Learning mandarin in an engaging way: Ihuman Chinese App (洪恩识字)

Being parents, one area which we are very concerned about is the amount of Chinese Hunter is exposed to.

I came from a dialect speaking family, and PL speaks mostly English at home too. So we hope to give Hunter a Mandarin speaking environment (much to the chagrin of many people) since we tend to mix some English vocabulary into our daily Mandarin conversation.

Friends and neighbours recommended the Ihuman Chinese app to us, raving about its effectiveness. We tried out the trial version, and eventually paid a lifetime subscription for it after much deliberation.

Payment

First, I must state that the payment method is very efficient for apple users who can read Chinese, but not so much for non-Chinese since all the instructions are in Chinese.

It is also relatively cheap as we are able to subscribe to a lifetime membership. If Hunter uses it consistently, we would reap ALOT of benefits since they teach up to 1300 words. (If Hunter learns a word a day, that's going to be about 3.5 years!)

Design

The design of the app is very colourful with may interactive features.

It caters more towards pre schoolers, and I started this journey with Hunter since he was about 3.5 years old (though I really doubt I could finish all the words before P1).

Learning Approach

There are 4 phases to learning each character:

1. Play 玩

For this section, the kid gets to play a mini game.

2. Recognition 认

For this section, there is a quick explanation on the character and the kid would have to pull the correct characters into the sentence shown on the screen.

3. Practise 练

For this section, the kid is expected to choose the correct character from 4 options

4. Writing 写

For this section, the kid gets to trace the character 3 times.

Our approach (after a lot of trial and error)

We switched off the option for Practise as Hunter likes to anyhow choose the charaters (to see the interactive elements).

So what we did was to let him play the game, assist to re-form the sentence and write. Depending on the word and his mood, it could be a breeze (or a torture). On good days, we could cover about 3 character. On bad days, we just do revision on his favourite characters (or games)

This is one of the mini games

Tracing the character

What we like about it

1. Since the learning is by characters, it doesn't take a lot of time to learn a new one.

2. They also helps in revision by giving a mini assessment every day.

3. The mini games (or activities) are very captivating.

4. There is no Han Yu Pin Yin.

What could be improved

1. An option to switch off certain characters. We are facing the issue of character favoritism, where Hunter will keep choosing the same characters which he already knows and keep playing them over and over again.

2. To include phrase recognition. As the learning is all by single characters, we have to put in additional effort to piece the words together to form understanding. As all Chinese speakers would know, many of the characters are paired together to form a word.

Summary

We like this app and it's one of the ways we get Hunter to learn new characters. After learning them, we will apply his new knowledge by getting him to read the characters (whenever we are reading to him).I was pretty surprised at the effectiveness of it, and it seems really true that kids soak up knowledge like sponges.

Comments

Review: Learning spanish with Wlingua Spanish

It has already been a dream of mine to learn Spanish but due to the astronomical cost involved in picking up Spanish at a language school ( I was looking at las lilas school ), I gave up. So, while I was randomly surfing the net, I came across this app, Wlingua Spanish , which has a 7 days free premium trial and it seems to have quite good reviews on google play. As such, I downloaded the app and started using it. What can I say, it's awesome! I don't know how the basic plan looks like since I am still on my premium trial, but the layout of the course is really pretty good. According to the app, it covers up to B1 of the Spanish course, which equates to around 3 years of study in a language school. That's more than good enough for beginners like us. Below is a screenshot of my progress in 4 days, and I have been spending around 4-5 hours each day on this app. It seems like I got to take a long time even before I can complete the A1 course. T.T This app has a rewar...

[Review] Lovejoy confinement centre in JB

I did an unthinkable thing, which is to head over to JB for confinement. When I first suggested that, everyone around me warned me against it. They cited the lack of healthcare should I or Hunter is unwell and the inconvenience caused by the distance. I wasn't deterred and pushed forward with it and I didn't have any regrets. I enjoyed my time there tremendously and would go back there again if not for my insistence that I would not have a second kid. All that being said, there are definitely some cons but they are minor issues in my opinion. An unassuming front Pros: Amazing food As everyone knows, food in JB tastes better and the confinement centre is no exception. 5 meals are provided a day with unlimited milo and biscuits should you be hungry. (Trust me, breastfeeding is hungry business). The timings are 9am (breakfast), 12pm (lunch), 3pm (teabreak), 6pm (dinner) and 9pm(supper). As you can see, I was really well taken care of in the food department when I was there. Huge ...

Our 1st home

In a few months' time, we will be moving out of our BTO home. It is a bittersweet moment as we have painstakingly designed our place, putting in months of efforts. However, we (or mainly I) decided that we have outgrown this current flat, and require more space for our growing boy. (And it definitely does not help that both of us are currently working in a hybrid mode.) Our place before we shifted in: Our platform bed - You may be amazed that it fits a king sized bed We chose casement doors for the cupboards I love the spanish made wooden tiles! We got it at Soon Bee Huat Our customized racks in the bomb shelter The view from our home After moving in: The kitchen The living room It has been a good 6 years.

Phonics Class at Curious Thoughts Academy (CTA)

Today, I am going to share my review of the phonics enrichment school that I have been sending Hunter to since start of July 2023. To give you the background, Curious Thoughts Academy (CTA) base its phonics classes on Jolly Phonics, and is located in Bugis. I first got to know about CTA when they launched their phonics workshop. Being the ambitious mum, I thought that I could save some money and teach Hunter phonics by myself. After going through the workshop, I realised the amount of work I have to put in to curate the materials, and I decided that it is best left to the experts and I would just revise the contents with him at home during the week. Below are the information from CTA. They run the classes by terms and classes are tagged by levels. Price List for 2023 Hunter is currently in Intermediate phonics and will be advancing up next year. I love the approach ...

Review: NUR1113 (Active Ageing in Singapore)

Apparently this is a year one nursing module. This is another module which is highly bidded for, and a relatively easy module. Lectures can be skipped, as long as you read the lecture slides on your own. All the information had been pasted into the slides, rendering the lecture useless. The lecturer usually just reads from the slides. Tutorials are easy. Nothing much to prepare, and basically, they are logic questions. I remember doing a powerpoint presentation for this module. We also did random experiments in tutorials. However, one thing not good about being the minority in a close-knitted faculty means that you can't really interact with the rest of the module mates. They all have a similar timetable, meaning that you have to suit their timing. Something to consider if you are taking language modules huh.

Revolving stars

Search This Blog