My Early Start: Learning Chinese

Chinese New Year Celebration at School

Last Friday I attended a Chinese new year celebration at my kids' school.  They call it a "mass greeting."  It is attended by the entire school along with most of the parents and even grandparents.  The kids from each grade sing traditional songs and perform dances.  This is my seventh year attending this event at the school, and I have to say, they are still adorable!  A majority of the kids dress up in traditional Chinese clothes and it certainly makes the event look very festive.  I think it's great that the school makes such a big deal out of the Chinese new year holiday because it is the most important holiday in the Chinese culture.  It's great that the kids learn many of the traditions and customs of this important holiday. The event culminated with a great lion dance performed by the 6th graders.  After the lion dance, the kids enjoyed a delicious Chinese meal with many of the customary dishes such as noodles, dumplings, and fish. 

My Favorite Chinese Dishes

Hey it's Wesley, and I'm here to tell you about some of my favorite Chinese dishes.  Before I moved to San Francisco, I lived in Los Angeles with my grandmother.  Every morning for breakfast she would cook me a delicious Chinese meal.  And for dinner, she would always ask me what I wanted to eat and she had a few recipes that I liked the most.  One of them is called fān qié chăo dàn, 番 茄 炒 蛋, which is basically scrambled egg with green onion and tomatoes.  That is my favorite because it tastes really good.  Another one of my favorite Chinese dishes is called jĭu cài dòu fŭ gān, 韭 菜 豆 腐 乾 , which is baked tofu cut up into strips and served with chives.  I also liked it when my grandmother makes dumplings for me and she sometimes even makes her own dumpling wrappers to hold the dumpling meat.  Another favorite dish is called gān là miàn, 乾 辣 麵.  It is a bowl of noodles mixed in with lots of green onions and a spicy sauce.  These dishes are my favorite over all the other ones I've had.  I'm definitely going to learn how to make these dishes so that I can cook them for myself.  What are some of your favorite dishes?

Wesley

"kid friendly" restaurant and food

It seems some restaurants think that only adults go to their restaurant, or that if kids show up, they should just be able to pick from the menu.  I remember when I was younger, when I was taken to a restaurant without a kid menu, I would get pretty upset and have a bad impression of the restaurant.  Now my taste buds have changed a lot, and I eat most of the food that is on the regular menu.  Besides the fact that my tastes have grown up a bit, the serving sizes from the kid menus are sometimes not enough to fill me up. 

What I consider to be "kid friendly" food is a menu with a selection of simple food served in smaller portions.  One thing that I really liked in kids' menus was a simple macaroni and cheese.  It is just some boiled elbow pasta mixed in with cheese.  One of the restaurants that I think is really "kid friendly" is Denny's.  They have a large kid menu where kids can choose their main course.  Like a hamburger, macaroni and cheese, or some chicken nuggets.  Then they can choose their side dishes to go along with their main course, like fries, grapes, or goldfish.  This way, every kid can get exactly what they want.  What do you think a restaurant should do to be "kid friendly"?  What is your favorite kid friendly restaurant?

Wesley

Changing Tastes

It's Wesley, and right now I've noticed that my taste buds have been changing an awful lot.  I now love mushrooms which I hated and refused to eat when I was younger.  Another type of food that I have changed my opinion about is Japanese food.  Before, when I went to Japanese restaurants I usually would not eat the fishy sushi but instead I would just eat some of their noodles or something else.  But now I really enjoy and crave the taste of sushi and the sizzling fish that they serve.  I also have lost a lot of my interest with many desserts and would prefer savory food.  Just a short while ago, I would consider skipping dessert to be unthinkable.  Is this what happens as you get older?  How has your taste changed over the years?

Wesley

The Inca, the Maya, and the Aztec (architecture)

Hey, it's Wesley again.  I'm back with lots more information about the Inca, the Maya, and the Aztec.  In the past week I've been learning a lot more about the three civilization's architecture.  One thing about all of their architecture that is the same is that they all built large cities and religious temples.  They all used rock and other types of materials. 

The Maya built all of their temples out of limestone because it was one of the closest and lightest rocks around.  The Aztecs built with all sorts of stones that were close and available.  Also, the height of their building varied to what type of stone they used to make it balanced.  The Aztecs also believed strongly in sacrifice for their gods and like other cities built a large and well designed sacrificial temple.  The Aztecs wanted to make their temple better than any other city's so instead of taking their old temples down and rebuilding it, they would do something called layering.  They built a new layer over their old temple and they made every layer more designed and intricate. 

The Aztecs and the Maya all had great architecture, but I think that the Inca are the ones with the best architecture.  The Inca lived on the steep, tall mountains of the Andes mountains.  There was no stone very close by their villages and the only major stone source was all the way down the mountain.  The Inca built their buildings with large stone blocks that weighed several tons that were shaped and fit together like puzzle pieces.  Many wonder how the Inca were able to carry the several ton stones up the mountains and then shape them perfectly to fit together.  They shaped and polished the stone until it was smooth and shaped to perfection.  They also represent a group of their buildings as an animal sometimes to show their religion too.  Inca, Maya, and Aztec architecture is all very complex and very interesting to see.

Wesley

The Inca, the Maya, and the Aztec (farming)

I'm Wesley, 12 years old and currently in 7th grade.  For my past trimester we have been studying three of the greatest ancient civilizations, the Inca, the Maya, and the Aztecs.  We learned how different things were built and what it was like back in their time.  All three of these civilizations obtained power somehow and when they defeated another city, they would demand large amounts of tribute to get excess amounts of resources for trade.  Back then , there was plenty of gold to spare and all of the civilizations in power would have surplus gold, jewelry, and other unneeded goods.  Some similarities between these civilizations is that they all ate mostly fruits and vegetables. 

