Customer Reviews

Chinese for Kids: Learn Chinese Beginning Level 1 Volume 1

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Not easy to follow or particularly entertaining for my 3yo who doesn't have prior exposure to Mandarin Chinese. After buying this DVD, we tried another - Learning Chinese & English Together - which we found taught similar concepts in a clearer and more enjoyable format for young kids who were absolute beginners.

We speak Cantonese at home but Mandarin is really more useful for the future so I am starting my children on learning Mandarin (as well as learning it myself). The whole family watches this DVD and we all enjoy it. The words and phrases taught are basic but useful - hello, introducing yourself to others, thanks, relatives, colors, numbers, and objects. The actors speak slowly enough so we can follow but with a natural rhythm. The songs and animation make the lessons more interesting for the children. I definitely recommend for both children and adults who are learning Mandarin.

I found this video very helpful as a complete beginner to Mandarin Chinese. I was looking for something the whole family could watch and learn from. We were pleasantly surprised that it was entertaining and emphasized those beginning phrases we were looking for. I like how each chapter focuses on a beginning topic such as basic greetings, family members and so on. We've had a good time practicing amongst ourselves. This is a great video, we plan to get the next volume.

As a native Mandarin speaker, I give this DVD a C+ at best. This is definitely not a professionally produced DVD. The young man on the cover is the lead actor in the DVD, and he speaks Mandarin with Southern accents. It would be like learning to speak English with a teacher from Brooklyn or India, not an ideal choice. (I really don't mean to offend anyone from Brooklyn or India,it is just an analogy, my apology.) After watching the DVD for about 15 mins, I promptly returned the DVD I borrowed from the library without showing it to my child. You may have better luck teaching your child to speak Mandarin with Mandarin versions of cartoons such as Pororo, Noddy, or Pocoyo.

We recently purchased Chinese for Kids, Volume 1 and this is the best language video on the market we have found. My daughter enjoys playing the remote conrol games and laughs everytime she sees the animated dog Benboo take off in his convertible when she gets the answer right. Language Tree lives up to their reputation of making learning fun. Now if they would just come out with a volume 2.

Despite the high rating for this product, I, a native Chinese speaker found this DVD poorly presented.
1. The whole image of this DVD feels very home-made, not professional at all. I think it's because of the sound system.

2. The pronunciation is off (with a foreign accent).

3. When the DVD introduces father (ba ba), it just shows a man's face - if you don't read English as a child, you'd have no clue what this man's face is meant. When the DVD introduces big present (da li wu), it has a child pushes a present forward. How a person who doesn't read know what it's trying to say - is the big bag da li wu?

I wish I can return this DVD.

My daughters and I really enjoyed this video. The characters are appealing and the songs are pretty catchy. More importantly, the video teaches Chinese in a way that is really accessible to non-Chinese viewers. The dialogue was easy to follow without being stilted and the pace is natural. The fact that it's a DVD is also a big plus as the whole family can watch together. While I can't say for sure how effective it is compared to other language learning tools, I do notice that that we have picked up quite a few words and phrases and have begun to use them even when not watching the video.

I've seen several learn Chinese DVD's and this one is one of the best. The mix of speech, song, graphics all came together to keep your attention and educate. This DVD really does it's job.

The basis of the DVD is 2D Flash Type animation where the subjects are fairly static but moving through the scene. The colors are bright and there is enough motion and change to keep watchable but not distract from the message, Somehow I really think this minimalist style adds to the impact, flashy GCI is nice but you end up watching the pictures, not focusing on the lesson.

The presentation is by an american female narrator who follows the daily activites of a Chinese family, specifically Billy and his pet Shi-Tzu Bemboo. But it doesn't cute out too much on the dog nor is it all about billy. The lessons cover names of family members, dinner, a visit to the farm, the four tones, parts of the body and more. There is both regular speech and a recap song after the "lesson". The format and pacing might be a little fast for the first time but after you watch it enough times you catch on. I've already got some experience with the langauge so I can't rate it from a strictly beginner standpoint.

I'm married to a Chinese lady and we have two kids 4 and 18months at the time of this review. So I've got well above average exposure to the Langauge but I found it useful, kind of a reinforcement exercise and fleshing out a few little details. My kids (who understand but refuse to speak chinese) loved it. It kept them engaged and encouraged the older one to actually spit out a few words. The younger one got a lot of it as she was picking up both the Chinese and the English words.

The fact that they really enjoyed it and it kept their attention and focus and they got a lot out of it is why I rate this one so highly. Others may make arugments for or against this methodolgy or presentation of the langauge. I could pick at a few things (my wife mentioned that the chinse pronounciation wasn't very good) but in the end its the impact on the target audience that determines how good the product is and it really hit home. I'd highly recommend it.

PROS -
Excellent presentation, visuals, audio and songs are well balanced and keep the pace going.
Good selection of material (very relavent to beginners)
Best explanation of the 4 tones yet

CONS-
MIGHT be a big jump for a total beginner (I can't judge)
Chinese pronounciation isn't perfect (Taiwanese accent claims the Mainlander), I wouldn't know.

All and all I'd highly recommend it.

We have quite a few "learn Chinese" DVDs and for some reason (that I clearly don't understand) this one is my three-year old's favorite. It features Billy (a boy who has a birthday) and Benbo (a dog that sings). One odd feature is the inconsistent sound volume. I find myself having to adjust the sound throughout the program. I give it four stars because it is the one my daughter wants to watch again and again.

Frankly, I think the "mei-mei" tapes are much better. My daughter LOVED Sing & Dance with Mei Mei, but I haven't found it in DVD yet. We have a Mei Mei DVD about school, but it's a little over my daughter's head at this point and she doesn't really like it.

I bought the video for my kids to learn more Chinese. They know a bit of Chinese, like hello, thank you, etc.

The video is level 1, so it is supposed to be starting easy. That's not true. The first lesson has the main character, a boy, introducing himself in full sentences and it was quite a bunch of sentences. When someone don't even know basic words like "I", "name", and you throw them with full sentences introducing themselves that's got to be daunting.

It's done in a video featuring a his birthday in America. His Chinese is OK, but not perfect. His relatives' Chinese is OK too. I heard once his father struggled with a Chinese word.

The format is a bit boring. The lessons contain a video clip of Chinese people talking in Chinese. Then they would go back and explain the vocabulary, etc.

They would do a song, a quite boring song, when they introduce some language elements, such as numbers. The rest of the time, they would do a on-screen right/wrong game, which is more interesting, since my kids like video games.

When they taught the Chinese words for older brother, younger brother, older sister, younger sister, they used "big brother", "little brother", "big sister", "little sister" as their English translations, which could have conveyed the correct meaning if they didn't simply enlarge the picture of a boy to mean big brother, and then shrink the SAME boy's picture to mean little brother. This would surely confuse the audience. Did it mean the same sibling who grow physically bigger or is simply a sibling that's older than you?

So, I'm not buying the next video in the series.

It's not a totally bad video, but I think a 3 star is fair.