Now you know how to say animals starting with the letter b (see How to say bee, bird, bull and butterfly in Chinese?), which animals start with c? Here they come, camel, cat, caterpillar and chicken.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, How to say animals in Chinese, teaching young children chinese | March 31, 2011 6:37 am | Comments (0)

For many Chinese who were born after 1970s, watching Chinese animation, mostly produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio, was a remarkably beautiful and memorable part of their childhood.

With their refined brush strokes and fountain of colors and creativity, Chinese animated films are well-known worldwide for its unique artistic style, so called the “Chinese School”. They not only include cartoons, but also puppet films, paper-cut films, and many other categories.

The stories often come from children’s stories, fairy tales and Chinese folk tales. Then the stories were projected into films with a fantastic, humorous, and vivid appeal by a special artistic approach.

For these reasons and more, Chinese animated films have earned more than 200 national & international film festival awards. It is one of the Chinese film genres winning the most international prizes.

The following titles are some of the most famous masterpieces that represent the highest level of Chinese animation in technique innovation and aesthetic expression.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, teaching young children chinese | March 17, 2011 2:13 pm | Comments (0)

In my opinion, all children, whose native tongue is not Chinese, should learn Chinese as second language. Learning Chinese will give the younger generation a sharp-edge advantage in every aspect of their future life, strategically, culturally, and practically (see Why children should learn Chinese?)

Now, more and more college students are encouraged to study in China, thanks to U.S. President Barack Obama’s “100,000 Strong Initiative” which aims to increase the number of U.S. college students studying in China to 100,000 by 2014.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, How to say animals in Chinese, teaching young children chinese | February 26, 2011 7:17 pm | Comments (2)

Now you know how to say animals starting with the letter b (see How to say bat, bear, beaver and beetle in Chinese?), which vegetables and fruits start with c? Here they come, bee, bird, bull and butterfly in Chinese.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, How to say animals in Chinese, teaching young children chinese | February 19, 2011 7:11 pm | Comments (0)

Today is the first day of the first month Chinese Lunar New Year. Also called the spring festival, it is one of the most the most important Chinese traditional holidays.

Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a monster called “Nian” (“year”) that would come out on the eve of every New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To avoid the monster’s attack, people would flee to the depth of the mountains and call this day “Nian Guan” (meaning “the Pass of Nian”).

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, teaching young children chinese | February 3, 2011 2:56 pm | Comments (0)

The relationship between language and culture is inextricably intertwined. Language is the verbal expression used to maintain, convey and influence culture and cultural ties. Culture is the idea, custom and beliefs of a community communicated by at least one distinct language from one community member of to another. In another word, language is deeply rooted in culture and culture is reflected and passed on by language from one generation to the next (Emmitt & Pollock 1997).

Therefore, learning a new language inevitably involves the learning of a new culture. Otherwise, language learning becomes senseless, inaccurate and incomplete, since all learners get are a bundle of empty or meaningless symbols.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, teaching young children chinese | January 29, 2011 7:57 am | Comments (2)

I began to read Chinese ancient poems to DD when I was five months pregnant with DD (see Fetal education in 5th month). After her birth, I often read to her simple but popular Chinese ancient poems, a most highly regarded literary genre in Chinese classical literature.

Unlike “western culture, which was influenced by Shakespeare, Milton, and the Romantic poets, had a pronounced tendency to think of poems as ornate, elaborate creations made by a few men of genius” (Dr. Wheeler, 2011), Chinese culture had a tendency to think of poem-writing as a favorite pastime for all educated men or women 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.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, teaching young children chinese | January 21, 2011 11:48 am | Comments (0)

After talking with that local mom of a two-year-old, I decided to add more Chinese/bilingual books with CD/VCD/DVD into the bookstore (see Chinese/Bilingual books with CD/VCD/DVD will be added), so that children and parents can listen to the story narrated in clear Chinese via CDs, or watch the videos, which is often accompanied with animated cartoons, via TV or computer.

One day, when I searched online for Chinese/bilingual books with CD/VCD/DVD, I run into a video showing a Chinese little boy using a specially designed electronic pointer pen to touch pages in a colorful children’s picture book.

When the electronic pointer pen touches the pages, either images or texts, the coresponding Chinese words, phrases, paragraphs, or dialogues are read loudly by the pen in clearn mandarin. Sometimes, a song with lovely music comes out of the pen when the pen touches an image.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, E-reading pen & audiobooks, teaching young children chinese | January 11, 2011 11:53 am | Comments (5)

Since the grand opening of Best 4 Future bilingual bookstore, I have been thinking and looking for children’s books of other languages, such as French, Germany, Spanish, Japanese and etc.

The big question is: where can I find those books? Do I need to travel to those countries, for an instance, France, to purchase French children’s books and bring them back to the US?

With limited capital I have right now, it is straightly impossible.

“So I have to wait until I save enough money from the sales of Chinese children’s books”, I thought and sighed, putting the dream to the back of my mind.

Until one day, about one week ago, I received a comment for Best 4 Future blog.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, Spanish/English bilingual children’s books, teaching young children chinese | December 31, 2010 7:08 pm | Comments (0)

Two months ago, I published a post named Why she speaks more English than Chinese? I want to find out why DD speaks more English than Chinese even I have been creating a Chinese-rich environment since her birth (see How I help my baby acquire a second language?).

One reason I figured, maybe also the most important reason, is that I didn’t strictly follow One Parents One Language (OPOL) rule. I read to DD in English as well, only because sometimes she got tired of our limited stock of Chinese books and wanted something different. This is the only time I don’t speak Chinese to her.

Is it the very reason causing her to speak more English than Chinese?

I am not sure. But I do agree that OPOL is the the best and the easiest method for parents to bring up a baby bilingual.

The question is: how strictly or consistently do we need to follow OPOL?

There are a lot of theoreis and a lot of debates. I found two interesting articles from http://www.multilingualliving.com. One is The OPOL-Fanatics from Christiane Küchler Williams. The other is An Apology for Being “Inconsistent” from Alice Lapuerta.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, OPOL, teaching young children chinese | December 24, 2010 10:33 am | Comments (0)