This was presented at the May 1, 2010 Mandarin Immersion Parents Council meeting at Jose Ortega. It’s a living document – if you’ve got suggestions/corrections/additions, please send them to us so we can update it. While some parts are San Francisco-specific, most would work anywhere, so we encourage parents at any and all Mandarin immersion programs to chime in.
Compiled by Elizabeth Weise, with help from lots of MIPC parents. Please send more suggests to weise@well.com
For parents who don’t speak Mandarin at home, getting more Chinese in your child’s life is something like getting more vegetables in their diet – you’ve got to think strategically about how to slip it in where and when you can. Here are some options:
Make video time Mandarin time:
If they want to watch videos, let them watch them in Mandarin. Multiple Disney and other movies exist in Mandarin-dubbed formats. You can find them at the San Francisco Public Library and at numerous websites.
Parent tip: Players for Chinese DVD’s: All commercial players should be able to play Chinese DVD’s. The problem is that the players are set to view just Western DVDs. To unlock your player, go to website like the one below, type in your model number, and follow the simple directions http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks
One parent just went to Chinatown and bought a cheap travel DVD player there, confirming that it played Chinese DVDs. This is a good idea if you don’t want to mess with your home DVD player.
If you get movies from NetFlix, you can click on Genres and then Foreign Language and then Mandarin Language to see their offerings. However they don’t appear to have children’s movies.
One thing to be aware of is that the ‘learn Chinese’ videos that are quite popular on these sites are too easy for our kids. Instead, chose fun videos that just happen to be in Mandarin.
Also, ask other parents in the program you know. In third grade, there’s a big trade among parents in a Mandarin version of Star Wars, for example.
Read
Local Bay area bookstores:
Eastwind Books & Arts 1435 Stockton St(between Card Alley & Columbus Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 772-5888
This can be a little hard to find, it’s in a basement. Many of their books are in traditional characters, but ask for kids books in simplified, they do have some.
Eastwind Books of Berkeley
2066 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704-1006
(510) 548-2350
The Cartoon Museum
655 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 94105
Has a great anime/manga (Asian comic books) bookstore with helpful owners. Parents have recommended Hayao Miyazaki, the author and film producer of Ponyo and Sprited Away. Ponyo is a really beautiful cartoon book and Ponyo is more appropriate for younger kids.
NanHai
510 Broadway Suite 200
Millbrae, CA 94030
650/259-2140
This is a good Chinese bookstore with lots of kids books in simplified characters and lots of books with CDs for kids. They’re really quite close if you go down the freeway. And there are excellent restaurants on that little stretch of Broadway, so it’s a nice weekend outing. One tip: It can seem difficult to use if you don’t speak Chinese, but ask for help. If you know in advance you’re going, call their consultant Doroteo Ng, who’s been very helpful to the MIPC, and tell him when you’ll be there so he can ask someone to be available to help. They also sell the HanBan series used as textbooks in 3rd grade.
Books, videos and CDs online
(check out their video section)
They’ve got both books, CDs and DVDs
They have Dora and Elmo DVDs in Mandarin with simplified subtitles!
Lots of Barney, Thomas the Train, Snoopy.
Lots of Dora, Charlie and Lola videos.
Make car time Mandarin time
Stick Mandarin CDs in the car and when you’re driving let them learn Chinese songs. You can find lots of these CDs at local Chinese stores, ask the clerks which are good for kids.
Stream Mandarin radio:
Local TV:
– On KTSF-26 there’s a long-running Taiwanese kids’ show called “Fruity Pie” that runs at 8 AM and another kid’s show called “Tutule” at 2:00 PM. These are 30-minute shows that are targeted to younger (pre-K though 1st grade). Although they are not shows older kids might choose to watch, a little nudging usually gets them to give them a try and then they capture their interest.
Watch Mandarin videos online
Parent Tip: If you find something you like, bookmark it! It can be very hard to find them again if you don’t know the name in Chinese (or if you can’t write it in Chinese.) Also, you’ll be able to send the URL around to the other families in your school. One note: Watch with your kid so you can edit. It’s easy to click on things in Chinese and quickly end up someplace you didn’t expect. Once you get to know a site it’s okay, but you probably don’t want them to click around themselves too much at first.
