Chinese? cant be that hard? If a 3 year old can do it

this 3 year old can do it , why cant YOU?? :slight_smile::slight_smile:

youtube.com/watch?v=lyaxoiDdW8g

I’ve asked myself the same question as I’ve watched my almost 3 year old do the same thing.

I guess my brain is full and hers still has room inside? :idunno:

Chinese du jing classes have young kids doing a hell of a lot more than reading flashcards. How about committing to memory pages and pages of classical Chinese texts, and also being able to recognize characters?

It’s cool that this girl can recognize characters at such an early age, but pretty much any kid can do this.

Kudos to the parents.

:slight_smile:

I think it is not hard for kid to learn Chinese.
My neice can read a book when she was 2.
Because when she saw a character she will ask.
Like this time she learns :大人
and then next time she sees :人 家 ,she just needs to learn " 家"
and maybe next time is 家庭 and go on…

Sure. But she only has to learn the written form. She always knows what “jiaren” means in Chinese, because she’s a native speaker. Makes it a bit easier – not to mention that she doesn’t have to go to work, pay bills, deal with this and that… :smiley:

haha ya,

life really is a BEACH when you are 3 :slight_smile::slight_smile:

–

To me it still doesn’t seem that hard to learn Chinese…I think it has something to do with the fact that I’ve been consistently studying one language or another (or code switching between multiple languages to different groups of people) since I was 10. Anyone else notice a similar improvement or extension of abilities?

Absolutely! I started learning my first second language when I was 13, and Chinese when I was 23, but the second was much easier.

not sure, but she looks eurasian and daddy is perhaps caucasian. If so, does she speak any other language other then mandarin? It would be interesting to note that as well. And id like to know if her other language is as fluent as her mandarin.

tommy, I’m guessing you don’t have a child of your own?

I’m confident our american/taiwanese girl speaks Chinese just as well as any taiwanese child her age and english just as well as any american her age. And I don’t think that’s exceptional. I think it’s the norm. Kids have amazing abilities, they are like sponges and you can keep giving, giving, giving and they will just keep soaking it up.

A young child learning 2 languages will not learn each at 1/2 or 2/3 the pace of a child learning just 1 language. He/she will learn 2 or more languages just as fast as the kid learning just 1 language. Their progress is not limited by working at or near capacity; if anything, it’s only limited by the parents and caretakers not having the time and ability to feed the kid all the knowledge and intellectual stimulation the kid can, and would love to, soak up.

Watch out for this though. Kids are easy prey for the Chinglish monster here.

My boy stills says, “Im finding my toys.” grrrrrr

“LOOKING FOR your toys!” says I.

“I’m looking for them but actually I’m not finding them!” grrr

whattapunk :smiley:

I always say :I am waiting my friend.:blush:
My English friend laughed and said:I am waiting “For” my friends. :smiley:

Man, listening to her read made me all hungry. Don’t quite know why, though…

I read some of those cards faster than her (upside down even!), but then again, I maintain the fact that I speak Chinese like a three-year-old so it would figure that I can read almost as well as one…

I think I should add this… :blush:

There was a study showing that even as young as infancy, children are interested in language that interests them and that is reflected in what their real first words are. Thus why reading cards about food would produce those results, but probably if she were introduced to names of politicians, she wouldn’t be as good at it.

I was teaching my littlest cousin to read last Christmas and he was only 20 months old. Of course, it helped that he had letter recognition down pat before he was 18 months old and was naming letters out of sequence at 16 months. He’s an amazing little guy. And a cutie to boot. Maybe I’ll teach him some Chinese so he can read bilingually before he starts preschool.

tommy, I’m guessing you don’t have a child of your own?

I’m confident our american/Taiwanese girl speaks Chinese just as well as any Taiwanese child her age and english just as well as any american her age. And I don’t think that’s exceptional. I think it’s the norm. Kids have amazing abilities, they are like sponges and you can keep giving, giving, giving and they will just keep soaking it up.

A young child learning 2 languages will not learn each at 1/2 or 2/3 the pace of a child learning just 1 language. He/she will learn 2 or more languages just as fast as the kid learning just 1 language. Their progress is not limited by working at or near capacity; if anything, it’s only limited by the parents and caretakers not having the time and ability to feed the kid all the knowledge and intellectual stimulation the kid can, and would love to, soak up.[/quote]

guess is correct. And im certainly old enough to actually want a child :slight_smile: :slight_smile: Whereas in the past i only thought of them as PESTS.

yes , young children do learn so fast and well. This little girl (you noticed im sure) speaks mandarin with a taiwanese accent (like her mom of course) cuz thats what shes exposed to. A child in china would speak those same words differently.

Ok, maybe I’m missing something here. So I called the SO to have a look and asked her opinion. She said at three she could read more than that as her mom used to read to her every night and taught her that way.
But even if she (the little girl in the video) is three, although she looks four or five, her mommy is definitely Taiwanese or Chinese. Therefore her mother tongue is Chinese. She should be able to read all those cards, no?
Like ImaniOU I could also read all of them (as that question was asked).

More than anything I came away with a positive impression of her parents. They seem to be the kind of folks who dedicate time with their child and teach her. Spending time and actively showing love and affection instead of so many parents who are “too busy” and throw gameboys, PS2’s and the TV at the problem. Good on them. Not only will she feel secure and loved, but she’ll have a headstart on the TV watchers.

Man…I got so hungry watching that video…

Her reading skills are good, but not atypical. I’ve read that Taiwanese kids can typically recognize about 1000 characters by the time they finish kindergarten. I’d also say with 99% certainly that the mom is from Taiwan.