My Early Start: Learning Chinese

Dragon Boat Festival and Eating Zong Zi

I remember as a child growing up in Taiwan enjoying the preparation for the annual duan wu jie or dragon boat festival, usually in late May sometime.  My mom and aunties would spend a lot of time shopping and preparing to make the traditional food eaten during this holiday, call zong zi.  Once they had all the raw materials of glutinous rice, pork, mushrooms, and peanuts mixed in a big washtub, they would sit around on little stools to fill lotus leaves with the rice mixture.  All the cousins would wait around eagerly for the first batch of zong zi to be made, and then steamed.  They were delicious!  After we filled up our bellies with the savory ones, we then waited again for the sweet ones, usually made with red beans.  My mom and aunties always made plenty for family and friends.

I hope my kids will have wonderful memories around Chinese food.  At the very least I have our Cooking with Kids dvds (Celebrating Chinese New Years and Exploring Chinese Food, Culture, and Language) I can show them.

I found a great article Zong Zi - the Traditional Chinese Food, by Rhonda Parkinson on About.com with a recipe on how to make zong zi. I hope you will try it and let us know how it goes. Enjoy!

Teresa

Heading Off to the Book Expo in New York!

We're so excited!  Kelly and I leave Thursday morning for New York to attend the annual Book Expo America.  The annual book fair brings together authors, distributors, publishers, and basically anyone else that has anything to do with books.  This will be our third year attending.  The last two years, we exhibited our Early Start Mandarin dvds at the expo.  However, this year we decided to just attend.  We'll still have the opportunity to talk to a variety of people in the industry, and we'll have more time to enjoy New York!  The first year we exhibited, we received many comments and questions on "why Chinese?"  The second year there were a couple of other exhibitors with similar products.  Now, just a few years later, I'm sure there will be many exhibitors offering Chinese learning materials for children.  We can't wait to see everything! We'll update you from the show.

Learn Chinese word for "cookie" on YouTube

Check out our new video lesson on YouTube / MyEarlyStart.  Learn how to say "cookie" in Chinese.  We're trying to put out videos regularly.  Please send us your ideas for videos.  Thanks!

Learning Chinese Will Only Get More Popular

Did you know that the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to China is fluent in Mandarin Chinese?  You might think that's an obvious reason for choosing him, but he does have other qualifications that hopefully will help him be successful. Jon Huntsman, the current governor of Utah, contender for the Republican presidential nomination for 2012, has served previously as the ambassador to Singapore and deputy U.S. trade representative.  He learned Mandarin Chinese when he went on his Mormon mission to Taiwan.  Some say his appointment by Obama as the ambassador to China is a clear sign of the importance of the the U.S. and China relationship.

As for the rest of us, even if we don't aspire to be the U.S. ambassador to China, there are other good reasons to learn Chinese. 

Here's an article we found that I found interesting:  One in Five Persons Speak Chinese Throughout the World.

(John Abraham, March 25, 2009).

Chinese is spoken by 1/5th of the population all over the world according to the revelations made by the statistics. There is no field in which the Chinese people or people of Chinese origin have not made a name for themselves. Their sincerity and hardworking nature have gotten them genuine respect. 

China is visited by the tourists to see among other things The Great Wall of China, which is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and it is there no big surprise that it is becoming a famous destination for tourists and businessmen equally. Majority of them attend Chinese language and writing classes with the intention to speak and understand the Chinese language. Web is now offering Chinese language lessons where the Chinese can be learnt by you for free. 

The Global Services Delivery centers of many international corporations are being moved to China because of the necessity of Chinese language translation. In order to communicate with local businessmen and also the Government of China, they require help . It is because of rising of China’s stature in the global economy that makes it a must for international majors to deal with China and the people of China . Chinese people feel respected when you speak in Chinese to the people of China when you visit China. With the growing popularity to China, Chinese Language translation is being offered by majority of institutes free to people who do business with China .

It is out of sheer love for the language some people want to learn Chinese. To have an idea about China’s splendid history and its crusade against the ills of the yesteryears its rich literature should be read . 

For people of America who have studied the Chinese language, there are jobs available for Chinese language translator. Chinese has been identified as one of the four major languages for its citizens by America for its citizens. This is also one of the reasons for the growing popularity of the Chinese language. Thanks to a number of opportunities to learn Chinese online, the number of people learning Chinese has gone up. Chinese language free workbook is there to learn Chinese which will help you to understand what you have learnt. 