From a parent: My kids enjoy watching Mandarin videos, such as Doraemon, Pleasant Goat, Pororo, Thumb Bear, Martin Morning and Big Head Son. To preview these series online, go to www.tudou.com and search for:
“大头儿子小头爸爸” (Big Head Son – 78 episodes)
“马丁的早晨” (Martin Morning – 52 episodes)
“机器猫” (Doraemon the Japanese robotic cat – 500 episodes!)
“喜羊羊与灰太狼” (Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf – 465 episodes!)
“拇指熊” (Thumb Bear – 11 episodes)
Cartoons.
http://space.tv.cctv.com/podcast/xxh2
Songs and videos.
http://www.fanpop.com/external/7358
Ton o’ Chinese songs online
http://music.ibiblio.org/pub/multimedia/chinese-music/html/children.html
Sun flowers language studio stories
www.youtube.com/user/chinesesunflowers#p/u
Chinese YouTube
Flash Empire
Hard to know what all these are, but seem to mostly be kids cartoons.
Reading:
We know you don’t read Chinese. Neither do we. But there are a lot of books out there with CDs, so you can play and read along. The teachers and the MIPC are working hard to get more of these into the classroom (the recordings have been done and we’re working on translating the titles.) Check the websites, bookstores and the library for examples.
Parent tip: — My second-grade son and I use the San Francisco Public Library’s website frequently and he’s getting pretty good at using the search tool. When he discovered that his favorite series “Garfield” was available in Chinese, he checked out every book available. They are in the traditional characters but he still enjoys them.
Tip: go to the library web site at www.sfpl.org and then search “Garfield Chinese.” You can reserve books from other branches and have them sent to the branch nearest you so you don’t have to go all the way to Chinatown, which has the biggest collection of Chinese books. Also, ask your librarian. Most branches in San Francisco have a Chinese-speaking staffer. Sometimes they’re a little nonplusses by non-Chinese-speaking families asking for Chinese books, but it’s up to us to educate them.
Using the Internet as a dictionary
– In 2nd grade, the students must submit sample sentences along with the characters they are learning. We rely on several excellent and free online resources. I like the audio components to help us with the pronunciation. I also thinks it’s helpful, if not essential, to take the time to learn pinyin in order to use these tools.
babelfish.yahoo.com
Translation
www.yellowbridge.com
Great dictionary, shows stroke order and has audio pronunciation
http://us.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php#word
Nice dictionary
www.nciku.com
If you don’t know pinyin, I find using an online Chinese dictionary where you can draw them with the mouse to be very helpful:
Yellow Bridge Dictionary (look for the little button with the paintbrush)
Nciku Dictionary (draw in the box in the top right corner)
Parent tip: For parents with iPhones and iPod Touchs, there are several Chinese dictionary apps. And another, called DragonDian, allows you to practice Chinese characters by drawing them on the screen. “If she doesn’t draw them cleanly enough the computer can’t match it. If she does a good job it always finds it. My only complaint is that stroke order doesn’t matter.” To find others, search on “iphone Chinese apps”
Misc.
There’s a monthly Taiwanese magazine that comes with storybook, workbook, CD, and sometimes DVD or toys. The materials are age-specific and go all the way up through elementary school. One mom said “My kids absolutely love the materials. My 2.5 year old can “read” the books and listen to the CDs by himself and sing along in Chinese. The only way to get the materials is to call Taiwan and have them shipped.” Unfortunately, the web site is all in Chinese and the magazine only comes in traditional characters. But it might be appropriate for someone in a program that uses traditional, and a teacher could help with ordering.
www.benesse.com.tw
– We keep an eye out for Chinese businesses and try to figure out what the characters on the signs are. Sometimes he chats with the shopkeepers and shoppers too because many people can speak basic Mandarin even if they are Cantonese speakers. Menus in Chinese are also always fun to try to decipher.
— There are several local San Francisco businesses with Mandarin-speaking staff. Check the MIPC website at miparentscouncil.org for the current list. Then when you go in for a haircut or for dinner, ask the staff to only speak to your child in Mandarin.
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 
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