Chinese Books for Kids to Learn Chinese

Choosing Chinese textbooks for kids is a big decision. The learning materials are now far more abundant than before. But it's still important to have good criteria before making your selection. we recommend you read the following general guidelines first to avoid waste your time and money.

1. Good Chinese materials, whether books or videos, should be designed according to children’s familiar and interested topics and be better if they are funny story-centered.

2. We strongly recommend those lessons based on conversational situation, which introduces your kids to a real life communication. Those materials can help children to build the confidence to communicate with others in Chinese.

3. Most of our kids are visual learners. Sound supporting materials, such as CD, videos or tapes attached with the text-book help your children learn the correct pronunciation effectively.

If you are seriously let your children learn Chinese language, you may consider a comprehensive set of learning material. Besides above general criteria, a good set of Chinese textbook should adopt the spiral approach and review.

1. Happy Chinese: KUAILE HANYU consists of six books with three levels, with both a student's book and teacher's book. The assistant materials include flash cards, charts, audio cassettes and videos. With vivid design and colorful illustrations, the series suits the students from 11 to 16 years old and focuses on the training of Chinese communicative competence.

2. Easy Steps to Chinese Textbook: Fun and effective, this excellent textbook series adopts an exciting new approach to teaching Chinese as a foreign language. The task-based program, designed by the authors of the popular Chinese Made Easy and Chinese Made Easy for Kids, is based on feedback and helpful suggestions from teachers who use those series in their classrooms.

3. Learn Chinese with Me: Learn Chinese with Me is a series designed for students of 15 to 18 years old whose native language is English. It guides the students from beginner to low-intermediate level. The series is composed of four volumes each of which contains Student's Book, Teacher's Book, Workbooks, and phonetic and listening materials.

Chinese Zodiac

The Chinese zodiac, known as Sheng Xiao in Chinese, is based on a 12-year cycle, with each year represented by a different animal. According to the Chinese zodiac, your birth year tells you more than just the age. People who born under each sign are said to exhibit sets of personality traits unique to that sign, and somewhat associated with the animal itself.
These animal signs in order are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Chinese people believe that the years represented by the animals affect the characters of people in the same manner as the sign of zodiac adopted by western civilizations. Take this year of dragon for example, people born in dragon years are giving, intelligent and tenacious, know exactly what they want and are determined to get it. Further, they can easily influence their peers and often find themselves the center of attention in social situations.
One of the another important uses for the signs of the Chinese zodiac is to determine if people are compatible. The three animals which are evenly spaced from one another in the zodiac circle are generally considered to be good matches. Rat, Dragon and Monkey; Ox, Snake and Rooster; Tiger and Horse and Dog; Rabbit, Sheep and Pig are suitable for one another. Matching symbols on the Zodiac chart indicate compatible signs.
However, the signs which are opposite each other in the Zodiac Circle chart are poor matches. Generally a Rat and Horse; Ox and Goat; Tiger and Monkey; Rabbit and Rooster; Dragon and Dog; Snake and Pig will not get along with each other. These signs make poor partners in love and in business. Family members who have opposite signs may experience friction and disharmony in the home.
It seems interesting, right? Find out what your Chinese zodiac sign reveals about you now!

Chinese Traditional Lantern Festival

As all of us know, the Spring Festival is the most important festival in China, which usually last for 15 days. The Lantern Festival, falling on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, marks the end of the celebrations of the Chinese Spring Festival. You may know how to celebrate valentine's Day, Christmas Day, Thanks Giving Day, etc. But you may not know how to spend this Chinese traditional festival. I will make a brief introduction about it, and if you are interested in Chinese culture, please go through the following content.
According to Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day is the first night to see a full moon in that lunar year, when there is a bright full moon hanging in the sky. Celebrations feature fireworks and folk dancing. Highlights include traditional public performances such as the dragon parade and the lion dance.
The Chinese families reunite and eat rice glue balls on this day. It is a kind of round, sweet, stuffed dumpling made with sticky rice flour that symbolizes family unity, completeness and happiness.
People hang thousands of colorful lanterns along the street to appreciate. It is said that people write auspicious phrases on the lanterns to ward off evil spirits and attract good ones; some will decorate their lantern with a riddle and award a prize to the first person who solves it. The light given off by the lanterns is said to attract heavenly spirits and allow celebrants the chance to see them.
Play fireworks, solve riddles, watch lanterns...all are so interesting and exciting, right? To learn more Chinese cultures, why not learn Chinese online with MasterChinese now?