I’ve strived to vary the methods that my child learns her Chinese. Sometimes it’s games, sometimes it’s reading stories, sometimes it’s role play, and sometimes…it’s music! Music has a magical effect on people – it’s less effort to learn lyrics or words when put to rhyme and song, plus it makes language learning more fun.
I remember feeling so frustrated trying to learn Spanish in my 8th grade Spanish class, but I felt a certain amount of pride when I could sing smoothly and fluently:
Chocolate caliente
Chocolate por favor….
It was a packet of Spanish that I felt I could master.
Fast forward many years, and I find my child feeling frustrated at forgetting dialogues or vocabulary words. I needed to give her something that she could learn and recite and feel fluent for once, instead of getting tangled with words.
The following video is a culmination of her efforts last year – she memorized five Tang poems/songs and I am so proud of her – what’s more, she is proud of herself. It’s been good for her to be able to showcase something that was originally so hard for her, and so her motivation to continue learning increases.
This video can also be a learning guide for those who want to learn the songs as well. The pronunciation is not perfect, but I’ve included the characters and pronunciation with the songs.
Enjoy!
P.s. How, you might ask, did I get her to learn these songs? It was a simple, repeat after me, line by line with simple actions. Usually, she bumbles along or doesn’t sing for the first few lessons and I feel like a failed teacher. Then, one day and without prompting, she will bust out the whole song from beginning to end. Does any one else’s child learn this way?
Tiny Chinese Homeschool 