak Chinese boldly, for example, let them use Chinese to have more conversations, and practice more in Chinese with other children.
When learning Chinese with zero foundation, pay attention to the problem of homophones. The Chinese textbooks used by some teachers are written in pinyin throughout, without any Chinese characters.
Although such textbooks are easy to learn, there is a big problem-the inability to distinguish homophones. There are a large number of characters in Chinese that have the same pronunciation, but the meaning of the words is not related.
When learning Chinese with zero foundation, the purpose should be clear. The purpose of learning Chinese is different, and the content of the teacher’s teaching naturally needs to be changed accordingly.
Some students only need to learn daily Chinese to deal with life scenes and general communication activities; some foreigners learn Chinese to deal with complex business conversations.
Teachers need to prepare lessons for different students. Usually, a teacher’s income is linked to the number of teaching hours. Most foreign students take Chinese classes three times a week, two class hours each time.
According to the different abilities of each teacher, the number of students that can be accepted is also different.
So do you have any other questions about O level higher Chinese tuition for children?
For overseas children, how to learn Chinese? Is it enough to enroll in a class?
If it works, as parents, we don’t have to worry about our children learning Chinese, and we don’t have to study hard on the Internet.
To learn Chinese well, we must start from three aspects.
This is because the big tree of Chinese has to develop three roots in order to thrive.
Taking Chinese classes, Chinese online classes, conducting systematic Chinese learning, and completing homework with high quality are just one aspect, and what nourishes is only one of the roots.
There are two other roots, which are actually more important, and correspond to the other two aspects of learning Chinese well: Chinese small environment and Chinese parent-child reading.
1.Create a good Chinese environment
Language learning, with the blessing of the language environment, can get twice the result with half the effort.
Chinese families should make good use of their own advantages in creating a small Chinese environment.
Singing Chinese nursery rhymes, listening to Chinese stories, watching Chinese children’s programs, these must also be arranged.
As the child grows older, in addition to insisting on communicating with the child in Chinese, it is necessary to further enrich the content of Chinese input, such as guiding the child to listen to Chinese audio programs and watch Chinese film and television programs.
How do you memorize the pronunciation of “one” and “no”, for example, “a person” and “a bird”, “I don’t want to go”, in different words?
“Two” and “two” are used as numerals and have the same meaning. When do you use which one? In the online class of the first section of the first volume of “Chinese”, teacher Mi Lier showed two geese as an application after learning the Chinese characters “one” and “two”, leading the children to count “one, two, two” Big White Goose”.
Careful parents consulted, why not explain to the child that “two” should be said instead of “two”.
How to learn Chinese? There are also quantifiers in Chinese, which are large in number and complicated in use.
Like these, although some linguists have summed up the rules, how many of us use them by memorizing the rules?
It’s all about listening a lot, and then speaking, and it’s natural to use it correctly.
A good small Chinese environment, in daily life, helps children accumulate oral vocabulary, strengthens their sense of Chinese language, and has a subtle influence on cultural background.
We also need to make more use of vacations, return to China to visit relatives and friends, and throw the children into a 24-hour full-Chinese environment to soak.
The child’s listening and speaking ability will improve at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In fact, these accumulations will not only reflect the children’s Chinese listening and speaking ability, but will also promote the overall development of all aspects of Chinese learning.
Perhaps before the child enters primary school, there will be pressure, and it is necessary to focus on the development of the child’s local language in order to start primary school life smoothly.
But you can’t completely throw Chinese aside because of this, but you should at least insist on speaking Chinese with your children.
Moreover, once the child has passed the local language and is able to cope with school life freely, it is time to shift the focus to Chinese learning.
Insist on effective Chinese parent-child reading
How to learn Chinese?
It’s use, it’s communication.
First of all, parent-child reading in Chinese, if it is enjoyable, is a good time for parents and children to communicate and share in Chinese.
Listening to parents telling stories in Chinese and explaining some things softly, the feeling that Chinese brings to children is familiar, intimate and safe.
Secondly, Chinese parent-child reading also gives children an occasion to apply their Chinese learning.
From listening to stories at the beginning, children are gradually able to ask questions, express their thoughts, and discuss with their parents; words, a page of text, an entire article.
