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Today’s guest post comes to us from Alisa, a member of our Language Learning At Home Facebook Group. She is a homeschooling mom of three who is determined to make her kids trilingual despite her own monolingual status (I love it!). Alisa has been learning Mandarin with her children for just one year, but they’re already able to have basic conversations in the language and even have their own YouTube channel where they show off their language skills! Alisa did a TON of work to find the best Mandarin resources for homeschoolers and is now sharing them with us—so many, in fact, that I had to split them into two posts! Today, Alisa is sharing her favorite audio resources for Mandarin learners and next week, she’ll share her recommendations for tools to teach your children to read and write Mandarin characters. For those of you studying Mandarin at home, you’re in for a real treat!

Teaching your children Mandarin—when you don’t speak it yourself—is no easy task. As a tonal language, Mandarin takes a bit of getting used to. Though its sounds are not particularly difficult for English speakers to reproduce, in and of themselves, it can be hard to get the rhythm of Mandarin’s tones. So, how can English-speaking homeschool families help their children learn Mandarin?

The answer is simply this: lots and lots of audio input from native Mandarin speakers—the more, the better. Over the years that our family has been studying Mandarin, I’ve collected quite a few audio resources to help my children, and today, I’d like to share those with you.

Little Fox Chinese

One of my very favorite audio resources—which also happens to be free—is Little Fox Chinese.

This program has hundreds of leveled, short cartoon clips designed for children. Through repetition and structure, they use what is known as “comprehensible input” to teach Mandarin in a natural and fun way. Dr. Stephen Krashen, a linguist, describes this method as follows:

“... ‘comprehensible input' is the crucial and necessary ingredient for the acquisition of language.
The best methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are 'ready', recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production.”

Comprehensible input is what Little Fox Chinese provides children with. And my experience is that it is very effective. The videos include vocab lists with audio that you can use to create your own vocab list on the site. Having the audio makes a huge difference when practicing vocabulary when you’re not a native speaker yourself, and there are also songs and games that are really engaging for kids.

Conversation Practice with italki

Once your child is ready to start speaking in Chinese, I recommend pairing Little Fox with the online tutoring sessions available through iTalki.com. We use italki to find and set up lessons with a Mandarin tutor. In about five minutes, I can schedule lessons for my children with an experienced, native-speaking Mandarin teacher—and it’s incredibly affordable. Each week, I let the teacher know what videos we will be working on and then they watch them and prepare their materials or just use the Little Fox site itself. My kids then practice the phrases and vocabulary they have learned that week as they converse with the teacher.

The interaction with a native speaker really makes all the difference in a child’s ability to converse well in the language. It’s so fun to watch your child laugh and interact in a foreign language and know that it is possible to give the gift of language to your child even if you are not bilingual. And rates on italki are very reasonable. The going rate for a 30 minute lesson (about as long as a child can handle) is around $10.

Little Chinese Readers Audiobooks

For learning to read Chinese, I’ve found another amazing resource that costs only $5 a month for access—Little Chinese Readers. Little Chinese Readers uses comprehensible input and pairs basic reading lessons with audio files and includes both traditional and simplified characters. Children learn the meaning new characters through the images on the page, while learning the sound through the corresponding audio. They can tap characters to hear them or have a sentence read to them. There are games, activities sheets you can print, books you can read online or print off. It has been a great resource for my 6 year old who struggles to remember the characters.

Television Show and Movies in Mandarin

If your child already has a good base vocabulary, Chinese language shows can be a fun way to increase their exposure to the language—and they might not even realize that they’re learning! Our family enjoys lots of Chinese language shows on YouTube. My daughter is a fan of Balala Fairies and my son loves Armour Hero. As a family, we love to watch the Chinese game show “Dad, Where Are We Going?” The kids are so cute and their language is often simple to understand, although there are English subtitles as well. It’s so sweet to watch the father and child bond develop as the contestants work together to complete the show’s challenges.

Netflix also has Chinese audio for many shows though it doesn’t always show up in the options. If you set up a kids profile in Chinese, you can get access to the Chinese audio options (don’t worry, it won’t change the language on your account). My kids like to watch My Little Pony, and Anne has some additional recommendations for Netflix shows in Mandarin as well.

Finally, did you know that Disney produced a Chinese language movie about an adorable baby panda? It’s a sweet, simple story without too much speaking, so it’s easy to understand and pick up new words and the panda is so cuddly.

I hope these audio resources help you on your Chinese language journey. Next week, I’ll be sharing more resources for learning to read in Chinese—so stay tuned!