Reasons Why Studying Mandarin is Beneficial for Children
Why should children study Mandarin?
- The most widely spoken language in the world in 2020
- Exercise your brain: English speakers use left temporal lobe. Mandarin speakers use both
- Cognitive ability: Learning Mandarin involves learning language, sounds, drawing and math at the same time
- Learn Chinese Culture: Mandarin grammar presents the logic that Chinese people use to think, phrases show how they handle relationships
- Career Growth: China’s economy is growing exponentially. Knowing Mandarin will land your children more job opportunities
Ways on How You Can Help Your Children Learn New Languages Faster
How you can help your child learn new languages faster:
- Make language learning a daily habit. Research shows that your child only needs 15 minutes a day to make progress while learning a new language. Some ways in which you can instill this habit in them is by making them listen to podcasts or watch a movie in a foreign language.
- Learn cognates. Languages like Spanish have a lot of words that we commonly use while speaking English. Learning these words will help your child transition better into the new language.
- Use flashcards and spaced repetition. Flashcards are proven to be the most effective way to memorize new languages. Flashcards use a concept called spaced repetition that basically prioritizes things your child does not know and helps them prioritize and work on their weak areas.
- Use a notebook and take it everywhere. Ask your kids to write down all the relevant vocabulary that you come across whenever your child is exposed to a new language.
- Speak the language from day one. There are 3 ways to achieve this. You can enrol your child in group learning in a good language school. This is great from a social perspective as your child will be studying with kids their own age and they can collaborate and work together on their skills.
This is where we can help you!
At Sydney Language Solutions we offer the best prices and deals for an atmosphere of fun and engagement in which your children can develop their language skills and aim towards a brighter future.
Advantages of Bilingual and Multilingual Children
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT BILINGUAL/MULTILINGUAL CHILDREN:
– Better academic results: research has shown that bilingual/multilingual children can often concentrate better, have better problem-solving skills, understand language structure better and are better at multitasking.
– More diverse and interesting career opportunities later in life: employees speaking two or more languages can form better connections/relations with clients and other business partners. Therefore, multilingual candidates are preferred by employers.
– Children who speak more than one language have a better sense of self-worth, identity and belonging.
– Bilingual/multilingual children are said to be more educated since they can indulge in reading books written in various languages, enjoy movies and music in different languages.
– Children who learn foreign languages appreciate other cultures more and feel a sense of affinity while communicating with people from other countries.
BENEFITS OF LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE FOR CAREER GROWTH:
Learning starts at a very young age and learning new languages as a kid not only has a positive impact on your child’s personal growth, but it also gives them an edge in the professional world when they grow up.
Here are some advantages of learning foreign languages as a kid:
- Your kid will automatically become more attractive than other candidates when it comes to Global companies. In this dynamic world of globalization, employers are seeking candidates that are multilingual. International companies are trying t0 widen their reach across the globe and hire employees that can blend in with other cultures and fill in the communication gaps between the company and its clients.
- Career growth opportunities: being fluent in foreign languages doesn’t always mean your kid will have to go abroad. Many small local businesses prefer multilingual candidates who can help them explore new business opportunities and bring in more clients from other countries.
- Higher salaries: research shows that multilingual employees earn at least 10%-15% more than monolingual employees.
- Relationship building: having the ability to speak and understand different languages will allow your child to relate to various cultural groups at a personal level. Having a good relationship with colleagues is essential in a professional environment.
- Increased job opportunities: being fluent in foreign languages can be extremely beneficial for an individual’s professional growth. Many companies now require only employees who are bilingual or multilingual.
Benefits of Having Children Learn a Second Language
Why must children learn a new language from a young age?
- Experts say that children have more time and ability to pick up a new language faster than adults and develop a native-like pronunciation.
- Learning a new language also boosts a child’s creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, and listening skills.
- In the long run, a second language will also be advantageous for them in the workplace where being multilingual gives one a competitive edge over others.
What makes our program different from other community language schools?
At some community language schools, the programs are designed to be beneficial if only both parents speak that particular native language at home for the children to have a chance to hear and practice the language. While this is advantageous for some children, others with only one parent who speaks language cannot have the chance to hear from their parents’ interaction. In fact, there are numerous households in Sydney with only one bilingual parent. In such circumstances, going to a language class with a structured program will help the students.
At Sydney Language Solutions, we offer language courses for children from all backgrounds, regardless of the number of parents who speak that language at home. These courses are also tailored for children whose parents are second-generation language speakers in Australia, or those parents who do not have enough background knowledge in speaking, reading, and writing their language to teach their children at home.
