Home based Private Mandarin Class

[Ethanmama]

My son is 2 and half now and we come across an opportunity to join a private Mandarin class with a few other families. We have found a Mandarin teacher who is willing to come to our house once a week to teach Mandarin. We already had a trial class with the teacher, she is really experienced, organized and engaging.  I think the kids all enjoyed the class.

However, the class is not cheap, it's like $20/hour plus $20 material fee every 12 classes. My dilemma is, there are so many Mandarin teaching products out there already, is it still worthwhile to pay so much more for a real teacher?

What do you think?

[Mandi Quiring]

If you can afford it DO IT. 
First hand interaction is great... I recently approached an immigration center and posted an ad on the board for a native foriegn language family to have a play date... KIds playing side by side they pick things up even if its not a formal class... My two year old in one day learned how to say my turn and MINE in Vitnamese and in Spanish.

I find that immigrants that respond to the ad are very receptive to a playdate, the kids have fun, and usually I get some great new recipes first hand.

[Joha]

If you can afford it DO IT. 
First hand interaction is great... I recently approached an immigration center and posted an ad on the board for a native foriegn language family to have a play date... KIds playing side by side they pick things up even if its not a formal class... My two year old in one day learned how to say my turn and MINE in Vitnamese and in Spanish.

I find that immigrants that respond to the ad are very receptive to a playdate, the kids have fun, and usually I get some great new recipes first hand.

Wow! Talk about a great, creative idea. I like it! I wish I lived in a town that had an immigration office 

Regarding Ethanmama question, there are products already done, like Little Pim and Wink to Learn mandarin, but definetly I agree with Mandi, if you can afford the classes go for them.

[purplefungi]

I would go for it!

There is a Chinese school about an hour away from where we live that is on Sundays only. I would send my boys, however I don't know how much it costs. Even parents can go and learn Chinese.

[Ethanmama]

If you can afford it DO IT. 
First hand interaction is great... I recently approached an immigration center and posted an ad on the board for a native foriegn language family to have a play date... KIds playing side by side they pick things up even if its not a formal class... My two year old in one day learned how to say my turn and MINE in Vitnamese and in Spanish.

I find that immigrants that respond to the ad are very receptive to a playdate, the kids have fun, and usually I get some great new recipes first hand.

I agree first hand interaction is great because the kids are not only learning the language, but also learning to be comfortable and confident in speaking that foreign language, also, they are learning other important communication skills in the class too.

Mandi, I like your idea about setting up playdate with the new immigrants. We are part of an American Asian Parents group and we have tired to set up some regular playdates with other Mandarin speaking families, the problem is that since everyone has been living in the States for some time already, they tend to switch to English very easily, and needless to say, the kids speak English too even though they speak Mandarin to their parents.

Also, I think it is important to expose the kids to that language frequently and regularly, which means you have to find the families who are willing to commit to the playdate, besides that, the kids should be around the same age, and be able to play well together...  finding the right families is really not that easy, but it certainly worth the effort.

[wenjonggal]

I would definitely go for it! How WONDERFUL that you have found others to join you. We are doing much the same thing, but just privately: my 3 yr old son and I have someone come over for an hour or two once a week, for the past year and a half now. She is from Beijing, and is here to stay with her son who is studying at university. We pay her $20. We learn SO MUCH more having one on one interaction. Someone to correct our pronunciation and grammar, suggest the word we are searching for, give a common conversational word when there are 6 different words given for an English word in the dictionary.

I learned phrases that were immediately applicable such as "TT must make a peepee now" "Mommy will open your bottle for you" "Mommy will put on your bib" "mommy will wipe your face" "would you like a cracker?" "you should put on your slippers now".

I mean, really, where have you found language learning materials that have such mom and baby specific vocab for in the home? I was thrilled to see that when we bumped into other mandarin-speaking families in the park (even in a library in Saskatoon Saskatchewan!), the parents were saying the same things as I was! "bie peng!" (don't touch!) "bu yao!" (don't do that" "yi qi wan r" (play together!) "bu shi wanju!" (it's not a toy!) "re de! xiao xin!" (it's hot! careful!).

I never learned any of that in Practical Chinese Reader, Little Pim or Better Chinese.

I even learned to say chinese "r" properly (essential for "re de!"). People commend me on my accent.

So I would say if you want to spend on something, go for the live person, and chop the dvds.

We have also found, through ads on kijiji (craig's list by google) and a university volunteer board, chinese students who are happy to come play with my son for a couple hours only in Chinese. Just straight immersion. He is so thrilled to have 100% attention from an adult, and I am thrilled to hear him say "Jin lai! jin lai!" (come in! come in!) trying to get her to crawl inside his huge watercooler box!

