Bilingual children are often mistakenly diagnosed with early learning disabilities because the standardised tests for academic competence that we currently have were created based on data derived from monolingual children. In this TedTalk by Emilia Saenz Rios, she argues that the benefits of bilingualism are undeniable and that we need to persevere and be more patient. While the pace of language development may seem slower in bilingual children at first when compared to their

Did you know that Ping Pong originated from 1880s Victorian England? It was invented by the upper classes as an indoor alternative to tennis when it was too cold to play outside. Players would set up nets across their dining tables and sometimes even use stacks of books as nets, cigar box lids as bats and golf balls or rounded champagne corks for balls. As you can imagine, it caught on very quickly being a lot more accessible for people to play at home as they didn’t need a b

Numbers are surprisingly easy to learn in Chinese because they are simply logical. Once you have learnt how to count from 1 to 10 in Chinese, you can count all the way up to 99. Whereas if you were to learn to count in English, you would have to learn unique words for numbers beyond ten, such as “eleven” “twelve” and “twenty,” to name a few. To illustrate, when you have mastered numbers 1 to 10 in Chinese, moving on to double digit numbers would simply be putting two digits

你笑起来真好看| It’s really pretty when you smile 李昕融 | 樊桐舟 | 李凯稠 作词| Lyrics：周兵 作曲| Music：李凯稠 We spent the October half term learning this really beautiful song with our kids. It is a very meaningful song with a catchy tune. There are a total of 4 stanzas of four lines and a lot of repetitions of the chorus which you will not be able to get out of your head once you have learnt how to sing it. The lyrics were relatively simple but there were some words which our kids found tricky an

Chinese radicals or 部首 (bùshǒu) help us to understand the correct meaning of characters in the Chinese language. They are graphical components of the Chinese character and are building blocks that appear within characters. This makes the characters easier to remember. To illustrate, the radical 灬 huǒ is a simplification of the character of fire as four fire dots. Some example of words that use this radical includes 蒸 (to steam) and 煮 (to cook), acts of which would require "fi

The ban on ozone-destroying chemicals such as CFCs in products like aerosols cans in 1987 has resulted in the hole shrinking, and is the smallest it has ever been since we discovered the puncture almost 35 years ago.  I truly believe that if we educate our younger generation. Here's a great cartoon on YouTube about recycling. It is so relevant to our current habit of single use plastics and a great tool to create awareness when teaching the kids. Useful vocabulary: Garbage re

Our children have started playing football matches in the local school league and as you can imagine it's now Eat, Sleep, Football, Repeat during game season. After match conversations have been liberally peppered with football terminology in Mandarin and English. Following some research we would like to share some of the common, general vocabulary that you can use when having a conversation about football in Mandarin. Firstly, let's start with the basics: Football: 足球 (zú qi

Barking to the Moon 对月高昌 | Bolt 闪电狗 (2008) | Chinese Mandarin Singing makes learning fun and easier to remember. What better way to enhance your Mandarin than with one of your favourite Disney songs. Watch this rendition of "Barking to the Moon" in Mandarin with bilingual subtitles and pinyin (translation included below). Love the movie? You can buy the DVD (Mandarin/English language option) here. #bilingualbees #learningmandarin #bilingualchinesesongs #chinesecartoons #lear

Learning languages can be easy as 1,2,3 if you break it down to simple steps.

Li Bai, 李白, one of China's most prolific poets, used 4 lines of 5 Chinese characters while he reminisced about being with his family.

