Bao & Bun's Bilingual Journey

Reflecting on our Chinese learning journey through the OCAC experience, I realized that my children need to learn more than just characters. There’s a broader spectrum of Chinese language skills that require active learning.

• During OCAC, one of the homework assignments was to write down all the new phrases introduced in the lesson. This made me rethink my approach to teaching my kids. Like many bloggers, I focused on teaching my kids to recognize 500 characters in hopes that they would eventually become proficient readers. However, I discovered that simply recognizing characters isn’t sufficient. Understanding common phrases and their meanings is equally important for comprehension. Instead of aiming for 500 characters, I believe the goal should be to learn 500 commonly used phrases that can be assembled into sentences. Unfortunately, I haven’t come across a resource that specifically targets this goal (please share if you know of one).

• Composition is another aspect that many bloggers overlook. While they may introduce curricula, there’s often little emphasis on composition skills. I was pleasantly surprised to find that guided sentence structure and composition are taught in the second semester of first grade in Taiwan. Practicing composition not only enhances writing skills but also improves verbal communication. I realized that our current online class lacks this component.

As a result, I’m in the process of finding a new tutor who uses the Taiwan curriculum to teach my children. I’ve come to understand that learning Chinese requires a more comprehensive approach that goes beyond character recognition alone.