[Beanie_8111]

Hi,

I will like to get more informations from u on this home based private mandarin class. Maybe you could provide me wif  more informations at [email protected]

Thanks a lot!

Jessica

[wenjonggal]

Rereading this, I am wondering if the $20 per hour is for the group, or per child? I find $20 per hour per child is expensive. When we found a private teacher for a group of 4 adoptive moms (adopting from china), she charged $20 per hour for 2 hours, ie $40 total, so it cost us $10 apiece, plus we had to buy a textbook and workbook.

We pay $20 for one on one with our at home teacher, just my son and I, for about 1.5 hours.

[Ethanmama]

Rereading this, I am wondering if the $20 per hour is for the group, or per child? I find $20 per hour per child is expensive. When we found a private teacher for a group of 4 adoptive moms (adopting from china), she charged $20 per hour for 2 hours, ie $40 total, so it cost us $10 apiece, plus we had to buy a textbook and workbook.

We pay $20 for one on one with our at home teacher, just my son and I, for about 1.5 hours.

Yes, it is $20/child/hour, that's why I hesitate so much. However, she is a really great teacher. She will make big poster for the songs and stories with ping ying so that the moms can follow. She gives us handout after each class, and a CD of all the songs we played in the session, however, she is also charging $20 material fee for every 12 classes. The other reason I think she is expensive because she repeats the same theme for 3 weeks and do mostly the same thing except one or two different activities. I understand kids learn from repetition, but repeating almost everything for 3 weeks also means less work and planning required on her part.

On the other hand, she is teaching at other community centers for $22/hour plus $30 material fee.

Currently we have 6 kids in the class, which is great, the class is always full of fun, the kids learn to take turn and learn through observing each other too. However, neither of them speak Mandarin so they still speak English when they play. I hope one day they will speak Mandarin to each other when they play, that would be cool.

wenjonggal, Karma to your post, it is really encouraging and make me believe a real teacher is better than DVD. In fact, I speak four languages and I learnt all of them at school, nothing from the DVD. I think DVD is a good supplement, but can't replace a real teacher.

Karma to everyone who replied to this thread, yes, if you can afford it, go for the real teacher.

[Ethanmama]

Hi,

I will like to get more informations from u on this home based private mandarin class. Maybe you could provide me wif  more informations at [email protected]

Thanks a lot!

Jessica

What kind of information do you want to know? I am happy to share, I live in Northern CA.

[wenjonggal]

Wow, that is really a lot of money. She is making $120+ per hour? That seems crazy. I guess you have to decide if you can afford it.

If not, I might just put an ad in a community paper, a college classified ad or just ask around.  Our "teacher" was found by accident: a repairman said his girlfriend was from Beijing, when he saw my Chinese son. She isn't a "teacher" but is more than adequate. I do something like give my child a bath, or we play with his train etc, or I cook, and she gives me phrases and sentences, and I write them down. She adds in characters. It is very informal, but very pertinent.

We sometimes listen to chinese music on cd, or dvd. Sometimes she helps me to read a chinese picture book. She is a great resource: she brought us homemade dumplings and gave me the recipe. She brought us chinese new year ornament and told us what all the traditional things to do for new years is: cut hair, new clothes, clean the house, food, red envelopes with $ for the kids, etc. Just think how much you can get just from a regular person who has lived the culture and language.

She also taught my son to count perfectly in Chinese in 15 minutes: she put his stuffed toy turtle on her head, and counted "yi! er! san!... and he had to repeat after her each number before she said the next one... and then at shi! (10), she jerked her head forward so the turtle fell off and he caught it, and laughingly screaming wanted it again and again. I heard him counting perfectly with tones to 10 that night in his bed (he is 3).

Just to say, you don't need a real teacher, or planned lessons, or organised class, or materials other than a pencil and paper and your everyday life. Plan to bake cookies one week, play with playdough the next week, and you could probably find someone, even a student (like the one who plays with my son in chinese for free), who could say what you are doing, what the dough colors are, etc, all in chinese. Believe me, the kids, and you, will remember so much in context, and not cost $120 each time!!

Good luck!

