Listen to the story of learning Chinese from the book commentary: Alex's learning story
On the road to learning Chinese abroad, many parents will face a common confusion: their children can speak some simple Chinese at home, but it is difficult to improve their true understanding and expression. How to make children fall in love with Chinese and make progress in the absence of a language environment?
The story we share today comes from Alex, a student of Tonle Chinese. His mother accompanied her children to learn Chinese through "listening to storytelling", and their comprehension, reading and thinking skills have been significantly improved in the past two years. This is not only a learning experience sharing, but also an educational method worth learning from.
From "University" to "Journey to the West": the starting point of reading interest
Since 2016, we have let our children read "University". At first, I didn't understand the meaning, but after insisting on reading, I found that I knew the words in it, and my interest in Chinese gradually developed.
In the classroom of joy, children's favorite thing is to listen to storytelling. Teacher Bitao will pick out the idioms and historical allusions in the storytelling to explain, and they can probably understand the meaning, and their interest is getting stronger and stronger.
At home, children usually speak Chinese very simply, mostly daily words such as "eat and sleep". But by listening to the commentary, his understanding improved significantly.
Storytelling "opens up the nerves" of children's Chinese ability
We first listened to "Journey to the West", and boys liked it very much. Later, I listened to "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Talking about China" and "The Story of Tang Dynasty Poets". I listened to "The Story of the Poets of the Tang Dynasty" because the school was learning ancient poetry, so that it could cooperate with the classroom. Now, children can even listen to "Hundred Schools of Thought".
When listening to storytelling, I stop and ask my child, "What would you do if you were a historical figure in the story?" "Children can not only understand stories, but also think. Now, he can even read "One Hundred Thousand Whys" without illustrations.
Challenges and differences in learning Chinese abroad
Teacher Qingxin's observation:
Compared with domestic children of the same age, overseas children do have a gap in oral expression. Domestic children have a good language environment, and the ancient texts they learn are not easy to translate into spoken language, but they have more opportunities to practice in life.
In foreign countries, Chinese communication at home is relatively simple, so Tongle Chinese storytelling teaching just makes up for this gap. Through a lot of listening and reading, there is not much difference in children's listening and reading skills.
Fun facts in learning: the collision of idioms and life
Children grow up in the United States, and after learning some idioms, they sometimes use them incorrectly and mix written and spoken words, which is very interesting.
When listening to "The Story of the Poets of the Tang Dynasty", the child asked me: "Why is it that if one person in the family dies, he will be so poor that he has no food to eat?" Even if my parents are no longer there, there are still grandparents and grandparents. The way of understanding is laughable.
Parents' questions and suggestions
As a parent, I also have some confusion:
What should a boy do if he likes "Journey to the West", but the girl doesn't like it very much and doesn't find a more suitable storytelling?
Children have exams when learning idioms, and they master them well. Now studying history, there are no exams, and I am worried that the mastery effect is not as good as before.
Teacher's response and educational philosophy
Teacher Bitao responded:
About girls listening to "Journey to the West": In fact, many girls also like it. The key is not to worry too much about whether the child understands at first. If the input is sufficient, it will naturally be understood. Just like AI's deep learning, it requires a sufficient amount of data.
About learning assessment: Tongle Chinese adopts the method of "circulation and spiral", and knowledge will appear repeatedly at different stages, so there is no need to rush for success.
He also shared his experience: children listen to storytelling repeatedly "on wheels", even if they behave "in a daze" at the time, they can remember the plot in surprise a few years later.
The core of education: quality and values
In the teacher's observation, Alex is a particularly good student in the class. In two years, he has accumulated a wealth of language and cultural information through listening to a lot of books, and can even understand the "Hundred Schools of Thought" - which is more than many Chinese children who have taken the AP Chinese exam.
Tongle Chinese not only emphasizes knowledge education, but also attaches more importance to quality education. Storytelling can establish a correct outlook on life and values for children, and at the same time naturally improve Chinese ability.
epilogue
Alex's experience proves that interest is the best teacher, and the method is the key to growth. In overseas Chinese education, listening to storytelling can not only accumulate language, but also open up children's way of thinking and cultivate their values and learning habits.
At Tongle Chinese, we believe that learning Chinese is not only about mastering knowledge, but also about a journey of culture and thinking.
📚 If you also want your child to grow up happily and learn Chinese through stories, welcome to learn Chinese courses with more families and start a fulfilling and interesting Chinese learning path with more families.
