Xiao Zhao - Teaching Americans Mandarin

Teaching Americans Mandarin

Thursday, 15. January 2009, 00:08:56

Gosh!! It is really hard to teach Mandarin in English. I tried my first time last Sunday morning and felt like a big loser. The three girls were so bored, which made me realize that I am not a very charming person and don't have enough fun techniques to tutor young English speakers to speak Mandarin. Of course, I am not going to charge people for my experiments. I really appreciate my friend let me try out on her daughters.

Before the tutoring lesson, I checked out two DVDs-Follow Jade: Let's go to Market in China and Follow Jade: Let's visit Chinese Kindergarten from the Oakland Asian Library. I should simply follow Jade's lesson design. For some reason, I insisted to do my own thing and designed very dry material. This afternoon, I went to the library to find more Mandarin learning DVDs for kids. Although there are not many choices, I found "Play & Learn Chinese with Mei Mei" and "Chinese for kids(Volume 1)-The fun and Easy Way to Learn Chinese". Honestly, these two DVDs are not very good. The lessons either are too corny or boring. Follow Jade series, on the other hand, are really interesting with right paces. The teacher, Jade Qian was born in Shanghai and immigrated to Boston after getting her BA in US. I don't know how she dropped her accent; she speaks English just like any American born native English speaker. Watching her teaching materials really helps me to shape my own lesson plan. Her charm cannot be learned from, but I can maybe copy her techniques. Her teaching style is so adorable.

I hope I will get better tutoring Mandarin this Sunday.

SeniorsTrying to be a preschool teacher

Comments

childbook # 7. May 2009, 07:13

Jade Qian does a great job in Follow Jade, Let's Visit Chinese Kindergarten of teaching non-native speakers Chinese. She has a lot of experience doing that in Boston with her own special classes that have many kids adopted from China into non-Chinese speaking families.

The parents who have bought Follow Jade from me loves her teaching methodology and the 16 product reviews I have so far have been very positive.

For teaching Chinese to non-native speakers, Learning Chinese DVD's are a great introduction, but soon the work turns serious and I have found a textbook helps for structure. There are a lot of Chinese teachers who just create their own materials.

When I was doing my student teaching and subbing, I learned a huge amount by watching good experienced teachers. And there is no law against copying their techniques! The trick is finding the right techniques that work for you as well as your students. And students do vary, where what may work for one, won't for another. And then there is the challenge of how do you keep a subject fresh when your teaching it. Especially if you have taught the same subject many times.

At least with Chinese there is so much culturally, such as the Dragon Boat Festival on May 28th this year, that goes beyond just learning the Chinese Language.

Joymeng # 4. June 2009, 04:21

Originally posted by childbook:

For teaching Chinese to non-native speakers, Learning Chinese DVD's are a great introduction, but soon the work turns serious and I have found a textbook helps for structure. There are a lot of Chinese teachers who just create their own materials.

Thank you for spending time to share your experience of teaching. I really enjoy tutoring Mandarin to English speakers although I am just a beginner. The most amazing part is that I get to learn more English than what I teach in Mandarin.