[Ethanmama]

wenjonggal , I totally agree with you, the teacher doesn't have to be a professional teacher to teach our kids. I am not a teacher and never received any teaching education, but I am teaching Cantonese to a group of 6 kids. I do that for free because I like to have other kids to learn together with my son. And be honest with you, I think my curriculum and activities we do in the playdate are as good as the Mandarin class, if not better. For example, the theme in our last playdate was about bugs, so we did a bug hunting (we put plastic bugs inside a tray, cover them with leaves, give the kids a bug box and ask them to "catch"  the bugs), a caterpillar turn into butterfly game (we make the kids crawl through a caterpillar tunnel and then ask them to pretend butterfly when they come out). All the parents are very involved, we discuss the curriculum together, assign tasks for each one, and most of the time we just use the toy we already have at home so it doesn't cost anything. I think I enjoy the Cantonese playdate more because I can be creative, do things that my son would enjoy, and I don't have to think whether I get my money worth or not.
Actually I speak Mandarin as well, but since I am already teaching my son Cantonese, I want a different person to teach him Mandarin. I heard one person can only speak to the child in one language otherwise the kid will be confused.
 

[wenjonggal]

Actually I speak Mandarin as well, but since I am already teaching my son Cantonese, I want a different person to teach him Mandarin. I heard one person can only speak to the child in one language otherwise the kid will be confused.
 

Ethanmama, your cantonese class sounds fantastic! What great ideas!

Maybe because Cantonese and Mandarin are so close you might worry about confusion. I am a single parent and I speak English, French and Mandarin to my son, and I don't think he is confused. Maybe I would like him MORE confused, as then he couldn't pick up a bilingual English Chinese book and say "no chinese mama, english" and point to the english words! He's so not confused he will stick to replying to me in English if I speak to him an hour in French ... and he understands perfectly well, which is why he gives all the right answers. At his daycare (we are in Montreal) it is only FRench. And I speak French with him on the street as it is the majority language. In fact I bet most parents who speak minority languages at home cannot only speak to their children in one language. When out in public, speaking the majority language, you speak the majority language with everyone, including your kid, usually. It would be really strange dynamic to be speaking French with another mom and child, and then every time I address my child, even if they were addressing him in French, for me to address him in English, as my one language. And i could never really reinforce his mandarin if I had to stick to English only.

You must reinforce your child's mandarin language learning outside the classes with the teacher, non?

My major reason for having a teacher,and students to interact with my child in mandarin is 1) so I can learn too, and 2) so he can have an immersion experience with a native speaker. The student who comes to play with him is quite bad in english and french, so he HAS to make an effort to communicate in mandarin.

Anyways, I worry more about quantity and frequency of language exposure vs confusing him.

[Ethanmama]

 [/quote]

Anyways, I worry more about quantity and frequency of language exposure vs confusing him.
[/quote]


wenjonggal, you certainly have a point. But I think both consistency and frequency are important for learning a second language.

At a very young age, kids don't understand which language is English and which is Mandarin, they can only associate that language with the person who they speak to. So some kids would automatically switch to different language when they speak to different person. Some parents try to teach the kids two languagues and they mix two languages in everything they say e.g. Apple Ping Guo.  In some cases, the kid think "Apple Ping Guo" is one word.   

So I believe ideally, each parent should stick to only one language when they speak to the child. I agree with you that it is sometime impossible especially when you are around other people, but I try to overcome that fear and still talk to my son in Cantonese as much as possible, even around friends. Luckily, most of my friends are from a multi-cultural family so we are very used to each other speaking a foreign language to the kid.

So back to the Mandarin class, I am hoping to use that teacher as a figure so that my son can associate Mandarin with her, and then when I practice Mandarin with him at home, I can say something like "remember what teacher said?" After only two classes, I think he already started to get an idea of what Mandarin is like and that is a different language he is going to learn.   

[wenjonggal]

Well, I suppose that having one language per parent is great if you are going for bilingual (and not trilingual like us) and have two parents (not one, like me). ;D

As for you speaking Cantonese in public, I think that is way more acceptable than me sticking to speaking English with my son in public in Quebec, where French is the majority language, but a minority language in general on the continent, politically, and socially (ie widespread English music, books, tv, movies etc)... we are fighting an uphill battle to get him to learn and speak French, so for me to allow him to default to English whenever I am present would be a huge nono. Learning languages is so complicated isn't it! So many factors to take into consideration.

As per the "apple ping guo" thing: one great suggestion for getting around the "using two spoken languages" is if you have done signing with your child. When my son came from China at 22 mos and didn't speak any language (just lots and lots of babytalk, which was indecipherable with lots of mah, meh, nah, neh), we used Babysigningtime and SigningTime. He still loves it. The wonderful thing is that I can SIGN "apple" and SAY "ping guo" and he totally gets the concept of what ping guo means. I used that a lot when he started to understand English, and we were beginning French. I could sign "shoes" and say "va chercher tes souliers" and he would go get his shoes. YAY!

A book I liked was "The Bilingual Edge" which gives various alternatives to One Person One Language. BTW, with one person one language, how does the child see back and forth conversation in a language, ie question + response? I guess because I don't and can't do it, I know less about it.

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