Year: 2015

Writing

人生 中文進度 Chinese proficiency progress ,

Since the girls have both achieved basic reading proficiency for their age ( ILR level 3, I would say), I am adding additional writing practice.  They had memorize a few Chinese poems before; so I printed out writing worksheet of one whole poem with the stroke sequence included.  I handed them the worksheet and told them that I will “test” their writing of the poem from memorization in one week.  Their continuing enjoyment of certain privilege will depend on how well they do.  They are responsible themselves on how much practice they need to achieve that.  In a few days, 9 year old “Georgia” has got it.

因閱讀已經達到基本程度，可以開始多寫一點。以下是小女兒練習背寫的「回鄉偶書」。我印出自做，整首詩有筆順的單字練習紙，交給女兒們，跟他們說，ㄧ個禮拜後考背寫，練習多少自己要負責，不會的話……就不xxxxxx.  她們以前都背過這首詩，小女兒幾天就會寫了。

 

 

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Not to be outdone, 12 year old “Charlotte” practiced and wrote the following the next day:

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人生 Daily thoughts, Q&A

Q: 你女兒的中文程度這麼好，那他們的英文程度呢？他們的中英文閱讀時間你是怎麼安排呢？謝謝

A: 大女兒ㄧ開始以中文為重，目標為七八歲前中文比英文強，才能流利都跟妹妹說中文。三年級後半開始加強英文（那時英文蠻爛的），花～三年時間把英文拉回同儕母語級，現在很喜歡看英文小說和寫作。

因有姊姊的中文教材及幫助，妹妹比姊姊同年紀時有較完整的中文環境。除中文寫作以外，小女兒中英文同等發展，中間差距較少。小女兒天賦不錯，跳一年念，英文閱讀寫作該跟同年紀學生差不多，但比大她一歲也資優的同年級同學還差，但該會每年縮小差距。

女兒們吃早晚餐都會自己拿中文漫畫，小說來看，因文字不是障礙。我也會每星期撥些時間（～兩三個小時）給她們看中文故事書或小說。

在美國要小孩中英文都要夠強，兩個都需要補。不是說就是要去上補習班，而是需要有心及有學問人士來帶小孩克服些難關。可在7-8歲前以中文為重點，之後再補英文。在家，女兒們的中英文由我負責，除指導以外，也替她們找中文家教（畢竟我只念到小五）。

依我的觀察，大學後才移民到美國的家長的英文會比較吃虧，因此他們可能比較不敢讓小孩慢點學好英文，所以小孩的中文學習可能會受影響，除非家長本身是在高中小學校就職，比較清楚美國的教育系統及教學。而本來是小留學生的父母（十二歲左右來的），因中英文都不錯，而且自己走過在美國學英文的路，比較不會擔心小孩英文不會學好，也比較能在適當的時間補小孩的英文，所以可能比較敢放手讓小孩小時候多多學中文。

 

Ｑ：請問你以前女兒小的時候,有要求她們寫字嗎? 還是一開始就花時間在認字閱讀呢？謝謝

Ａ：基本寫字筆順從小都有訓練，課文單字也都有練習，現在要以背寫唐詩為主。大女兒明年暑假要以打字練習作文。

對在家有聽中文的華裔學生而言，我認為ㄧ開始同時注重中文閱讀及書寫是欠佳的。在三四年級時，能以閱讀中文漫畫或較有意思的故事書為娛樂是最重要的ㄧ節，不然就幾乎全被英文文學及多媒體拉了過去，大幅度的減低了對小孩而言學中文的實質意義(no relevancy)及興趣。因小孩事情也多，時間有限，我建議首先以認字閱讀及朗讀為主。到小說會念時，再來加強寫作（打的就可以了）。當閱讀朗讀多了，寫作自然會較好。可惜，在正規體系內為主的學習，都注重以寫功課或筆考來衡量成績及進度，影響大局。

Major Milestone REACHED!

人生 中文進度 Chinese proficiency progress ,

今天是重大的一天！ 9歲7個月大的小女兒，以ㄧ分鐘～400-500個字的速度，讀“納尼亞傳奇：獅子，女巫，和衣櫥”無注音中文版的前兩章，比姊姊早ㄧ年多達到我自認為“中級”水準的閱讀程度。
有些中文教學專家建議不要依賴注音/拼音，我建議：”有更好的辦法！也就是老方法。注音/拼音是對以母語方式學中文的學生非常有幫助。 要閱讀流利，只要閱讀，閱讀，再多讀一些！”

該帶女兒們好好去Busch Gardens玩ㄧ趟了（小女兒的願望）！


Today is a momentous day!  “Georgia”, who is about 9 years and 7 months old, read the first two chapters of the Chinese edition of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe”, without zhuyin.  She read it at a pace of ~ 400-500 characters a minute, which is half her pace of reading books with zhuyin.  She achieved this reading proficiency level (“intermediate” level to me) a little over one years of age ahead of her elder sister, who reached this level almost two years ago.

