To help DD acquire Chinese language, I have been looking for all the possible resources to get books, DVDs and CDs in Chinese language. One of the resources is the library.
Compared to tremendous books, DVDs and CDs I can borrow from the library, books DVDs and CDs in Chinese are very limited. One book I found is called My First Book of Mandarin Chinese Words
This book is part of the Bilingual Picture Dictionaries Series, which includes French, German, Chinese and Spanish. The book is divided by 13 chapters, namely, family, body, clothes, toys, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, food, farm, garden, colors, classroom, and city. For each chapter, the book shows a list of words, accompanied by a related photograph, both in English and Chinese.
For example, for the chapter family, the book shows a picture of a big family celebrating grandpa’s birthday. Beside each family member, the English word appears first, followed by the corresponding Chinese word and its pinyin pronunciation.
When I showed the book to DD, I let her point the images on the page and I said the Chinese words to her. Later I said, in Chinese, the name of each image and asked her to identify the object. Very soon she could get it right 100%.
By teaching single words, My First Book of Mandarin Chinese Words provides a good basic introduction of a child’s world in Chinese language for English speaking children. Colorful photographs and neat designing help engage young children and compliment the text.
The downside of the books is, since the book is one of the foreign language series and the author translated the words via translations.com, it was not designed especially for learners who want to learn Chinese. Besides, it will be far more effective if the book offers an accompanying CD to assist readers, especially for children and parents who are not native Chinese speakers.
Overall, My First Book of Mandarin Chinese Words offers a good start to expose Chinese language to young bilingual learners. Hopefully, as the book gains popularity, its future version will become more interactive.
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Bilingual Baby, From Lina, Second Year | Lina | 
April 24, 2010 7:14 pm | 
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