Foreign Language Children Books
Learn Foreign Languages with Rosetta Stone Software
Rosetta Stone language software is designed as one of the best language learning software in the market place. It is truly a great product, especially for those who have had formal foreign language education. It can help you go from knowing the rules to speaking fluently. However, for those people who know nothing of a foreign language, it is a poor choice to start out using by itself. There should be different focus for different language levels of student to use RS. It is necessary for learner to buy an extra work book to use in conjunction with this program if you have no knowledge of the foreign language that you are studying. RS has itself several version and different levels. You should choose the right one according to your language level.
For beginners, start out with a beginning grammar book and do it along with Rosetta Stone level 1 with which you’d better to repeat each word, each phrases and each sentence after the native speaker. This is a must for the imprinting process. Click on the right answer and score 100 points is totally not enough. It is much more important to repeat, repeat, and repeat. RS does work because by the time you finish level I, you would have repeated each noun, adjective, and verbs at least 60 times. While if you took a college class – you cram before each test – then pass with an A, yet know nothing of pronunciation and the words will disappear quickly from your mind if you don’t and text in near short time.
Beginners must do level I at least twice, or to do repeated written drills in grammar workbooks to be FULLY familiar with the infinitive form of the verbs. Only once you can recognize a verb by its native form, can you advance to level II. Level II will introduce you to the past tense, and a few command forms. Without knowing the original stem of the verb – getting into the past and subjunctive of level II and III will totally mess you up. Scoring 100% doesn’t mean squat in your learning process with Rosetta Stone software.
There should be advantages from Rosetta Stone language, as we should pay high price for it. Also, most of people who used it before gave good comments on it. However, the weakness exist. The disadvantag of RS is that the homeschool version has very little excercises and drills. That means, you still have to supplement your children’s class with another language source. Even if you printed up the worksheets and test, I think it is inadequate to teach conjugation or the irregular verbs well. Once you have mastered Fluenz, you can switch to RS or a fun program. If you have a choice between buying RS personal edition vs. RS homeschool edition, the homeschool edition gives you more bang for your bucks. You can chose to print up the included worksheets, tests, and quizzes from the extra material enclosed. The set is identical, except the installation disc is different. Once installed, the homeschool edition works just like the personal edition, except it tracks your progress.
About the Author
Annie.L is a professtional speaker and writter, almostly for language and learning skills.
Her hobbies are music, dancing, MC-fly and travelling.
Find her at osettastoneoutlet@hotmail.com, or Discount Rosetta Stone
Filed under Uncategorized by on Aug 26th, 2011. Comment. 
Child In Chinese
Learning Chinese for Young Children Including Preschoolers and Toddlers
Native Speakers for Teaching Chinese
On method for those households that don’t have a native speaker is hiring of a nanny who speaks Chinese. The NY Times had an article noting the increase in au pairs from China. It is also possible to arrange play dates with other children who are learning Chinese as well as finding a Chinese speaking babysitter. Local universities will often have spouses of Chinese working on Masters and PhD’s who are looking for extra income. Another option is finding a local nanny, and there are a number around. If you are in public service, please remember Zoe Baird on the requirements for legally hiring a nanny. Truth to be told, there is a large population of people in the US from China who don’t have papers who work as nannies, so be careful. Nannies are also taking care of your children, so picking the right person is extremely important, especially if they live with you. Friends of ours have gone through multiple nannies and it was not a good experience.
Online Programs for Teaching Chinese
There are also programs to expose Children to Chinese at a young age. I am not aware of any that are online for English speakers at this time. There are online programs for adults learning Chinese as well as native speakers.
Private Chinese Schools
Traditionally non-public Chinese Schools in the US start teaching children when they are old to sit still and copy characters. Most schools are still using traditional teaching rote teaching methods still used in Taiwan and China. For the most part with children in the US, it does not work due to culture classes. There is a huge amount of independence in children in the US and using boring teaching methods that do not capture the interest of the child so they want to go to school without a lot of parental pushing will end up in failure. With the child being forced to go to school and often treating it as just babysitting, and not learning Chinese.
