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On Raising Bilingual & Multilingual Children - Pt. 3Part 3 of 3: Language Technology
I recently unearthed a box of my college Chinese language class notebooks and textbooks from my mom’s garage. I rummaged through to find something useful or interesting to my seven year old daughter, who is currently also studying Chinese (and doing much better than I ever did) like a dictionary or stories or even old tests with bad grades on them to make her laugh. Mostly what I found were shoeboxes and shoeboxes full of 3x5 cards I had made as study aids. Ah yes, index cards. That is what I remember most about college Chinese class—every week I would copy the new vocabulary onto index cards, Chinese on one side, English and pronunciation on the other. I carried them with me everywhere, and whenever I had a spare moment, I would try to write a few more. It took me so long to make all the cards that I do not remember actually studying them. Whereas index cards were my primary study tools then, they are not my daughter’s. Hand-made index cards seem so quaint in comparison with all the tools available today to our modern, high-tech children (and their time-strapped parents), who like all the bells and whistles, the point and click. Of course, the best tools for teaching children language will always be the obvious ones—a good language teacher, language school, people with whom to practice speaking, study buddies, books, etc. No amount of technology will supplant these, but it can effectively supplement them. Today, there are CD-ROMs with language instruction, CD-ROMs with stories and computer games, videos and DVDs, music CDs, electronic dolls and more. With the Internet, it is becoming easy to find products both from and intended for foreign markets.
CD-ROMs
One of the best language CD-ROMs I reviewed is "KidSpeak" by Transparent Language. There are many different versions, including Spanish and English as a second language, as well as "KidSpeak 10-in-1 Language Learning CD-ROM," which includes ten languages on a three-disk set including Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Korean, Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, and German. It costs little more than only one language, and so it is a good value if you want to learn two or more languages. It is also generally more widely available than the single-language versions. Animated and lively, it has three levels of difficulty with over 40 interactive games and activities, and it covers alphabet, numbers, telling time, days of the week, names of the months, simple sentences, and important phrases—more than 700 words and expressions per language. It is marketed for ages 6 and up, but if your child already speaks the language, then she can begin to play it at a younger age. My daughter had no problems with it at age 3 and with no help from me; she also wanted to try the Japanese and Indonesian versions, and had fun even though she does not know those languages.
Another well-known language program is Rosetta Stone Explorer Language CD-ROMs. Languages offered include Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Hindi at $19.95 each. The PowerPac offers seven languages together: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese for the price of two, $39.95. This CD-ROM uses interactive, immersion-style lessons with photos to enhance vocabulary building. It is a beginner’s edition that includes the first 22 chapters of the Level I Rosetta Stone Language Library program (which has 92 chapters) and will take you to a fifth grade level in that language. It says for ages 6 and up, but I think it is really intended for teenagers and adults. At 6, my daughter found it too easy and terribly dry. She prefers the animated games and funny sounds of software more directly targeted at younger kids. For older, heavyweight studiers, Fairfield Language Technologies also makes a much more comprehensive edition called The Rosetta Stone Language Library Personal, which costs $195 per level ($184 at Amazon). Editor's Note: As always, we recommend that you consider making purchases from Asian-American businesses. Asia for Kids is a personal favorite. That said, if you know you want to dive head-first into a wide variety of language materials for serious study, Amazon appears to be running a strong promotion program on a number of these titles. For example, the top-rated Rosetta Stone Japanese Language Explorer this May is being offered in a three-title discount bundle with an illustrated "First Thousand Words" vocabulary book and a "Picture Dictionary" that thoughtfully move from ages 4-8, then 9-12, to provide a more comprehensive, long-term study experience than just the CD-ROM alone. Asia for Kids also has other language learning software for Tagalog, Korean, and Cantonese. Its Fairy Tale CD-ROM set that has animated stories, games, and reading in Mandarin and English.
