One of the reasons I started blogging was because blogging helped me to put my thought into words. It helped me to review and evaluate my actions and helped to organize and set my future goal. After a few years of homeschooling, I kind of found the "groove" or my own rhythm in doing things and thus no longer need to blog.
Recently, I found the need to blog again. This time it is specifically about homeschooling Chinese.
I have always been struggling with teaching Den Chinese. Something that I would not have guessed at the beginning.
Let me give you some background about myself. I grew up in a Chinese Speaking environment. Mandarin is my mother tongue, my first language, and still my strongest language. I was educated in a Chinese school all the way from primary to secondary school. I love the language and wish Den will be able to appreciate it too. I thought with my skill in the language I should not have a problem teaching her Chinese. I was so wrong.
However, my dear hubby doesn't speak Mandarin. So we choose to use English as her first language. Later on, we decided to homeschooling her with Sonlight. With that, English has become her main language.
I started teaching her Chinese formally when she was 3 years old. I used many methods and different materials. However, as with any language, you need exposure. You need the environment to speak and listen. Thus, she progressed very slowly. She was not motivated to learn it.
After much trial and error, we settled with Basic Chinese 500 (基础汉字500). It is published by a Hong Kong publisher. Targeted at kids who don't grow up in a Chinese-speaking environment. We started Basic Chinese 500 Level one when she was 6 years old. We are still at Level Five (the last level) this year (she is 11 years old now). She can read about 200-300 words. But she won't say a sentence in Mandarin unless she was forced to.
It is very difficult to find books that are interesting and yet at her reading level. I used to let her watch only Mandarin cartoons. Again, it is getting difficult to find a Mandarin cartoon that I approved of and that will interest her.
Finally, I make a decision about two months ago. I decided I'm going to lure her with Chinese culture instead. There are many unique books/movies that I have never introduced to her because her language level is too low. I decided since what I have been doing has not been a great success anyway, let's try a new approach. I'm no longer going to read to her or let her watch movies at her language level but with inferior/immature content. Let's introduce her to things that are uniquely Chinese. Forget about the language level. I want her to appreciate the beauty of the Chinese language and culture and thus hopefully motivate her to want to learn Chinese.
I decided to introduce her to Louis Cha's The Legend of the Condor Heroes (金庸的射雕英雄传）It is a WuXia novel (武侠小说）. A concept that is uniquely Chinese. Even the genre's name cannot be translated into English. I read it when I was 10 years old and have fallen in love with the Chinese language since. However, many of my former schoolmates can't even understand it until they were 16-18 years old. It is a very difficult jump for Den. To make a comparison: imagine introducing Shakespeare in the original language to a 7-year-old.
I know I need to get her hooked on the story first before she will want to listen to me read. So I choose to introduce her to a 50 episodes TV series (2008 version, found on Youtube. Honestly, there is nothing to shout about this particular version but it will fit my purpose. Shall explain later). We watched the first few episodes and she was hooked.
The watching process at the beginning was rather "painful". A 40min episode sometime would take us 1.5 hours to 2 hours to go through. I have to keep pausing to translate and explain certain words and cultures and concepts. Every night, after watching, I get a bad headache.
To help her figure out who is who and what is their relationship, I spent an afternoon making up a character map for her: (photo at the end of the post, no idea why it refused to appear here.)
But it is worth it for many reasons:
1. She bags me to study Chinese with her (hahaha!) aka watching the series.
2. The 1.5-2 hours per episode has improved to about 1 hour-ish per episode now (we are at episode 35). This proved that her understanding of the language has improved.
3. I purposely told her some of the storylines that are in the original novel but not included in the TV series. She bags me to read to her. I did and will continue. The book is way too difficult for her, so I can't read the whole book to her, instead, I choose to read those parts that are not told in the TV series.
4. The series comes with a Chinese subtitle. She is picking up some words naturally while watching the series. At the same time, I let her practice writing some of the character names.
5. This opens her eye to a world that she has not seen - the fictional world of WuXia, with many unique Chinese concepts. With such a complicated storyline, she suddenly realized Harry Potter's plot is like child's play.
I plan to let her rewatch it after we are done with the 50 episodes. But this time, I will let her watch it with English subtitles (can be found on Youtube as well, see why I choose this version?). I choose not to let her watch with the English sub the first time around because I think it will force her to listen instead of relying on subtitles.
Honestly, I am not sure how well this will turn out. The only thing I can say is, this is the first time in her life she is excited about something in Chinese.
After rewatching, I am seriously contemplating in watching Nirvana In Fire (琅琊榜）with her. That will be another long story. Shall continue in part 2.
