Don't Let Your Kids Miss Their Golden Time to Master Chinese
There are many interesting motivations to keep improving Chinese and, "I want to catch up with my kids' Chinese speaking progress" is probably the loveliest one. Working at Silk Mandarin, I've heard many interesting stories about the competition within families when it comes to learning the Chinese language. Some of our students complain to us, "My kids' Chinese is so much better than me even though I have spent so much more time studying than them!"
Indeed, when learning any foreign language, all kids have the advantage of their youth. However, even though it's their golden time to master Chinese and become bilingual/multilingual, it's still a challenging journey to achieve this. What challenges do our future bilingual/multilingual generations need to conquer for mastering Chinese language?
1
They lack a Chinese speaking environment
It's common to see many international kids only take Chinese as a school subject, but hardly finding a chance to speak Chinese in an everyday situation. Being less practical and less fun equals less motivation.
How to encourage your kids to speak Chinese? It is not an easy thing to do within your family or your expat community. You need to explore more options! Try Silk Mandarin Chinese day camp, a natural, easy and encouraging place to speak Chinese.
The Chinese content your kids will learn in the morning is always put into practice later that day. Review sessions take place in a fun yet educational way, using role-play, games, presentations, videos, or music to maximize the kids' curiosity and motivation to apply Chinese language in their daily life.
We found many international kids in Shanghai haven't experienced the excitement of connecting to local life. I believe once they have embraced local life, they won't stop furthering their Chinese communicative skills. Silk Mandarin would love to help your kids to find their connection with China!
2
They get bored when trying to reach literacy in Chinese
Compared with European languages, Chinese is pretty complicated and learning how to read, write and speak it at the same time can take a lot of effort!
But Chinese is a language with its own logic in all aspects. To master reading Chinese characters, the first step is to show the funny and interesting stories behind the Chinese writing system, which will highly stimulate their interest in learning it. In this way we help your kids find learning Chinese characters as a never-ending adventure rather than as a boring must do.
The importance of accessing the written Chinese system brings me to my next point: being able to read Chinese literature is an important foundation to fully understand Chinese culture.
3
They hardly find connection with Chinese culture
In addition to being a huge economic power, China is also home to a rich and fascinating culture. But have you also felt that most of the time your kids spend in China is in an expat bubble, isolated from the real Chinese culture? Your kids can take advantage of their time here by digging deeper into Chinese culture. It will definitely bring them life-long benefits in terms of mindset and personal development.
Chinese culture is strongly linked with Chinese language. Taking Chinese art as an example, you can always see traditional Chinese painting inscribed with poems. Therefore, the earlier kids acquire the Chinese language, the better they will understand Chinese art such as calligraphy and painting. In the end, the language will bring them access to oriental aesthetics which will stimulate their creativity with literature and art.
In Silk Mandarin's summer day camp, we've prepared various Chinese cultural activities each afternoon such as painting, pottery crafting, seal cutting and more. Here we will invite the kids to take their first bite of Chinese culture. We believe every tiny experience will inspire a big dream!
I know many of the parents who are reading this article are also Chinese learners themselves, so I don't need to repeat myself by mentioning how 'profitable' it can be if Chinese is mastered at a young age. As many of the kids are finishing school this week, we welcome them to join Silk Mandarin's 2-week Chinese day camp to enhance their Chinese skill, explore Chinese culture, make friends as well as have fun in this special summer holiday!
Message me on Linkedin for more Silk Mandarin's summer camp information↓
