“It’s very gratifying to see how Chopstix’s growth has introduced so many young children to the fun of learning Mandarin Chinese,” noted CLSC Board member and president, New Canaan resident Susan Serven.
Riverside, CT, June 1, 2009 – The Chinese Language School of Connecticut (www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org), the fully-accredited, non-profit Riverside, CT-based provider of Chinese language programs to students, schools and corporations, is pleased to announce the tenth anniversary of their Chopstix preschool Mandarin Chinese program.
“It’s wonderful to see so many of our youngest students learning Chinese,” said CLSC president, Susan Serven. “Our principal, Daisy Chen Laone, and teachers, are all so creative and energetic, they make learning so much fun for the children, as well as the parents,” she continued.
Chopstix started as a small, volunteer-run class, organized by Serven in 1999, when her older daughter, Emily, who was adopted from Yunnan Province, China, in 1996, was 3.
Serven explained, “When Emily (now 13) was 2, she started asking me how to say certain words in Mandarin Chinese (‘Mommy, how do you say 'dog' in Chinese? How do you say 'flower' in Chinese?’).
I had to admit that, mainly, I didn't know. I enlisted a friend of mine, Susan Lem, who was able to teach Emily a few things, but since she had moved from Taiwan when she was very young, she didn't remember most of the Chinese she had learned as a child. Soon, even she started commenting that she would like her daughter (also 2, and adopted from Anhwei Province) to learn Chinese.
It occurred to me one day that I could set up a small Chinese program for preschoolers and charge a nominal fee. Emily and her friends could learn a few words, phrases, songs and games in Chinese, and I could donate the proceeds to groups that worked with children in Chinese orphanages.”
(Serven estimates that about $10,000 was donated over 4 years to various non-profit groups such as Families with Children from China, and Half the Sky Foundation.)
“Around the same time I met Dr. Joseph Ho and his wife, Catherine, of Stamford, CT. Catherine was a warm, wonderful Chinese teacher, who graciously volunteered to teach, so Chopstix was born.
We thought we would have five or six children, initially; but our first day 38 showed up! We started out at the New Canaan Library, moved to New Canaan’s First Presbyterian Church and, later, to St. Michael’s Church, also in New Canaan.”
Serven explained that she continued to run Chopstix for her younger daughter, Rebecca (now 9) and her friends, until 2003, when Chopstix was rolled into the newly-formed Chinese Language School of Connecticut. The program has grown each year from its inception; Chopstix now has approximately 80 children enrolled in CLSC’s Sunday and Weekday classes.
Regarding her children’s experience with the Chopstix program, CLSC parent, Stamford resident Samantha Connell, noted, "It has been well-established that early exposure to language can make all the difference in fluency. However, like most 3-year-olds, my son is not very cooperative, doesn't like to sit still, and has a very short attention span.
I was very concerned that we would struggle through his Chinese classes this year. I have been so pleasantly surprised with how much he has learned. Huang Lao Shi (Vivi) has done an absolutely incredible job--coming up with fun and interesting ways to engage the children in their lessons for every class.
It is clear that she spends a significant amount of time preparing for the classes and coming up with playful lessons and manipulatives for the children. Some examples are: using Mr. Potato Head to learn facial features, bringing in a huge bag of stuffed animals to learn animals, using individual number characters written on post-its for the children to put onto a picture of a train, blowing up different color balloons to learn colors (and shooting them off!), and awarding stickers and happy faces for good behavior.
Her patience and enthusiasm really keeps the children focused. My son has had a great year and has learned more Chinese than I expected. Most importantly, he enjoys his Chinese school experience."
From Greenwich parent, Henriette Hoang Rieffel, “Our younger son is in Chopstix II and looks forward to every session because he enjoys playing the games. The teachers do an incredible job in designing the class so that learning is reinforced by games after each short session. Parental presence in the class is excellent for both parent and child, helping parents learn the words in order to assist the children at home and making the younger kids feel more secure.