With the purpose of identifying beautiful tourist places, many people from China are visiting various countries across the world. The people who know the Standard Chinese language are needed by the countries that are visited to speak to their guests from China. A demand has sprung up for Chinese lessons. There are organizations offering people how to speak Chinese lessons for free.

There is a renewed interest in Chinese history and Chinese civilization in parts of the world. The people who want to learn about China’s past need to learn to speak Chinese. There are chances available to learn Chinese for free and one should take it to the fullest.

There are Chinese Language Conferences also being held frequently as it is spoken all over the world. This proves the importance of the language.

Learning Chinese has also become popular because of the career opportunities available for Chinese translators and also the career opportunities available in China in this globalist world. If you need to learn a foreign language, try Chinese.

Asian Heritage Street Fair

It was HOT!  That's the first thing that comes to mind when I think about the Asian Heritage Street Fair on Saturday, May 16,2009.  I believe it was in the 80s in the San Francisco civic center, rare weather for this city. 

This was the first year that we participated in the fair, and I suppose that's why we were placed at the very end of the long line of booths, right next to the stage where various bands blasted our ear drums!  Boy did we feel old!  On the positive side, our cute Chinese character t-shirts were well received and we sold lots, along with our Early Start Mandarin DVDs.  We brought the boys to "help" and learn how to talk to customers.  They checked out the interesting booths and sampled foods from different cultures.  All in all, the Fair was a success.  Check out our pictures from the event.

 

Asian Heritage Street Celebration, Saturday 5/16

This will be our first year participating in the annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration in San Francisco! The festival is this Saturday, May 16th, from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.  It will be held in the Civic Center / Little Saigon area in San Francisco, by the Asian Art Museum.  The festival will feature Asian artists, arts and crafts, and of course, Asian food!  Check out more information on the fair at Asian Heritage Street Celebration.

We will have a booth to showcase and sell our Early Start Mandarin DVDs and Chinese character T-shirts.  Stop by and check us out!

 

Learn Chinese pin yin from Youtube

In China and elsewhere, everyone learning Chinese uses a romanized phonetic system called pin yin.  It was developed in the late 1950's, and is used to teach Chinese school children and foreign learners the standard pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese.  It has since been adopted as the international standard.  When my son started Chinese school 7 years ago, he actually learned a phonetic system called bopomofo.  Bopomofo is still used in Taiwan, although Taiwan has adopted pin yin as the official romanization system beginning January 2009. We found a YouTube video that gives a good explanation/example of pin yin.  Hopefully you'll find it useful. (She needs to clean her room!)

Learn Chinese for "Hello, what is your name?"

Check out our new lesson on how to say "Hello, what is your name?".  We welcome suggestions for lesson topics.  Please let us know!

Learn to Speak Mandarin Chinese article by Fabiola Groshan

Here's another great article on learning Mandarin Chinese.  You can read it below or click through this link.

Chinese is a very interesting language to learn to speak and write. It is also relatively simple to learn to speak Chinese as well as learn to read and write Chinese at a fundamental level of understanding. Chinese is based on a simple structure language and learning the Chinese character structure helps a lot in learning to speak Chinese. The Chinese language uses varying tones to give different meanings to a word. As soon as you start to learn the Chinese language, you will realize that it is not just a language. When you learn to speak Chinese you are shown a deeper understanding of Chinese culture and way of life.

Mandarin Chinese is the main language in Mainland China. While there are a number of dialects spoken throughout the Chinese provinces, it is best to learn Mandarin Chinese because it is the most recognized dialect. Mandarin Chinese is used on a day to day basis by over 50% of the population. The number of users of Mandarin Chinese is constantly growing which is why you should learn to speak mandarin Chinese rather than learn to speak another dialect of Chinese.

More and more people around the world learn the Chinese language for many reasons. Some of these include: helping to improve their chances of employment, helping them negotiate internal business agreements or enhancing their travel experiences. Mandarin Chinese is also the second language of over 40 million people of Chinese descent throughout the world and so it is the natural choice when it comes to deciding to learn Chinese and what form of Chinese to learn. 

In addition, it is now easier than ever to learn to speak mandarin Chinese. You can hire Chinese language tutors online or learn Chinese for free online. It’s one of the best ways to learn Mandarin!

Learn Mandarin for "frog" | Learn Chinese dvd

Here's a cute video we made with Hope singing a song about a frog (not in Chinese) that your preschooler may enjoy!