The Maya diet was based on corn because they thought that God made them out of corn and they had lots of open farmland for growing.  The Inca and the Maya did not have much convenient land for farming though.  The Inca lived high up in the Andes Mountains where things would often freeze and the air was thin.  The Inca made space for farming by forming thin terraces on the steep mountains by their house.  The Inca main food was potatoes because they were one of the few foods that could withstand frequent frosts.  The Aztecs were put in a swampy area with a lake with too much water and almost no dry land.  The Aztecs managed to farm by inventing their famous floating gardens called the chinampas.  They were able to make floating strips of thin land with soil and grass for farming.  This way they were able to make enough food and resources to last their population.   As you can see, there are many different types of ways to farm and all types of things you could do with that food.

Wesley

Hot Lunch

I'm in 7th grade attending Chinese American International School.  The school has a "Hot Lunch" program.  Some kids at my school bring their own lunch from home into the school.  Then everyone would sit down at the cafeteria tables and eat their lunch.  Our hot lunch program is basically provided by a Chinese restaurant and an Italian restaurant in town.  On Mondays and Wednesdays, hot lunch is a variety of Chinese food.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the hot lunch is always pasta.  Then on Friday it is always pizza.  You can sign on by semester.  Usually I start off the year ordering hot lunch, but by the second semester, I'm tired of it.  I think I've found the best combination now, which is I bring my lunch from Monday through Thursday, and on Fridays I get Chinese food delivered from Mandarin Villa, which is just across the street from the school.  What do you do for school lunch?  Lunch is wŭ cān, 午 餐 in Chinese.

Wesley

Resources for preschoolers learning foreign language in the East Bay

Kelly and I attended the East Bay Moms' Preschool Preview event at the Scottish Rites Center in Oakland today.  We had a booth for our Early Start Mandarin Chinese DVDs.  This is our third year attending this event, and we have found this to be a great marketing event for our dvds.  The people attending this event typically have young children of preschool age, and living in the Bay Area, people are generally very open to having their young children learn a foreign language.  As a result, there are many schools that offer foreign language programs available.  Here are a few that presented at the preschool preview event:

Lango - Spanish, French, and Mandarin, www.langokids.com

French For Fun - language and cultural center with total immersion program, www.frenchforfun.com

Escuela Bilingue Internacional - Spanish/English dual language program from PK to 3rd grade, www.ebinternacional.org

Ecole Bilingue de Berkeley - French/English bilingual program for PK to 8th grade, www.eb.org

Sunshine Preschool & Childcare - Sign language and spoken English for children 2 to 5, (510) 848-4800

Celebrating Chinese New Year

I just attended the Chinese New Year luncheon for my daughter's preschool class.  The kids were adorable, of course, and very excited to have something different from their normal lunch time routine.  They've been practicing their Chinese good luck wishes and songs, and happily chanted them all for all the parents.  For lunch they had noodles, dumplings, fish, vegetables, and sweet glutinous rice pudding.  They they each received a tangerine and an apple to bring home.  Each of these items has some significance, usually related to wealth, health, and prosperity.  For example:
Noodles- the noodles should be uncut, so as to represent long life
Dumplings -one of the most important foods in Chinese new year.  The history of jiao zi dates back some 500 to 600 years.  Since the shape of the dumpling is similar to ancient Chinese gold or silver ingots, they symbolize wealth, and people eat them at new years in hopes of bringing good fortune in the new year.
Fish -represents togetherness and abundance.  The mandarin word for fish is “yu”, which sounds the same as the word for “surplus” or “extra”. 
Sweet glutinous rice pudding -represents nián nián gāo shēng, or may you improve (get a promotion) every year.

It is also common practice for families to have oranges and tangerines, as they are symbols of abundant happiness, and the words for these fruits sound like words for wealth and luck.  If visiting families and friends during this time, it is customary to bring some oranges or tangerines.  Tangerines with the leaves intact symbolizes that one’s relationship with the other will remain secure. Tangerine or jú zi – represents dà jí dà lì, or may everything go your way.

Online Resources to Complement Learning Chinese

My husband and I don't speak any Mandarin, but my children began studying at a Mandarin-immersion school more than 10 years ago.  In an effort to help my children adjust to a Mandarin-speaking environment, I searched for ways to help introduce the language at home. 

Ten years ago, I was unable to find anything on the internet, which is now one of the best sources for Chinese-learning tools.  There are dozens of great videographers on youtube.com, who post frequent, short lessons.  One of my kids' favorites is AskBenny.com.  (See a short clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXxYpSC6yLk&feature=related).

Chineselessons.com is a great resource for learning pinyin and bopomofo.  As I understand it, Pinyin is a writing method, which is romanization of Chinese characters.  Bopomofo is used mainly in Taiwan as a system to teach pronunciation of Chinese characters. (Feel free to correct me if I have this wrong!)

For younger children, the web is a great resource for downloadable pages to reinforce character memorization.  Gigglepotz.com will definitely be a younger child's favorite spot for learning Chinese, downloading pages and exploring new topics related to China.  (Visit the site at:  http://www.gigglepotz.com/china.htm)

A brush-painting set is a must for both younger and older children.  Painting the Chinese characters is fun and great re-enforcement for memorization.  My kids still love to practice new characters, as well as paint landscapes, with their brush painting sets.  (Check out this link about brush painting: http://www.nanrae.com/lesson-pg1.html)

Some of the best sites for purchasing flash cards, workbooks, dvds, and other Chinese-learning tools are AsianParent.com, Childbook.com, AsiaForKids.com and Chinasprout.com.  I find that giving my kids exposure to a variety of learning tools keeps their interest.