Over all, we are very impressed with the rich yet low pressure atmosphere in the class. Learning is fun for all of us."
From Greenwich parents, Helen and Daniel Zou, "We started our daughter, Amelie, in Chopstix 3 years ago, when she was 5. We were looking for a fun but meaningful way to introduce her to the Chinese language and culture. Amelie has shown great motivation to attend class at CLSC every week, so we've continued the program with the purpose of deepening not only her linguistic skills, but also her cultural understanding."
From Darien parent, Lin Shaw, The Chopstix teachers make learning Chinese fun for the children by incorporating music, story-telling, arts & crafts."
From Wilton parent, Dana Lupton, “Both Quinn and I have grown tremendously from our experience with the Chinese Language School of Connecticut. It has served as a source of bonding and an outlet for her to stay in touch with her Chinese roots. We began with Chopstix and she is now thriving in Level I. I am profoundly grateful for the experience it has provided both of us.....but most important and notable is the pride she takes in participating. I can’t say enough about the program, its founders and administrators if I tried."
From Bronxville parent, Daisy Wang, "I like the fact that the instructors in the Chopstix program are always well prepared for class. The curriculum is designed in a way that makes the learning process lively and encourages students to focus on the class, which is not an easy task for the toddler age program. Each student participates. I think these qualities explain the increased interest my son is taking in learning Mandarin Chinese in the Choptix program."
For information on Summer or Fall 2009 Chopstix preschool Chinese classes for children ages 18 months to 5 years old, or the Chinese Language School of Connecticut’s summer programs, weekend or weekday language programs for children or adults, Before– and After- School programs, special workshops, private tutoring or corporate language programs, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or email them at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org.
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Showing posts with label summer chinese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer chinese. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Great article for those new to Chinese
Thanks to Wendy Lin for a wonderful article. I thought the clear explanations on how Chinese differs from English, especially in sentence structure, was great.
For more info on learning Chinese, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org.
Make Chinese Learning Fun, Easy, and Sustainable
by Wendy Lin
The Chinese language is like any other foreign language. It has an easy and a complex part. Chinese people have said, “Knowing yourself and your opponents well before the battle is the key to win.”
How Chinese is easier than other languages
1. Verbs do not have different tenses: e.g. Chinese people would say “I go to China last year.”, “I go to China next year.”
2. Nouns are neither singular nor plural: e.g. “one book”, “ten book” are both correct.
3. Genders do not exist orally as they would in English, French, or any other western language.
4. Characters remain unchanged. Because of this, one character could cover several English words. For example, the Chinese Zodiac only has one character to represent each of the twelve animals, but in English, there are several different translations for one animal. Therefore you might have seen several editions for the Chinese Zodiac signs.
5. Numbers, months, dates, and weekdays are easy to learn: You only need to learn the numbers from 1 through 10, and you will be able to count from 1 through 99, since the numbers between 11 and 99 are a combination of numbers 1 through 10. In addition, you only add an additional character “month” plus the numbers 1 to 12, and you will be able to name all 12 months of a year. It is the same for dates and weekdays; add the character “day” or “weekday” followed by a number.
6. The structure of questions and statements is the same but the question word is used:
a. The use of question word “嗎／ 吗 Ma”:
The question word “Ma” is used when the response “yes or no” is expected, and it is placed at the end of a statement. When it does, it will convert a statement into a question.
e.g. 今 天 是 五 月 十 日 今 天 是 五 月 十 日嗎
b. The use of question word “幾／ 几 ji”:
幾／ 几 is a question word for numbers. When it replaces all the numbers in a question, it converts the statement into a question.
e.g. 今 天 是 五 月 十 日 今 天 是 幾 月 幾 日？
c. By applying the formula, “Positive Word + Negative Word = Question Word”, students can flexibly conduct a dialogue. This avoids the learners having to deal with the complicated structure and makes the learning more flexible.
e.g. 是 不 是 ， 好 不 好 ， 有 沒 有 ， 大 不 大 ， 高 不 高 …
Chinese is not phonetic, as are all romance languages. The whole process of learning a new word takes about triple the effort as learning English. In order to make Chinese learning less frustrating and easy to adopt, all the listening, speaking, reading, and writing should be introduced step by step. It makes the learning objectives clearer as well.
