Saturdays are busy days for little Shean Wenn. She starts her morning with ballet class at 9am for 35minutes, before a mad dash for us going to the another side of London for her Cantonese Class (not Mandarin). She enjoys her ballet class very much but the same cannot be said about the chinese class. Sometimes, she would cry in the beginning of the class and I can see that she was not very enthusiastic about it at all.
When we first started the class, I told her that she will be going for a Chinese Playgroup. And due to the education system in the UK, a child is not required to sit down & read/write until they are 5-years old (according to the early years education system) so when I said "playgroup", her natural perception was a FUN class where she is allowed to play/jump/sing/tumble-about! So when she attended the chinese class, it was a shock to her to have to sit down quietly for a full hour (60mins) listening to the teacher and writing /doing homework. They break for 20mins for food & drinks before commencing the class again with some games or singing. She is getting used to this class and style now.
After much coaxing & prepping, she no longer finds this class a chore. She is more enthusiastic about her Chinese Class and even chirps to me out of the blue sometimes : "I'm going to practice my Chinese (writing), mummy, because I'm a Chinese!". Ahh.. a good sign, isn't it?
So, since starting her weekly 2-hourly CANTONESE class less than 3 months ago, she has been learning to write come basic Chinese words. Here, she is practicing a few words (chinese Han Yu Pin Yin followed by the meaning in English in brackets) :
Yue (Moon)
Ri (Sun)
Da (Big)
Xiao (Small)
Shan (mountain)
Li (Strong)
Dao (Knife)
Mu (Wood)
And numbers :
4, 5, 6 & 7
5 comments:
hi tsulin!!!
it reminds me of my childhood!!! i hate to study japanese every saturdays when i lived in other country... (it was an extra school work) but now i thank to my parents because i can keep jap as a native language ;) but to tell the truth, i spent most of the time in japan after then so i think my english is not as good as jap! lol but is okay being japanese. hehe
i totally understand how she feels and i hope she is now taking it positive ;)
You're right, Ochi. When you don't live in your native country, learning the language is not so easy. Thankfully she is taking it well now.
Just curious, is she learning Cantonese and Mandarin at the same time? I notice that the numbers are read in Mandarin whereas the rest of the words are read in Cantonese.
Hi Mun, she's going to Cantonese class but because she missed out on the earlier lessons (which were writing numbers), I actually taught her in Mandarin. I plan to switch her to Mandarin class as soon as I can.
It's so much easier at this age!!! (i'm learning Cantonese as an adult learner, i attend classes but it's so hard!)
Just out of interest, where in London is she learning? i know some of my classmates with young children have been looking for a class/group without much luck.
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