by Billie Staib

Created on: July 30, 2010

Learning Chinese for a native English speaker can be a lot like trying to teach yourself how to sing. In addition to the ever infamous tones of the language, a new speaker has to get a feel for and learn how to reproduce a very different rhythm of speech and deliver it in phrases that can seem almost poetic in their arrangement. And of course, like singing, it is often very hard to determine if you are doing it correctly without the help of someone who knows what it should sound like. So how does one go about starting this journey? Actually it is one of the easiest things you can do. Simply hand the controls over to your inner child. How can you do that? Here are a few suggestions.

Watch movies designed for kids.

Most of us have seen a toddler mesmerized by cartoons. If you stop to think about it, a toddler doesn't know most of the words or concepts in a full-length animated movie. They have no concept of what an alien is, or a robot. But they do find the movies entertaining and more often than not they quickly get to the point where they can recite large sections of the movie...even the parts with the concepts they don't understand. As they do this more and more, their understanding grows, and in the meantime they are having a great time! If you are a Disney fan, you can easily find your Disney favorites in high-quality Mandarin versions.

Listen to Chinese kids songs.

Just like movies, songs for kids are meant to be catchy. Kids don't have a huge attention span, and as adult learners of a foreign language, we often don't either. They key here is repetition. Remember how your parents would groan when you wanted to play your sing-along album or tape? Well now is your chance to find those jazzy jingles you loved as a kind and listen to them until your heart's content. I have found a large number of Chinese kids books with an accompanying CD of songs to listen to. You can also find thousands of kids videos on YouKu, a Chinese site very similar to YouTube.

Get some kids books.

Reading is an entirely different mountain to climb. However, if you are enchanted with the characters, as so many of us are, finding material intended for kids is yet again your best bet. Unlike textbooks and other “teaching” material, kids books are shiny with lots of colors and, more importantly, pictures! Just like when you were small, you can use the pictures to help you figure out what is going on in the story. The brain seems to be a lot better at retaining information

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