A Whole New World 新的世界 | Aladdin 阿拉丁 | Multilingual including Chinese Mandarin Singing makes learning fun and easier to remember. What better way to enhance your Mandarin than with one of your favourite Disney songs. Watch this Youtube video of "A Whole New World" in multiple languages. Here's a remake of the classic rendition of “A whole new world” made popular by Peabo Bryson and & Regina Belle. I chose this version, which is sung bilingually by four Asian artists in Engli

The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, 鬼节 (guǐ jié) is a traditional Buddhist and Taoist festival held in certain Asian countries.  In Chinese culture, the seventh month of the lunar calendar is regarded as the Ghost Month, 鬼月 (guǐ yuè) where the gates of hell will be opened from the 1st till the 30th day of the month. Ghosts and spirits, including those of deceased ancestors, will  be able to come out from their realm to visit the living. Activities dur

Useful vocabulary: KFC or 肯德基 (Kěn dé jī） Set meal - 套餐 (tào cān) Fast food - 快餐 (kuài cān) Ketchup or 番茄酱 (fān qié jiàng） French fries－薯条 (shǔ tiáo） Coca-cola－可乐 (kě lè） Pepsi - 百事可乐 (Bǎi shì kě lè) Chicken －鸡肉 (jī ròu) Chicken Leg - 鸡肉腿 (jī ròu tuǐ) Chicken Wing－鸡翅 (jī chì) Chicken Breast - 鸡排 (jī pái) Watch this YouTube clip below for some useful phrases and vocabulary. #肯德基 #bilingualbees #learnmandarin #learninglanguages #learningmandarin  #homeschool #homelearning #summ

Behind every great man is a great woman, or so the saying goes, which generally implies that the great women is often the wife or partner. Perhaps it is the mother that is often ignored or taken for granted. This is a tribute to the unwavering sacrifices that mothers make and the significant role they played in shaping their children’s destiny. Ancient China has many notable mothers of famous individuals in Chinese history. Through their virtuous upbringing, wisdom, and suppo

♫ There goes the baker with his tray, like always The same old bread and rolls to sell Every morning just the same Since the morning that we came To this poor provincial town Good morning, Belle ! ♫ Ah, such memories. Love the cartoon ? Buy the story book (Simplified Chinese with pinyin) here. #learningmandarin #Songs #Disney #learningthroughsongs

Qing Ming 清明 is a day for the Chinese to celebrate life and honour their ancestors. This is a popular Tang Dynasty poem written by Du Mu 杜牧 about Qing Ming Festival 清明节. Most Chinese children have been taught to recite this poem on the day as a tribute to the festival, perhaps synonymous to reciting the Selkirk Grace on Burns Night. Qing Ming falls on the 15th day after the Spring equinox, (April 5 this year) when the weather is changing to a warmer Spring when sudden rainfal

I spent quite a bit of time getting my head around the characters of My Little Pony whilst writing descriptions of the books on our website. So I have decided to compile a primer on the key characters of the My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic series (because the universe of My Little Pony and Friends is enormous!) with the corresponding names in Mandarin. The books are available on our website. N.B.: Source - All pictures and information for this blog are taken from here. M

DIY Training Chopsticks in 3 Simple Steps You will need: A rubber band A pair of disposable bamboo chopsticks (including the paper wrapper) Separate the chopsticks. Wrap the rubber band around the top of the separated chopsticks until tight. Roll up the chopsticks paper wrapper tightly into cylindrical drum starting from the closed top end to the bottom. Insert the rolled up paper wrapper in between the two chopsticks. Training Chopsticks for children are now available to buy

The Chinese are thought to have used chopsticks as early as 1200 B.C., firstly as a cooking utensil. It was not until A.D. 400 that people began eating with chopsticks as they found them efficient. It subsequently spread to other parts of Asia. Since then different cultures in Asia have adopted different styles of chopsticks. For example, in Japan, the chopsticks are traditionally made of bamboo or wood and are often lacquered whilst in Korea, the chopsticks are metal. Chines

Part of Your World 属于你的世界 | The Little Mermaid 小美人魚 (1989) | Chinese Mandarin This was first released almost 30 years and yet the music and lyrics remain as fresh as ever. In this song, Ariel our Little Mermaid princess who has everything, sings about yearning to be part of the human world. Singing makes learning fun and easier to remember. What better way to enhance your Mandarin than with one of your favourite Disney songs. Watch this Youtube of "Part of Your World" in Man