Mandarin Chinese and its characters
Mandarin Chinese, which is also known as pútónghùa, zhōngwén, hànyǔ, and guǒyǔ, is spoken in China and Taiwan as a native language. Due to its popularity, Mandarin is also used in different countries all over the world such as Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines…….In fact, Mandarin is one of the most broadly spoken languages in the world together with English and Spanish.
People in different areas of China speak different dialects as Min Nan, Hakka, Fujian, Cantonese, etc, which may sound very different to standard Mandarin. Fortunately, the meaning and the written language is the same for all kinds of Chinese dialects.
Generally speaking, students prefer to write simplified instead of traditional Chinese characters as they are much more simple. One of the ways to master the characters, to understand the two, they are in fact interconnected with each other. Taiwanese uses traditional characters only while Chinese uses simplified characters. However, not every Chinese character has both simplified and traditional versions, so sometimes you may have no option but to write the complicated form.
How to count from 1 to 10 in Chinese
|
Chinese character |
Pin Yin |
English meaning |
|
一
|
yī |
One |
|
二
|
èr
|
Two |
|
三
|
sān
|
Three |
|
四
|
sì
|
Four |
|
五
|
wǔ
|
Fine |
|
六
|
liù
|
Six |
|
七
|
qī
|
Seven |
|
八
|
bā
|
Eight |
|
九
|
jiǔ
|
Nine |
|
十
|
shí
|
ten |
Chinese New Year Foods
Chinese New Year is on the first day of January for lunar calendar and it is the biggest celebrated festival for Chinese people.Chinese New Year foods are very important to Chinese people and the typical New Year foods are niangao, dumplings and fish.
NianGao年糕
NianGao is mainly made from glutinous rice flour and sugar. NianGao sounds like “getting higher and higher year by year” in Chinese language. Chinese people think that if they get higher, they will be more successful in their life.
Dumplings 饺子
Most of Chinese people know how to make dumplings because it is a quite popular food and easy-to-cook. Chinese people trust that eating dumplings will bring fortune and they can make more money in a coming year.
Fish 鱼
In Chinese, Fish sounds like “saving more”. Chinese People usually keep more money at the end of the year because they strongly believe that the more money they save, the more money they will earn in next year. There is an idiom called年年有余(/nyen-nyenyo-yoo/) which means every year people will save more.
Numbers Made Easy
Often when I teach Chinese numbers in my mandarin class, students find it really helpful to learn Chinese numbers. Different from English, most Chinese vocabulary associated with numbers such as days of the week, months of the year are using vocabulary of numbers themselves. For Chinese learners, learning Chinese numbers will not only enable them to know how to count, tell time and negotiate prices in Chinese language, but can also help them to master a group of vocabulary all of a sudden.
The creation of Chinese numbers follows a mathematic system. Basically, we only need to remember how to count from 1 to 10, and can continue the counting based on the mathematics rules. Counting from 1 to 10 will be as follows:
yī(one),èr(two), sān(three), sì(four), wǔ(five), liù(six), qī(seven), bā(eight), jiǔ(nine), shí (ten)
shí yī (eleven) *as eleven is ten plus 1*, shí èr(twelve), ……èr shí (twenty)*as twenty is two tens*
Based on this rule, we can count till Jiǔshíjiǔ (ninety-nine), which is nine tens and nine. 100 in Chinese language will be Yī bǎi. Similarly, 200 and 300 will be èr bǎi and sānbǎi and so on.
Once you know how to count in Chinese, it will mean that you will learn a group of Chinese vocabulary associated with numbers in no time. For example, 12 months in Chinese language will be as follows:
yī yuè (January) * yuè means months, so literally it means the first month of the year*
liǎng yuè (February) , sān yuè (March) , sì yuè (April) , wǔ yuè (May), liù yuè (June),
qī yuè (July), bā yuè (August), jiǔ yuè (September), shí yuè (October) , shíyī yuè (November) , shí’èr yuè (December)
Similarly, days of week are as following:
Xīngqí yī (Monday) * Xīngqí means certain day of the week, so literally it means the first day of the week*, Xīngqí èr(two), Xīngqí sān(three), Xīngqí sì(four), Xīngqí wǔ(five), Xīngqí liù(six)
Do you think it is really efficient to learn Chinese numbers? 🙂
– Anne Ma (Mandarin Teacher)
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