One of my goals for this year is to teach myself and my children how to speak Chinese, from scratch!

I can’t speak a word of Chinese, so I need all the help I can get. My strategy so far, is to immerse our family in Chinese books, CDs and DVDs.

Naturally, I scoured the web, hunting down Chinese educational products. My biggest problem with buying over the internet, is that I would prefer to buy something that came recommended by a friend. I didn’t want to buy something, have it shipped over, to then find out that it was terrible. And I knew lots of other people who felt the same way.

So I thought I’d start reviewing Chinese educational products that I’ve actually tested out, and recommend the ones I’ve found to be exceptionally excellent.

I found a great online shop, called Asianparent.com. They have an excellent range of Chinese books and DVDs, so I contacted them and they sent me some products to review. These are my favourites!

1) Early Start Mandarin Chinese DVD
Chinese & English Bilingual DVD (Volume 1) for children age: 1-5

I’ve actually tested out a few bilingual DVDs already. This set is by far the best I’ve come across!

It watches like Sesame Street. It shows clear, uncluttered images of the object, with clear Chinese voice overs. Then it repeats the word over and over, using different voices, different photos and graphics, different situations (eating an apple, cutting an apple, rolling an apple).

My children really enjoy it. I can see my 3yo absorbing the new words and memorising them, purely from all the repetition. Whereas, my 5yo will seem to actively memorise and learn at a more cognitive level of understanding. It works really well! Even I can catch on really quickly.

Some screen shots of the Early Start Mandarin DVD Volume 2

What I like best about it: It has cute, happy, piano music playing in the background and the voices are pleasant to listen to. It is not irritating and annoying at all. We can happily watch it again and again and again. It’s really lovely, very well produced and it works!!

Also, most Learning Chinese DVD and CD sets have only 1 or 2 voices saying the words. And if the speaker happens to be a 35 year old guy from Beijing, then you learn how to speak Chinese like a 35 year old man from Beijing!!

In the Early Start Mandarin Set, you get to see and hear different Asian and Caucasian kids, at various ages from 2 years to 9 years, say all the words or phrases. And because they all have different voices, you can hear variations of the correct tones and pronunciations, and thus calibrate in your own head how it is supposed to sound with your own voice. I personally found this REALLY helpful to get the tones right.

I have the whole series (4 Discs) : Early Start Mandarin Chinese - All Volumes (1,2,3,4)

2) Mandy and Pandy Say, “Ni Hao Ma?”
Book and Audio CD

This is really great for practicing basic Chinese. We already know the basic greetings, and some phrases, so this is a nice way to practice while being out and about.

I play the CD in my car, the kids take in turn to hold the book and turn the pages. In just a few days I can remember new phrases, and pre-empt each word.

I’d love to get more of this series so my kids are listen to them in the car!

What I like best about it: The CD is great – one track for English & Chinese, one for Chinese spoken twice, and one for Chinese spoken once. The little picture book is laid out nicely and easy for kids to follow. It’s short, simple and very effective.

3) Chinese & English Bilingual Dora The Explorer
5 Disc DVD and Flash Cards set for children aged 2-8

My kids love Dora The Explorer, but I don’t let them watch it very often. So, you can imagine how excited they were when they saw the Dora box arrive in the mail. When I put it in the DVD player, I was waiting for them to groan, complain, and say it wasn’t REALLY Dora… but they didn’t! They actually enjoyed it.

After watching it, I can verify that the graphics are exactly like the original English version. The Chinese (and English) voices have been dubbed over, and the voices are pretty similar to the original version.

I believe the series is actually for Chinese kids who want to learn English. Dora and Boots speak 80% Chinese and 20% English, and they switch seamlessly during their adventures. Even though the characters speak quickly, my kids managed to pick up a few Chinese words they knew already “hello”, “friend”, “play together” etc.

I think it’s a pretty cool product! If my kids are watching cartoons, I would rather immerse them in something they enjoy, and get their ears used to hearing the Chinese language.

What I like best about it: It’s DORA THE EXPLORER and my kids love watching it! There are 5 discs with total of 10 episodes. The flash cards are really nice too.

Conclusion
I discovered that these products work really well together. They all teach the basics, greetings, colours, and numbers in a variety of different ways. With all the repetition, the kids quickly recognise that they have heard the phrases in the previous DVD etc, and it flows pretty well from there.

Also, we pratice a lot! Throughout the day, I try to repeat the things we’ve learned, and quiz them.

We’ve been using these materials from Asianparent.com for the last 3 weeks. First, it was a lot of fun and a very novel activity for the kids. Then there are a few days where it feels like hard work and the kids are a bit bored. Then suddenly, it becomes part of everyday life! That’s when you know it’s worked!

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