My son will be coming to visit me over the summer. He is 8, and will have just completed second grade. I know he can’t learn much over just 1-3 months during the summer, but I’m wondering what the best way is for him to pick up some Chinese? Are there any summer language courses for kids? I would be looking more for something fun and low pressure, rather than a bushiban atmosphere.
I taught him a very little bit of Chinese (Mandarin and a few characters), but I’m sure he’s forgotten most of it while I’ve been away.
Depends where you will stay, his interests, etc,
Maybe he can play some basketball, baseball and playing around with my boys (8 and 10). They are fluent in Mandarin, able to communicate in English, Taiwanese and my language.
Yeah, I’d say just teach him some very basic chinese (like “I’m hungry” “I want…” “I’m going home”, etc.) then send him out to make some friends. It’s free and practicle. It’ll give him motivation to learn too. As opposed to kids in Taiwan learning English, who have that “I only do this because my parents are making me” attitude, your child will have the “I have to learn it or my life will suck” attitude. It’ll help if the kid has some kind of medium to relate to other kids…so, buy him a skateboard or something and send him to the skatepark. I’m 24 and skateboard, and I can tell you that almost all of the kids that skateboard in Taiwan are unbelievably friendly…and good teachers as well (at both skateboarding, and Chinese).
Send him to a summer school. Even in an ‘English’ summer school. he’s likely to pick up Chiense to communicate with classmates. I’m not talkign about the camps, but schools that you attend daily.
[quote=“Bu Lai En”]Send him to a summer school. Even in an ‘English’ summer school. he’s likely to pick up Chiense to communicate with classmates. I’m not talkign about the camps, but schools that you attend daily.
Brian[/quote]
Thr kid is eight. I would reccomend a chinese or sports camp.
Bad idea. If the kids’ common language is English, English they will speak, and no Chinese will be learned.[/quote]
Wrong.
My kids’ mother language is Mandarin. They hardly use any English outside school or holidays (used to listen to the parents communication iin English though).
Even when they speak with kids of same background, with even better fluency in “my original language”, the kids switch back to Mandarin. Going back to my “Country of Origin” they enjoy theaching their cousins and new friends some Mandarin.
Thanks for all these helpful suggestions! (Forumosa.com wasn’t sending me reply notifications, so I just came back to check now and found all these comments!)
My 12 year old sister seriously needs to learn Mandarin. Reading and writing. My mom is taking her to Taiwan to enroll her in a regular middle school, and I’m like… ?? It worked for me because I went to elementary school, but my sister only speaks Mandarin. Anyone know of a summer intensive program that accepts kids?