The character, the basic unit of the Chinese language, is so much more different from the words of romance languages that make many people think that Chinese is very difficult to learn. In order to build up a good foundation and prevent repeated mistakes in writing characters, the stroke order should be carefully introduced. Moreover many characters share the same components. Once students are familiar with the strokes, it will help them write a new character that contains the same components without help. Counting the number of strokes will also help students to look up a character in a dictionary. Conventionally, the Chinese dictionary arranges the characters by the number of strokes in the character.
To prevent frustration and make the learning easier and more acceptable, the difficult parts especially should not be applied onto the beginners, instead teachers should emphasize on the easy aspects in the language.
The difficult aspects of learning Chinese other than writing characters:
Sentence structure is another challenge to a non-Chinese speaker. There might be several ways to express one situation, for example, “I have learned Chinese for two years” is the same as “I Chinese have learned for two years”, and “Chinese I have learned for two years”. Or, “What is your name?” in English could be “Your name is called what?” or “ You are called what name?”. In some cases, some words can be omitted and the meaning remains the same.
Measure words are another obstacle even to native speakers. For native speakers, measure words were introduced to children at a young age. Since sentence structure is not a major problem to them as it is to the second language learners, they are able to concentrate on distinguishing the different usages of different measure words. However, it is quite confusing to non-Chinese speaking learners.
Wendy Lin/Author of the book series "Practical Chinese" and the "Daily Chinese"
www.practicalchinese.com
practicalchinese@gmail.com
For more info on learning Chinese, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org.
Make Chinese Learning Fun, Easy, and Sustainable
by Wendy Lin
The Chinese language is like any other foreign language. It has an easy and a complex part. Chinese people have said, “Knowing yourself and your opponents well before the battle is the key to win.”
How Chinese is easier than other languages
1. Verbs do not have different tenses: e.g. Chinese people would say “I go to China last year.”, “I go to China next year.”
2. Nouns are neither singular nor plural: e.g. “one book”, “ten book” are both correct.
3. Genders do not exist orally as they would in English, French, or any other western language.
4. Characters remain unchanged. Because of this, one character could cover several English words. For example, the Chinese Zodiac only has one character to represent each of the twelve animals, but in English, there are several different translations for one animal. Therefore you might have seen several editions for the Chinese Zodiac signs.
5. Numbers, months, dates, and weekdays are easy to learn: You only need to learn the numbers from 1 through 10, and you will be able to count from 1 through 99, since the numbers between 11 and 99 are a combination of numbers 1 through 10. In addition, you only add an additional character “month” plus the numbers 1 to 12, and you will be able to name all 12 months of a year. It is the same for dates and weekdays; add the character “day” or “weekday” followed by a number.
6. The structure of questions and statements is the same but the question word is used:
a. The use of question word “嗎／ 吗 Ma”:
The question word “Ma” is used when the response “yes or no” is expected, and it is placed at the end of a statement. When it does, it will convert a statement into a question.
e.g. 今 天 是 五 月 十 日 今 天 是 五 月 十 日嗎
b. The use of question word “幾／ 几 ji”:
幾／ 几 is a question word for numbers. When it replaces all the numbers in a question, it converts the statement into a question.
e.g. 今 天 是 五 月 十 日 今 天 是 幾 月 幾 日？
c. By applying the formula, “Positive Word + Negative Word = Question Word”, students can flexibly conduct a dialogue. This avoids the learners having to deal with the complicated structure and makes the learning more flexible.
e.g. 是 不 是 ， 好 不 好 ， 有 沒 有 ， 大 不 大 ， 高 不 高 …
Chinese is not phonetic, as are all romance languages. The whole process of learning a new word takes about triple the effort as learning English. In order to make Chinese learning less frustrating and easy to adopt, all the listening, speaking, reading, and writing should be introduced step by step. It makes the learning objectives clearer as well.