There are Chinese guru who advice against relying on phonetics, I suggest: ” There is a better way!  It happens to be the SAME OLD WAY Chinese are taught and learned in mainland China or Taiwan.  Phonetics are just fine and can be extremely helpful to students learning Chinese the first-language way.  One just needs to read, read, and read some more!”

The girls are due a trip to Busch Gardens (Georgia’s request)!

 

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Magic Tree House #40

人生 中文進度 Chinese proficiency progress

Yeah, “Georgia” has gone through the 4th book (#40) in the fourth box of the Magic Tree House series, with a dozen book to each box.  I estimate that the number of characters in the fourth box (book #37-48) is about twice that of the books from the first box.  She finished reading book #40 within the 15-20 minutes that I previously predicted, or 18 minutes to be exact.   By my rough estimation after counting the number of characters on a couple of typical pages, that would be about 1,000 characters a minute.  If not for the fact that she scores 98% in her reading comprehension exercises consistently despite doing it fast, I would have said that she was faking it.  Though there are online English quizzes for these books, that may put undue stress on her.  The point is to encourage reading at this point, not to discourage them.  That’s what the reading comprehension exercises are for and she’s got that down pat.

I think she really can read short novels without zhuyin these days just fine.  Yesterday, she started studying the the first chapter of third-grade second-semester textbook from Taiwan.  After looking over the text once, she read it aloud decently well (say, 70%).  She simply may not have the patience to read novels yet.  I may need to remind her that her next trip to Orlando rests on reaching this next target, LOL.

 


  

Tiger cub of Amy Chua

人生 Daily thoughts ,

I am sure you know who Amy Chua is, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother from a few years back. She hired Chinese nannies when her daughters were young.  My understanding is that Amy agreed to raise their children Jewish (her husband’s religion) but they had to learn Chinese.  Sophia, the elder daughter, just graduated from Harvard and should be attending law school at Yale, where her parents teach.  You can listen to Sophia’s Chinese in this video.  Though Sophia had a script and likely practiced her part beforehand, Amy did a good job, considering their circumstance.  It took me sometime to find this video back then.

Click on 7:20 and 16:00 mark for Sophia’s part.

 Interview of tiger mom and cub

Subject vocabulary

人生 Subject languages ,

This is my list of what I am going over with my daughters while driving them to the bus stop.  A few simple terms are all that’s needed for daily conversation and reading.

  • Week of 10/5:  頭，眼睛，耳朵，臉頰，下巴，鼻子，眉毛，睫毛，脖子，背部，脊椎，手臂，手，手腕，肚子，腿，膝蓋，腳，腳趾，手指，胃，心臟，肺，肝臟，腎臟，胰臟
  • Week of 10/12: Cells. Cell, cell wall, cell membrane, nucleus, chloroplast, photosynthesis, carbon dioxide, oxygen, carbohydrates. 細胞，細胞壁，細胞膜，細胞核，葉綠體，光合作用，二氧化碳, 氧， 碳水化合物.
  • Week of 10/19: 氣體 (gas), 固體 (Solid). 液體(Liquid), 凝結 (Condensation), 凝華(Deposition), 昇華 (Sublimation), 沸騰 (Boiling), 融化 (Melting), 凝固 (Freezing)
  • Week of 10/26: 行星(planet)，恆星(star)，星座(constellation)，隕石(meteorite)，流星(meteor)，彗星(comet). 
  • Week of 11/2: president 總統, vice president 副總統, governor 州長, prime minister 總理, mayor市長
  • Week of 11/9: doctor 醫師, lawyer 律師，judge 法官，engineer 工程師，dentist 牙醫，veterinarian 獸醫，optometrist 驗光師，diplomat 外交官，professor 教授，reporter 記者，secretary 秘書，accountant 會計師
  • Week of 11/16: 英國 United Kingdom，西班牙 Spain，法國France，德國Germany，意大利Italy，希臘Greece，波蘭Poland，丹麥Denmark，俄羅斯Russia，埃及Egyt，日本Japan，韓國Korea，越南Vietnam，菲律賓Philippine，泰國Thailand，柬埔寨Cambodia，印尼 Indonesia，印度India，墨西哥Mexico，加拿大Canada

我的少女時代

人生 Daily thoughts, Favorite movies & videos, Uncategorized

“免費”電影線上看-我的少女時代…… totally not saying anything about the legitimacy and quality of the video. But you will love it! My girls surely did.  Another hit for our CLE (Chinese Language Ecosystem)!  Sorry, boys may not be interested in this.

Go toward the bottom of the post where it says:
點我立即線上看電影
大結局→點我立即看免費線上電影結局

http://designbyjun.blogspot.com/2015/09/blog-post.html