中文進度 Chinese proficiency progress

神鵰俠侶 (Return of the Condor Heroes)

人生 中文進度 Chinese proficiency progress

While waiting for our flight home after a fantastic vacation, I challenged 12 year old “Charlotte ” to read 金庸’s 神鵰俠侶 on the Kindle, the cartoon version of which she watched a few years ago.  (Otherwise, she can do math!  We have more than an hour to kill.)   However, the first chapter is slow, as it is just the opening, to introduce the character of 李莫愁.  In any case, besides a few questions every now and then, Charlotte seems to be able to read it.  There are some cultural background information that I do have to explain to her, such as why some people are referred to as “晚輩“, “前輩”, “賢弟”, “英雄“.  Of course, these terminologies are an integral part of the kung-fu literary world, and, along with other terminologies, expression, and customs, reflect aspects of the Chinese culture.

 

Here is the cartoon version for those interested:  神雕俠侶

Reading social studies textbook

人生 中文進度 Chinese proficiency progress

We had 9 year old “Georgia” do social studies reading on our trip.  Though it is only a third grade textbook, it is a tough reading for her since there are many new words that we don’t use in our daily conversation here.  This is the second time she worked on it.  The first time was only for about 10 minutes with with explanation of the reading included.  The second time was on New Year’s Eve for about 30 minutes, yes, while on vacation…  For me, it is more important to practice reading the passages well than  to “cover the materials” and go through the whole textbook, as we don’t have a specific curriculum and timeline for our instructions. 

  
https://youtu.be/-kuEJ0Crtgw

Reading to write (compose)

人生 中文進度 Chinese proficiency progress

It was truly a pleasant surprise, that 12 year old “Charlotte” can compose in Chinese relatively well (by typing) despite having NOT written any Chinese since around 9 years old, except for character practice mainly.  It had been my strategy that extensive reading of Chinese textbooks and novels would greatly help her with composition, but to see the process in action and the whole thing coming to fruition was just a joy.

One parent noted that the story that Charlotte had composed in the last couple of days reads like a translated novel.  Well, there is a good reason for that.  She read quite a few Chinese edition of American novels, including The Selection series, Ender’s Game, Twilight series, and Starters.  She also read aloud with the Chinese tutor a couple of the Chinese edition of Arsene Lupin’s novels, commonly known as 亞森羅蘋 in Taiwan.

I think reading aloud is quite helpful for language learners.  There are many excellent youth novels with zhuyin from Taiwan, such as 亞森羅蘋 series.  I don’t know if there are as many youth novels with simplified characters and pinyin from mainland China.  Books like these serve well as bridge readers and for read alouds.  Here is what亞森羅蘋’s novels look like:

 

In any case, I think it is time that she reads some more original Chinese novels.  She did read a couple of 倪匡‘s 衛斯理 series before.  One of my goal is for them to be able to read 金庸’s kung-fu novels proficiently.  I thought that it may still be a couple of years out.  But, out of curiosity, I showed her a copy of 金庸‘s 神雕俠侶, whose story she is familiar through watching the cartoon version.  She seems to get the gist of the story.  Maybe I will have her read it aloud with the tutor’s assistance.  Who knows, she may be ready for it!

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打字寫作： on typing and composition

人生 中文進度 Chinese proficiency progress ,

Happy holidays!  We took a few days of my DD’s Christmas break to do some Chinese lessons.  To get ready for next summer’s lessons on composition, I took the opportunity to “teach” “Charlotte”, my 12 year old, how to type pinyin (like I know how~), by giving her print-outs and links to YouTube videos on the topic.  After spending a couple of hours on it between yesterday and today, she typed the following needing only some corrections (wrong choice of character with the same sound):

“從前有一個小女孩名叫凱莉，她非常可愛。

她有頭烏黑的短髮，紅紅的雙頰，和又亮又大的綠眼睛。

她是一個很乖的小女孩，也是一個心地善良的孩子。

有一年冬天，凱莉的媽媽去世了，讓她和她爸爸很難過。

在她媽媽的葬禮，凱莉跟自己說，人要懂的放下。  她發誓，要成為一個堅強的人

轉眼間，十三年過去了。  凱莉二十歲了。

在那時候，十七到十九歲的少女都開始相親和結婚了，可是凱莉還沒。

她為了照顧她的爸爸，所以沒有去想那件事。

有一天，凱莉的爸爸問她，“凱莉，妳為什麼不去結婚？  我可以照顧我自己。”

凱莉翻了一下白眼，她對她爸爸說……..”

