Sunday, April 6, 2014

|WATCH| How do you learn Mandarin? Speak it! Speak it! And Speak it!!

Our mornings are usually filled with lots of speaking practices. The students have been memorizing greetings, their birthdays, weathers, favorite foods and activities. There are SO MANY vocabulary words and phrases they know, but the only way to become fluent is to SPEAK THEM. It might be silly to plug words into formulas, but after awhile, the students will shift to tweak phrases...and that is really exciting! Anyhow, since we don't live in a Mandarin speaking country, we make the best use out of each other. Students are partnered up randomly and they are required to ask a set of questions and answers they are familiar with.

In this video clip, Rami and Ava ask each other what they like and do not like to do. First they interviewed each other, then they had to do an introduction. I thought the three step process was not the easiest task. Think about this, first, they have to ask the question. Second, they have to memorize it. Third, they have to ask the next question. Fourth, they have to memorize it. Fifth, they have to present it all. Oh wait, that WAS really complicated, wasn't it? And just sixty Mandarin days ago, each of them was learning how to say "ni hao!" and counting numbers to 10.

The seeds are sprouting, so keep watering.

Enjoy the clip!


2 comments:

  1. This was amazing. These two are just so adorable. Prompting each other, forming those complex syllables with cute little expressions. Truly precious!! Xie xie!! Liu laoshi, do you have room for one more student? :)
    Anupama

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    Replies
    1. I would take you any day to be my student. :) :) :)

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