Archive for 2012

Chinese children’s song: Only Mom is the Best in the World

Mother’s Day is a day for celebrating and thanking mothers. In the United States, it is held on the second Sunday in May. Although festivals honoring mothers can be traced back to the Greek celebration honoring Rhea, the Mother of Gods, it was not until the 1870′s that the holiday became a possibility in the United States.

tags , , , , | datetime May 12, 2012 5:32 am | comments Comments (0)

Customer feedback: how e-reading pen helps my child learn Chinese

Last night, I received an email from one of my customers, now also a friend, in New Zealand. She bought a set of Easy-Read Pen and audio books from me last October for her toddler son to learn Chinese. She told me in her email that her boy made some impressive progress in his Chinese learning thanks to the help of the Easy-Read Pen and audio books. She also offered some excellent tips on how to parent kids to learn a second language.

With her permission, I published her email on my blog as below. I am sure the readers will benefit from her personal feedback of using the Easy-Read Pen and audio books and her wonderful parenting tips as well.

tags , , , , , | datetime May 1, 2012 10:06 am | comments Comments (0)

Chinese Tang poem: Spring Morning

Chinese poetry is a most highly regarded literary genre in Chinese classical literature. In ancient China, poetry-writing was a favorite pastime for all educated men or women, for it was the genre which, sanctioned by tradition, to express the emotions of themselves.

Therefore, Chinese poets and artists concentrate heavily on history of humanity, the beauties of nature and landscape, love, friendship, courtship and marriage, and even everyday trials.

tags , , , , | datetime April 5, 2012 12:54 pm | comments Comments (0)

Perfect bilingualism vs. recipient bilingualism

I dreamed DD to reach the perfect bilingualism, which was defined as “the full range of competence in both languages that a native monolingual speaker has in one”(John Lyons, 1981, p. 282). In another words, I would like her to be equally competent in English and Chinese both actively (through speaking, writing, or signing) and passively (through listening, reading, or perceiving).

But, it seemed she was more like a receptive bilingual, who has the ability to understand a second language, but does not speak it. With no doubt, DD understood perfectly when I spoke Chinese or read Chinese books to her. She could follow the story line when watching Chinese cartoons. But she choose to speak to me in English, the community language.

tags , , , , | datetime March 25, 2012 10:52 am | comments Comments (0)

Chinese children’s song: Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is the last day of the Year of Rabbit, or Chinese New Year’s Eve, known as Chú Xī or “Eve of the Passing Year.” In Chinese/Asian tradition, Chú Xī is the day where Chinese families gather for their annual reunion dinner, chatting, playing and waiting for the first day of the Chinese new year to come.

tags , , , , | datetime January 21, 2012 4:41 pm | comments Comments (1)

2012: the Year of dragon

According to Chinese zodiac*, 2012 is the year of dragon. In Asian/Chinese culture, the Dragon is the sign of the Emperor of China or the male element Yang. The Dragon is the symbol of power and wealth.

tags , , , , | datetime January 15, 2012 3:44 pm | comments Comments (0)