Phono-semantic compound, also called semantic-phonetic compound or pictophonetic compound, is composed of two parts: one of a limited set of pictograms, often graphically simplified, which suggests the general meaning of the character, and an existing character pronounced approximately as the new target word.

Considering its size and close assocations among pictograms, ideograms and phono-semantic compounds, my forth advice would be children should use pictograms and ideograms as bases to understand and memorize phono-semantic compounds.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, How to help children learn Chinese characters?, teaching young children chinese | June 25, 2010 7:03 pm | Comments (1)

Do you know when Mickey Mouse was first introduced into China?

It was on October 26, 1986, Sunday. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, squeaking and squawking in Mandarin Chinese, made their debut of 104 half-hour episodes on China Central Television (CCTV), China’s state-owned TV station with exclusive nationwide broadcasting at that time. Since then, this animated character has become America’s most popular cultural ambassador to China.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, teaching young children chinese, western classics in Chinese | June 17, 2010 3:11 pm | Comments (3)

Spinach truly is one of the healthiest foods you can eat. Though low in calories, spinach contains high concentration of iron and calcium. It is extremely high in antioxidants, especially when fresh, steamed, or quickly boiled (see Get children eat vegetables: Spinach casserole with bacon and fresh shiitake mushrooms). It is a rich source of [...]

chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, How to name vegetables & fruits in Chinese?, learn chinese for free | June 11, 2010 3:34 pm | Comments (0)

As she approaches her second birthday, DD developed interest in playing the emperor in “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. She loves to strip herself into nothing but a piece of diaper, wrap herself up in blanket and walk proudly around the house. When she tried to go out, I would say “but you have no clothes on!”

She had no problem in bending over from the waist to pick something up from the floor. She didn’t have jumping in place yet, but she kept practicing and could manage one foot off the ground at a time.

She began to have less patience in sitting still and waiting for the end of stories. She was running, climbing, jumping, twirling, spinning, shouting and laughing. Put into one word, she was always in motion, full of energy.

To help run off her steam, we took her to local parks. As always, she loves to play with other kids, especially older ones. One day, she chased two big sisters in the playground and did as they did. Finally, the two sisters accepted her into the group and played with her. The other day, she easily won the hearts of two older girls and they competed with each other to play with her. And she cried when we had to leave.

This month, the most word DD said was “no”. She said “no” to anything. She pronounced “no” in such a clear and professional way that she earned the title “Miss No-no”.

Baby Growth | June 3, 2010 12:28 pm | Comments (0)