What you have learned is useful, and you can use it after learning. For any learning, it is the best positive feedback.
Chinese reading, and Chinese classroom learning promote each other and benefit each other.
The new words learned in Chinese class need to be repeated several times in different contexts, with different fonts and sizes, before they can be firmly remembered.
In Chinese characters, there are a large number of polysemous characters, which have different meanings when matched with different characters.
In Chinese classroom learning, it is usually difficult to cover multiple meanings, so it needs to be supplemented in reading.
A lot of reading is also a good way to cultivate your Chinese language sense and broaden your Chinese vocabulary.
In daily life, daily necessities, what you say to your children every day, are actually the limited ones that are repeated over and over again: get up, hurry up, eat, go to school, have you finished your homework, not now…
One of the most effective ways to accumulate vocabulary beyond the scope of daily life and more complex sentence structures is to persist in Chinese parent-child reading.
3.To take Chinese classes systematically and formally.
When it comes to learning Chinese, many people first think of enrolling in a Chinese class, finding a Chinese teacher, and taking Chinese classes. There is nothing wrong with this. It is indeed necessary to study Chinese systematically and formally.
It is a necessary way to systematically learn Chinese language knowledge and comprehensively improve Chinese listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.
In terms of form, whether it is a weekend class or an online class at home, it is good to choose the one that is most suitable for your family situation in terms of teaching materials, teachers, homework, parental participation, cost-effectiveness, etc.
The reason why it ranks third is because the first two aspects are too important. Parents should also be reminded that there is a wrong idea that Chinese classes are simply equated with learning to read and write.
Various literacy apps, in the promotion process, also mislead everyone to a certain extent.
How to learn Chinese? As a parent, the worst thing is to throw a literacy app to the child, thinking that it is learning Chinese and can replace Chinese classes.
epilogue To learn Chinese well, there are three aspects, which are: small Chinese environment, Chinese parent-child reading, and Chinese lessons.
In terms of importance, it is: create a good Chinese environment > insist on effective Chinese parent-child reading > take Chinese classes systematically and formally.
In other words, if parents have limited time and energy and cannot do all three aspects, then striving to do the top one will be more helpful for children to learn Chinese well.
If the first aspect can be achieved and a good Chinese environment is created, the child must at least have good Chinese listening and speaking skills.
Of the four things, listening, speaking, reading and writing, the child accounts for two of them. He is an illiterate who understands Chinese, which is actually pretty good.
If you can also achieve the second aspect and insist on parent-child reading in Chinese with your child, then the child should not only be able to listen and speak Chinese, but also have a good ability to think in Chinese, and also have a certain reading ability.
In the future, through systematic learning, it will be relatively easy to supplement the ability to read and write and express in Chinese.
On the other hand, if you ignore the first two aspects and regard learning Chinese as enrolling your child in a Chinese class and finding one-on-one lessons, and your child does not even have basic Chinese listening and speaking skills.
You can only learn Chinese like foreigners. Learn as a foreign language.
How much can a foreign language be learned by taking one or two classes a week and spending one or two hours in total?
I believe our parents, if we think back to our experience of learning English, we will understand.
Of course, compared to sending children to Chinese classes and finding a Chinese tutor, the two aspects of establishing a good Chinese environment and insisting on effective parent-child reading in Chinese require much more time and energy from parents.
It is precisely because of this that we say that parents’ persistent support and help is the key to whether children can learn Chinese.
Chinese education and training brand giant , New Oriental suffered a huge blow under the “Online Chinese Class” policy last year.
Choosing almost all online and offline training programs for K-9 compulsory education (kindergarten to junior high school grade three) in China.
However, this did not stop New Oriental from cultivating in the education field. The focus of its work quickly shifted to other educational products and services, including the development of the overseas Chinese market.
“Blingo Chinese” under New Oriental provides online Chinese learning courses for Chinese children aged 3 to 15 all over the world, including the United States.
Qiao Lei, CEO of Link Chinese, said that Link Chinese was derived from “New Oriental Link Foreign Teachers”, which was established in 2017, and at that time mainly provided online small-class foreign teacher services for domestic teenagers.
Qiao Lei said that in just a few years, the platform had grown to more than 2,000 classes taught by English-speaking professors, and 210,000 students attended the classes.