Videos and DVDs and VCDs
Foreign language videos, DVDs, and VCDs are available with a little hunting around on the Web, in ethnic communities, and the next time a relative goes to visit Asia. The international market is so big now that Disney films (and others) are being translated into lots of other languages; you know they are selling the videos too, it is just a matter of finding them. We have Chinese Disney films, Teletubbies, Hello Kitty, Sailor Moon, Chinese story collections, western story collections in translation, and a British Sesame Street equivalent called Hullaballoo. The advantage of videos are that children want to watch them—so much that they are willing to watch even if they are in another language. The kids know the characters and the stories and can easily figure out what is going on even if they do not understand every word. If buying videos directly from Asia, be aware that many Asian countries use the PAL format for videos as opposed to VHS, and those videos will not work on your video player unless you first have the video converted to VHS. In China, video never really caught on, and instead, China uses a format called VCDs which can be played on some CD-ROM players and most DVD players. However, now that DVDs are becoming more popular, differences in format will become less of a problem. I have found a great resource for Mandarin Chinese videos at Childbook.com (Disney, Teletubbies, Hello Kitty, Chinese stories, Chinese songs) and Mandarin Chinese VCDs at Chinasprout.com (Sailor Moon, Monkey King, Chinese stories, Chinese serials). Asia for Kids has Children’s Circle videos, a collection of children’s books made into video shorts and then translated into Chinese or Japanese (including Corduroy, Happy Birthday Moon, Strega Nona, although be prepared that some of the stories have no words). Other places to look include children’s karaoke videos for singing and dancing—great for younger children. Keep an eye out when visiting ethnic and Asian-American shops, friends’ homes, and video stores, and look through ethnic magazines and newspapers for ads. You never know what might be hidden away in a corner somewhere, and over time, you will build up quite a library. Stock up in the fall so that you are ready for flu season and all those days your child will be home sick from school.
Dolls and Electronic Toys
We are surrounded by beeping, buzzing, and singing toys—why not have one more which will also teach language? Language Littles Bilingual Dolls are soft-bodied, 16 inches tall, and very huggable. Squeeze her hand or touch her heart and she will say "I love you" or "You are my friend" or count to 10 in English and in one of these languages: Japanese, Chinese, French, Spanish, or Italian. The dolls were made in conjunction with Asia for Kids so the dolls are hip, cute, and non-stereotypical—no squinty eyes here. The other wonderful thing about these dolls is that they bring language to children and associate it with something they want, something bright and cheerful, so that language is not all drudgery and study and grey skies. Toddlers also love electronic toys with buttons they can push to make noise. I have seen some from Asia that speak other languages and play Asian song melodies, but have not found many here yet. The closest I have come is a speaking Chinese English dictionary at Asia for Kids, but at $179.95, it is not really a children’s toy. Imaginarium.com carries an interesting R2-D2-like toy for toddlers called "Little Linguist" that takes cartridges containing music, although apparently its languages are limited to French, Japanese, and English. Although the Japanese cartridge is recommended for ages 3 to 5, the player unit itself is operable from 12 months and up, so it may be a good, reasonably priced tool for getting an early start on Japanese instruction.
Cassette Tapes and CDs
Finally, music is always an easy and natural way for children for learn languages, especially if they already know the melody or if they learn hand movements. We always keep Chinese kids' music in the car and my daughters listen to it every day as we drive to and from school, swim class, shopping, and all our other errands. It can be a little hard on the parent after the 100th time through, or else you might find yourself humming Chinese kids’ songs to yourself in the grocery store. The Sing ‘n Learn series has songs in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, on either cassette tape or CD, and a book in which the words have been printed with pronunciation and an English translation. The next time you have to teach your child’s class a song for International Day, you can photocopy a page for the kids to sing and color. Most titles in the series were (co-)authored by Selina Yoon, our highly knowledgeable friend from Asia for Kids. Good luck in your search to make language fun with technology. If you find any really cool resources and where to find languages other than the ones listed here, please let us know!
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