Cute Kid Singing Video

I know, he's Korean, but I love his rendition of the English language Beatles song here!

We posted songs in Chinese on our site PoppingPandas.com (free to listen or download). Sing them with your child!

I think this little boy learned the song from a non-native English speaker. Bet his pronunciation would be near perfect otherwise. Still, quite impressive.

Two New Sesame Street DVDs -- Bilingual Mandarin Chinese & English

Two new Sesame Street DVDs arrived! They are "Wake up with Elmo" and "Heads, Hand, Feet," the latter is an adorable introduction to words such as head, hands, and feet in Chinese. These Sesame Street shows are bilingual with Mandarin Chinese and English audio and subtitle options, making them great for an introduction to Chinese as well as a fun show for children who already speak a lot of Chinese.

As you use these DVDs (or any DVD), you can play them in the computer and use the "print screen" (or any other print option) to print a page that you want. This is very useful for learning characters! Just print the first introductory page and let your child practice writing the characters. Then go to the second page, and so forth. Join your child in writing the characters, so he or she has company, too.

For everyone who is collecting the set, please let us know which shows you still need. We will be bringing back another five to six new Sesame Street DVDs in May, but we can also bring back a few extras if you email us with specific titles.


Sesame Street Bilingual Mandarin and Chinese DVDs on PoppingPandas.com

African Singer in China...in Chinese

This is cool, so I wanted to share it!

Chinese TV Online: Super Practice for Listening Comprehension

Now we finally have a good reason to watch TV: Language practice. Get hooked on your favorite drama or comedy, and practice Mandarin. I use these two links: youku.com and tudou.com

Nciku: A Great (Free) Online Bilingual Mandarin & English Resource

I use Nciku's site all the time! You can use the dictionary functions, hear the Chinese character, see it drawn, and see various uses. The best thing is that you can use your mouse to draw a character -- you do not even need to draw it well -- and options for that character come up, so you can find it easily, and then look up the translation.

My best recommendation for learning to read Chinese? Use a computer! Mac users have it easy, Windows users need to install the language pack (it is on your installation disk). Typing is really easy, so it helps you remember the characters. This goes doubly for kids, too!

Bilingual Sesame Street DVDs in Mandarin Chinese and English

Brand-new and absolutely beautiful! These feature a full-length TV episode with a choice of English or Mandarin Chinese.

Check out our Sesame Street collection on our Popping Pandas site.

Teaching Your Child Mandarin Chinese at Home: Games, Songs, Books

Here are some quick ideas for play in Mandarin at home for young children. You will need a Mandarin speaker for this, but with the right guidelines any older Chinese student can help you out. You can usually find one at your local college!

Active songs:

Step and count in Chinese. Step, yi, step, er, step, san... Use yi (1) through san (3) for little children, and more numbers for older children. Follow the child's interest.

Drum and count. Tap your right hand, yi, tap your left hand, er, tap your right hand, san, and so forth. You can speed up as children learn the counts.

Make up songs. "Ni hao, mama, ni hao baba, ni hao meimei..." (hello mommy, hello daddy, hello little sister). Focus on having words repeated (ni hao) mixed with important new words (mama, baba, meimei). Add in the "gou" (dog), "mao" (cat), and others.

Make up question and answer songs. "Zhe shi shen me? (what is this?), zhe shi yi zhi mao (this is a cat)" Use nouns with the same counter words -- the "zhi" word before the "mao" (cat) is a counter word for animals. So, do this song with all animal words. Then write the character on a card and write the English on the back. For younger children, use picture and word cards -- picture of a cat, character for a cat. For English-speaking children, pinyin is confusing before they can read well in English. Use characters for this age.

Books on CD. This requires no Chinese speaker, so it's easier. We have some Disney books and our Popping Pandas Mandarin Chinese DVDs and Books site has some free material you can listen to now. I saw a few nice things in the local library the other day, too.

Suggestions? Send them along for us to share!