However, last year, we encountered the national “double reduction” policy, that is, to reduce the burden of homework and off-campus training for Online Chinese Class in the compulsory education stage, and foreign teachers are not allowed to teach Chinese children’s courses.
Therefore, in August last year, “New Oriental Link Foreign Teachers” was transformed into “Link Chinese Blingo”. , the customer group is for young people studying Chinese overseas.
For example, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) launched a free online Chinese course, starting from the most basic four tones, with clear human pronunciation, and vivid situational teaching, you can learn all the greetings in a short time without spending a lot of money.
In addition, China’s Confucius Institutes are also deeply rooted in the UK. There are 29 Confucius Institutes and 148 Confucius Schools to promote the Online Chinese Class and Chinese culture.
The Confucius Institute has also been criticized as a tool for exporting ideology, but it has been denied by the Chinese government.
Oliver mentioned in the interview that teaching Chinese well has a big element, that is, “laughter” when learning Chinese, which is not only required by parents, but also does not need to stick to the performance of scores.
So when I asked him why he seemed to be able to teach Chinese better than people who were born and raised in Taiwan when he came to the United States since he was a child, he said that because his Chinese level is not that good, so “we have fewer requirements, I hope children’s It’s good if you can use Chinese.”
He doesn’t pay so much attention to whether children can write Chinese characters by hand, but can use typing to do composition;
At the same time, he doesn’t use exams to test children’s Chinese level, but focuses on encouraging children to continue to use Chinese Read favorite works.
For myself, in the past 3 years when my child grew up, in addition to referring to Oliver’s blog.
I have also constantly reflected on the reasons why I want my child to learn Chinese, and Oliver mentioned a big point in the interview: “The longing for a piece of land is the people built on that land.
If you don’t miss the people in that place, you won’t have feelings for that piece of land.
” This is the same as my opinion──I hope my Although the children grew up in the United States, they will not be separated from the Chinese culture that I am familiar with and their grandparents because of language barriers.
I hope that they have Online Chinese Class and ties with people in Taiwan. This is the main reason why I want my children to learn Chinese.
For example, my children first learned the word “ice cream” when they ate it with their grandfather in the countryside of Taiwan, so even if they return to the United States later, they still have good memories of eating dessert with their elders;
It’s just the language, but the connection with the family.
Raising Bilingual Children in Chinese & English, a Facebook group initiated by Oliver, currently has more than 9,000 members.
It is a very active community mainly in English. Parents from different backgrounds around the world often share their stories.
From experience, I often see that when someone raises a question, many well-meaning parents are willing to share their success or failure process, and many parents encourage each other and cheer for each other.
After finding Oliver, I gradually found other bloggers who teach Chinese, such as Chalk Academy and Guavarama.
Everyone’s method is a little different, but I have benefited a lot from them.
Thinking about it later, because they are all parents who grew up in the United States, they understand how difficult it is to teach children Chinese in an environment that is not Chinese, so their method is much faster than my own.
After all, although Chinese is my mother tongue, But I have never taught Chinese, so I have to study slowly to be successful.
As the saying goes, the boss is raised by books. The anxiety of first-time parents is also reflected in the language education of children.
Prenatal education, early education, reading ancient Online Chinese Class, singing Chinese nursery rhymes…
Due to my unprecedented enthusiasm for education, Ms. Du began to pretend to listen to me reading Chinese picture books as soon as she could sit still. Tell bedtime stories in Chinese.
Some books have been told so many times that after six or seven years, when I picked up the same book and told it to Sister Du’s younger sister, Taomei, I could still retell most of the content from memory.
The international logistics business 10 years ago was not as developed as it is today. In order to allow Ms. Du to have continuous Chinese input, every time we return to China and Japan, in addition to the Chinese picture books we carry with us, we have to ship a large box of books by sea .
We have moved 4 times in 9 years, but the books have stayed with us.
With the blessing of picture books and mother’s story time, Sister Du’s Chinese listening and speaking has always been smooth, and she has also formed a pattern of speaking Chinese at home and Japanese when going out.
In the middle class of the Online Chinese Class, there were Chinese children who joined the class who could not speak Japanese. She was entrusted by the principal to work as a small translator for more than half a year.