Effective and Fun Kids' Games for Learning Mandarin

Is your kids learning a third language or more specifically Mandarin? Typically, children may find learning a new language difficult, but it doesn't have to be boring. We as a parents can support them by making it more interesting and engaging for them to learn a language through including enjoyable games and activities. We'll look at some of the most entertaining and useful activities for kids to learn Mandarin. Don't worry, it's also cost effective, your bank account is safe with us.

1. FLASHCARDS

A tried-and-true method for enhancing our kids' Mandarin characters and vocabulary comprehension is through flashcards. They can serve as a useful tool for practicing Mandarin at home, whether you decide to make your own (with the kids for bonding time) or buy ready sets that are sold online or in stores.

You can prepare few sets of flashcards according to different topics. It's better if the topics are what they are learning in their Mandarin class so the children can play with the flashcards as revision. We always suggest to start with simple and easy vocabulary set such as time-based greetings: 早安 (zǎo ān) for “good morning”, 午安 (wǔ ān) for good afternoon/evening and 晚安 (wǎn ān) for good night.

2. SING-A-SONG

Children generally like singing and dancing along to music, so including Mandarin songs into their language learning is a fun approach to help them acquire new vocabulary and phrases. There are a number of children's Mandarin nursery rhymes that we always play in our Mandarin class and our students enjoy it every single time.

If we were to give a recommendation for your kids, it would definitely be the iconic 两只老虎 (liǎng zhī lǎo hǔ) which has the meaning of "Two Tigers". In our class, the laoshi will play this before the class ends and teach the students dance moves that they can do while singing it. Usually, we will receive feedback from parents that their kids would keep asking them to play the song at home so they can sing and dance along like how they did in class. The melody of 两只老虎 is just very catchy that we believe anyone would keep thinking about it after the 1st listen.

3. TREASURE HUNTS

Treasure hunts get the children moving around excitedly while also giving them a chance to practice their Mandarin. Parents can design a treasure hunt map within the house that challenges the kids to discover and name things at home in Mandarin. When creating a treasure hunt for kids, try not to include too many objects. Keep it simple by only including three to five objects each times. Make sure the objects you include in the hunt are suitable for the age and proficiency of your kids, it would be best that they have already learned the names ahead before starting the hunt.

Along the way, it won't hurt if we give clues to trigger active recall. We can choose items that the kids would use or see daily such as 铅笔 (qiān bǐ)/ pencil, 汤匙 (tāng chí)/ spoon, 苹果 (píng guǒ)/ apple, 书包 (shū bāo)/ bag and many more. We can either show them the words in Mandarin then they find the item or we tell them what to find and they have to say the item's name in Mandarin when they found it. There are various way to do this treasure hunt, we just have to choose the one that excites our kids the most.

Learning Mandarin doesn't have to be all serious and stressful, it can be fun and exciting as well! For children, the key element for them to master a skill is to continuously be interested to learn it. Us as a parent can support and motivate them by actively taking part in their learning process. Fasih Mandarin always emphasize that parents and teacher can make a difference in the learning outcomes of the children. Nothing is too hard to learn as long as it is taught in the right way!