An alternative is finding a school that uses more of a Montessori Method or what is used in ESL where there is a lot of conversation. I was pleasantly surprised by my daughter’s public school language teacher who spoke of using this method in the classroom, instead of the traditional focus on grammar in learning many foreign languages. At a young age, I would suggest programs that teach using a lot of singing and other fun activities.
Summer Camps
Going to a summer camp in a full immersion environment is a great way to learn Chinese! Each year ChildBook publishes the largest list I have found of Summer Chinese Programs. These range from weekend programs in the US to programs that include a boarding school to programs in China and Taiwan. I favor the full immersion process as a great way to Learn Chinese.
Chinese Learning Products
CD’s for Learning Chinese
CD’s come in two different types. One is products that are 100% Chinese of Chinese Children Songs or stories only in Chinese. Some products include a book of lyrics in Chinese, and other’s don’t. Other products are designed to teach Chinese and have a booklet with lyrics in English, Pinyin, and Chinese Characters. The teaching Chinese products are both from from the US (the majority) and a series from Singapore. The products for Teaching Chinese are bilingual, so the songs are sung in both Chinese and English. What I like about the CD’s is they give a parent a chance to be part of the process where they can Sing Happy Birthday in the Teach Me Chinese CD and Book in both English and Chinese (this series focuses on popular songs in Chinese and English). The other series have specially written songs for Teaching Chinese. The Teach Me Chinese Series has Teacher Guides available. The Sing & Learn Chinese CD & Book includes a track of the songs without words (like Karoke). Let’s Sing Chinese is a 3 product series from Singapore that has both familiar songs and new ones. 3 is the most I have seen of any series of Cd’s for Teaching Chinese to Children.
Video’s for Learning Chinese
Video’s such as from Mei Mei use more of a hands on approach teaching basic Chinese vocabulary and she currently has five video’s in her series. From the first one that teaches counting and parts of the body with songs through an approach that children love to later ones that progress such as her Play and Learn Chinese with Mei Mei where an actual Chinese Kindergarten is visited. What is great about this video is it gives your Child the chance to compare their experience and see the differences between their school and the one in the video. From lunch to PE to naps. To select the right video for your child, I recommend reading the reviews (both good and bad).
Books for Learning Chinese
A great book for those just beginning to Learn Chinese is I Won’t Bite. It’s a touch and feel book that has Pinyin, Chinese Characters, and English. The challenge of using a book is often you need to know how to read Chinese, in order to teach from it. A fun book for exposing Children to Chinese Characters is Long Is A Dragon by Peggy Goldstein A selection of books for Learning Chinese Character
Software for Learning Chinese
Any day some Software should arrive that has been highly recommended by customers.
About the Author
ChildBook.com for over 10 years has been helping Children in the United States learn more about Chinese Culture and Language. They do this by selling Chinese Children’s books, Music, and Video’s in both Chinese and English. ChildBook.com was started in 1998 due to the frustration of the owners in finding good Chinese Language Learning material to bring their daughter up bilingually.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Aug 6th, 2011. Comment.
Child Can Read
What can we do to encourage more children to read?
Books come in all shape and sizes. They come in fantasies and realities. We can learn from them. We develop our comprehesion skills and speed in reading. It’s a wonder why less children read but since the development of the internet I guess, they realize how simple and much fun they will get from the internet. Most information found in the internet are usually coming from books, so why do they bother with the internet when there are books. I guess it’s more cheaper, but the rewards of simply reading is something hard to explain
I think it all starts at home (or at least plays a major role in a child’s development to read)..Parents should have reading time with the children at a very early age to develop and nurture the joy of reading within them…..and sometimes the problem isn’t with the children, sometimes it’s with the parents, they tend to watch TV more than the kids!
Filed under Uncategorized by on Aug 1st, 2011. Comment.
Child Book Chinese
Where to find the best Chinese bookshop in Hong Kong ?
I am looking for a bookshop with a good selection of Chinese books for children.
Commercial Press Bookstores is highly recommended. I believe it to be the best bookstore in Hong Kong (you won’t get ripped off) Though in Hong Kong, most books are in traditional chinese, but the publisher does publish many many books in mandarin as well.
Another prominent bookstore is Popular, though they tend to be a little, stressing the little, bit more expensive.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Jul 23rd, 2011. Comment.