The character, the basic unit of the Chinese language, is so much more different from the words of romance languages that make many people think that Chinese is very difficult to learn. In order to build up a good foundation and prevent repeated mistakes in writing characters, the stroke order should be carefully introduced. Moreover many characters share the same components. Once students are familiar with the strokes, it will help them write a new character that contains the same components without help. Counting the number of strokes will also help students to look up a character in a dictionary. Conventionally, the Chinese dictionary arranges the characters by the number of strokes in the character.
To prevent frustration and make the learning easier and more acceptable, the difficult parts especially should not be applied onto the beginners, instead teachers should emphasize on the easy aspects in the language.
The difficult aspects of learning Chinese other than writing characters:
Sentence structure is another challenge to a non-Chinese speaker. There might be several ways to express one situation, for example, “I have learned Chinese for two years” is the same as “I Chinese have learned for two years”, and “Chinese I have learned for two years”. Or, “What is your name?” in English could be “Your name is called what?” or “ You are called what name?”. In some cases, some words can be omitted and the meaning remains the same.
Measure words are another obstacle even to native speakers. For native speakers, measure words were introduced to children at a young age. Since sentence structure is not a major problem to them as it is to the second language learners, they are able to concentrate on distinguishing the different usages of different measure words. However, it is quite confusing to non-Chinese speaking learners.
Wendy Lin/Author of the book series "Practical Chinese" and the "Daily Chinese"
www.practicalchinese.com
practicalchinese@gmail.com
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Chopstix Preschool Mandarin Chinese Class
How young is too young to begin learning Chinese?
Do your children ever express interest in learning Chinese, or hearing more about Chinese culture? (maybe after watching "Nihao Kailan"??)
When my older daughter (now 13) was 2, she started asking me how to say certain words in Mandarin Chinese ("Mommy, how do you say 'dog' in Chinese? How do you say 'flower' in Chinese?).
I had to admit that, mainly, I didn't know. I enlisted a friend of mine, Susan Lem, who taught Emily a few things, but since she had moved from Taiwan when she was very young, and because she hadn't paid attention in Chinese school, she didn't remember a lot.
So, even she started saying how her daughter (also 2) should be learning Chinese.
It occured to me one day, that if I set up a small Chinese program for preschoolers, I could charge a small fee, Emily and her friends could learn a few words, and I could donate the proceeds to groups that worked with children in Chinese orphanages (synergy!)
Serendipitiously, I met Dr. Joseph Ho and his wife, Catherine, of Stamford, CT. Catherine graciously volunteered to teach, and Chopstix was born.
For information on Chopstix preschool Chinese classes for children ages 18 months to 5 years old, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or email us at info@chineselanguageschool.org
Do your children ever express interest in learning Chinese, or hearing more about Chinese culture? (maybe after watching "Nihao Kailan"??)
When my older daughter (now 13) was 2, she started asking me how to say certain words in Mandarin Chinese ("Mommy, how do you say 'dog' in Chinese? How do you say 'flower' in Chinese?).
I had to admit that, mainly, I didn't know. I enlisted a friend of mine, Susan Lem, who taught Emily a few things, but since she had moved from Taiwan when she was very young, and because she hadn't paid attention in Chinese school, she didn't remember a lot.
So, even she started saying how her daughter (also 2) should be learning Chinese.
It occured to me one day, that if I set up a small Chinese program for preschoolers, I could charge a small fee, Emily and her friends could learn a few words, and I could donate the proceeds to groups that worked with children in Chinese orphanages (synergy!)
Serendipitiously, I met Dr. Joseph Ho and his wife, Catherine, of Stamford, CT. Catherine graciously volunteered to teach, and Chopstix was born.
For information on Chopstix preschool Chinese classes for children ages 18 months to 5 years old, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or email us at info@chineselanguageschool.org
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