 

I am so proud of my DD!  This is the first time she writes anything in Chinese, as in compose rather than practicing characters, in ~ 4 years, as I had mostly concentrated on improving their reading proficiency previously.  I think this comes from all the Chinese readings she has done.  I was counting on her relatively high reading proficiency and breadth of reading to show her what Chinese writing should sound and read like.   I am much encouraged by Charlotte’s first piece of writing at this point.

Of course, “Georgia”, who is 9 and wants to do everything her elder sister does, is now very motivated to learn how to type Chinese with pinyin herself!

Addendum:  Here is what she typed the following day in about an hour:

凱莉翻了一下白眼，對她爸爸說，“您一個人在麵包店裡做不了多少，需要幫忙。”凱莉的爸爸想了一下，又說，“可是妳結婚後還是可以回來幫我啊。”  從凱莉的爸爸坐下來的位子，就能聽到在廚房的凱莉嘆氣。

“嫁人有那麽慘嗎？  又不是說沒人要娶妳。” 她爸爸好奇的問。

“您不是說不會逼我結婚嗎？  怎麼現在突然要我嫁人啊？” 凱莉不耐煩的回答。

“我只是問一問而已。” 她爸爸自言自語的說，然後搧一搧手裡的紙扇。

突然，有兩位客人走進麵包店。  凱莉快速的上前招待。  幾分鐘後，凱莉拿著一封信走回店舖後。  凱莉的爸爸問，“誰寄的信？“

”好像是從皇宮寄來的。“凱莉說。  她的爸爸馬上起身而從凱莉的手裡搶走信封。

相聲 & other videos

人生 Daily thoughts, 中文進度 Chinese proficiency progress ,

As part of our CLE (Chinese language ecosystem), my girls watch quite a few entertaining YouTube videos, many of which have cultural references, either historical or current.

The following is a stand-up routine from Taiwan back in the late 1980s, with references to historical and cultural events in Taiwan and mainland China from ~ 1940s to 1980s.  My girls and I watched this a couple of years ago and we are re-watching it tonight.  It’s really funny.  They should learn something different every time they watch it.

Along with explanation, educational programs such as China: A Century of Revolution, and movies such as 末代皇帝 The Last Emperor and 霸王別姬 Farewell To My Concubine, I hope to give my daughters some idea of the events of those era, some of which were intimately tied to how they came to this world in the first place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg1z94vFhDU

 

Below, I also list a few of the YouTube videos, movies, and TV series we had enjoyed over the past 5 years.  These really help them solidify their interest in the Chinese language.

Avalon of Idaho:

 

Jesus of Spain:

 

老外看中國

 

The PG version of You Are The Apple of My Eye (那些年，我們一起追的女孩).  The link below is a PG-13 version instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fr3PaVfGyE

 

Secret (不能說的秘密）

 

重返二十

致我们终将逝去的青春

神雕俠侶 cartoon!   The first kungfu cartoon series they watched about 5 years ago.  This is the first time I find it on YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfswlvel0jA&index=1&list=PLqWGmaeHf-YbZeSkriOdcD7KyrzrRCCxx

 

倚天屠龍記

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48L_XRhT3uI&index=2&list=PL09gVkrKeoLzr1rU_YIjXynXUXI8HbVA5

 

笑傲江湖  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXSsbt_7oCA&list=PLe0TwPhOCGNU2aNvEHfz6uaA9cZos23bq

 

Of course, I try not to miss out on American culture as well.  Here is one excellent series of the Civil War era featuring Patrick Swayze: North and South.  It gets agonizing to watch toward the end since more and more misery pile on.  My wife and I could not finish watching it a decade ago and neither can my elder daughter and I a year to two ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BYXvFFqpZs&list=PL94CA20FF92877D34

 

Narnia

人生 中文進度 Chinese proficiency progress

“Georgia” finished reading “Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe” today.  The Chinese edition consists of 17 chapters, totaling 193 pages with scattered drawings.  She spent ~15 minutes a day reading 2 chapters for most days of this past 9 days.  I have to say that she prefers reading just one chapter a day; but I asked that she reads two chapters a day.    One day, I did ask her to read three chapters but in two blocks;  that was too much for her really.

In any case, she gets the gist of the story but some of the details she missed.  For example, I asked her what happened between the witch and Aslan toward the end and she did not know that Aslan was killed but then was resurrected.  But then again, that may be asking a little too much of a 9 year old just starting to read such novels in Chinese.  I am sure that as her Chinese improves and she gets more mature over time, such details will become more evident.

In any case, she is now watching the movie version now, in English.  Gosh, I thought I bought the Chinese edition dubbed with Mandarin.  It turned out to be dubbed in Cantonese!  That won’t work for us.  Hence, they are watching it in English now.  She did watch this movie several years ago but she does not recall any of it since she was so young then.

 

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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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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