How to Support Your Child’s Mandarin Learning at Home

Mandarin has increasingly been used among global audiences. According to data from Statista, Mandarin is currently ranked second as the most spoken language in the world, highlighting its significance in communication. As this popularity increases, many parents have opted to teach Mandarin to their children. With how developed the educational system is, a few schools have offered the option to teach Mandarin as a second language, providing students with a solid foundation to converse with Mandarin-speaking people. 

Although school may have provided students with basic understanding of the language, encouraging your children to learn at home is also highly recommended to strengthen their language acquisition. Within this article, provide some practical advice to help teach your child Mandarin, build familiarity with Mandarin as a second language, as well as discuss how learning Mandarin can help your children. 

If you’re thinking about starting to encourage language learning to your children, it is best to start as early as possible. Research in child development consistently shows that the earlier children are exposed to a new language, the easier it is for them to be able to retain the information. By integrating language learning in early years, you will most likely feel the following benefits:

1. Information absorption – Early childhood is one of the best moments to learn something new as children’s development is significantly faster. With this development, it will be easier for children to receive and retain new information, especially language acquisition. 
2. Familiarity – Learning from a familiar environment, such as home, will provide children with a sense of security. For younger children, this familiar environment will help them have a more natural learning method, reducing academic pressure.  Furthermore, learning in a familiar environment can also help nurture focus. 
3. Optimising a strong foundation – Introducing Mandarin early helps build a solid linguistic base, pushing a good language acquisition. This foundation can provide early understanding of Mandarin to help children converse in daily lives. 
4. Build stronger relationships – Teaching Mandarin to your child can help strengthen relationships as you will spend more time together, providing another way to deepen familial bonds between one another. 

As previously mentioned, building familiarity is an effective way to reduce pressure while learning. The simplest way to start this is by encouraging your children to learn Mandarin at home. Apart from the familiar environment, learning Mandarin at home can also be effective due to its flexible learning method. To help nurture children’s familiarity with Mandarin, here’s a few ways that you can consider implementing. 

• Speaking in Mandarin – Teach your child Mandarin by speaking it daily — using common phrases at home builds vocabulary naturally and helps children feel comfortable using the language.As time passes, children can also gain enough confidence to speak Mandarin by themselves. 

• Introducing Chinese culture – Apart from learning Mandarin as a language, teaching your children at home can also be the right way to introduce Chinese culture. This will help them understand Chinese customs and be respectful to the ceremonies. 

• Implementing Chinese entertainment media – Chinese entertainment media can come in many different forms, such as songs, nursery rhymes, comics, and even cartoons. By letting your children interact with Chinese media, they will be able to absorb new vocabulary and simple grammar structures whilst being kept entertained throughout the learning process. 

One of the most effective and accessible ways to begin your child’s Mandarin learning journey is through reading. Unlike spoken Mandarin, written Mandarin will help your children understand the structure and grammar used in communication. Reading can also be a strong foundation for expanding vocabularies through different media. Below are some practical ways to establish a strong foundation in Mandarin. 

• Begin with Pinyin
  Learning Pinyin is an essential part in understanding Mandarin. In contrast to Chinese characters, Pinyin is written in the Latin alphabet, making it easier for children to understand. As the backbone of Mandarin as a language, Pinyin will not only help you reading texts, but will also help you in learning how to pronounce words and converse with others. If you’re interested in learning Pinyin, try visiting this article.
• Start with simple vocabulary
  When learning Mandarin, the important thing is not how much vocabulary you can cover in the shortest period of time. Instead of focusing on quantity, it is advised to focus on understanding the most used vocabulary. For children, you can start by simple terms such as numbers, colors, and animals.
• Increase difficulty
  If your children have just started learning Mandarin, it is nearly impossible to be able to read a full-length text in just a few days. Therefore, the most effective way to guide your children is by starting off easy, such as learning a few vocabulary and pronunciation. As your children become more familiar with Mandarin, try increasing the intensity of learning by asking them to read a few sentences, communicate actively with others, and even read a story written in Mandarin.
• Visually engaging media
  Reading full texts in Mandarin might be boring, especially for younger children. To avoid boredom, you can try incorporating storybooks to your learning journey. This way, your children will find another interesting way to improve their reading skills while growing their imagination at the same time.

Although learning at home is highly recommended to start your child’s learning journey, focusing solely on oneself to guide and support this learning may come as quite a challenge. These challenges are not limited to resources, but different aspects that can reduce effectiveness in the long run. 

1. Preparation needs time – Preparing materials and resources require attention or time. If you are currently working a full-time job or having other responsibilities, this preparation might not be your top priority, reducing its effectiveness for your children.
2. Lack of availability – Learning solely from home can be a great hurdle in terms of existing peers and trainers. While having parents can give a sense of comfort to a child when learning Mandarin, it is undeniable that children will still require other parties to help them absorb information well. This problem, however, can be solved by providing an expert trainer that can help you assist your children in learning Mandarin. 
3. Low motivation – Although children are naturally curious, it is common for them to lose interest easily. This can also be an alert in Mandarin learning since the motivation to focus on learning materials can be easily distracted if teaching methods are not engaging enough.
4. Idea shortage – Similar to the previous point, keeping children engaged throughout the learning process can be one of the biggest challenges faced by parents. To keep them engaged, parents should be able to come up with new learning strategies, such as implementing quizzes and games that make learning fun and casual.

Supporting your child to learn Mandarin is a good stepping stone to establish a strong foundation in language learning. With the right tips for parents teaching Mandarin, you can create a nurturing and fun learning environment. However, it is important to note that teaching Mandarin at home can be very limited, especially with existing challenges. Although it is possible to face these challenges by dedicating more time to perfecting your teaching method, relying completely on this method is not recommended for the long run. As an alternative, you can try connecting your child with experienced trainers that can provide feedback and suggest engaging methods to keep children’s interests. Learn more about the arrangement by giving us a contact!