Customer Reviews

Follow Jade! Learn Chinese: Let's Go to Market in China [VHS]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Follow Jade videos are serving as a perfect introduction to Mandarin Chinese for my two small children. Jade employs many tools to keep kids engaged, including props, animation, songs, and scenes of kids in China. For non-Chinese parents like us, it is the perfect tool to get children exited about speaking Chinese. My three year old daughter asked for Follow Jade three times today!

Both Follow Jade videos have worked well to gently introduce my children to the language and culture in a very positive way. An especially strong recommendation for FCC parents. We're waiting for the next video!

I have two kids who are half Chinese and half American, and are interested in learning Chinese. A friend told us about this "follow jade" series. We first borrowed it from the liabrary, and it was a hit in the family! The kids started to say things like "what is your name", "how old are you" in Chinese just like Jade, and answer back with each other just like the kids in the video. It was so sweet to see that! I am just so happy to see them finally getting into Chinese with excitement.

The video is not all Chinese (that would not really work), it is spaced nicely with English and Chinese, making the Chinese very visible and easy to remember. Some people might not get used to it at the beginning. I thought it was very different at first, because it is not the usual way of teaching. But it works like a charm! I would encourage everyone to try it.

I also like the real market scenes in China, the color, the sound, it really makes you feel China and want to practice your Chinese. I highly recommend the two Follow Jade videos to anyone. The Kindergarden one has more songs and basic words, the Market one has a bit extended vocabs. Try them!

Follow Jade! offers children both a fun game and a good learning experience. With real scenes from China, the video introduces you to a different culture while teaching you some basic Chinese. Jade, an enjoyable person with her unique teaching style, is able to attract children of different ages their attention and maintain their high enthusiasm in learning Chinese. I really enjoyed watching this video!

The instructor was pleasant and charistmatic. She used props in many cases to illustrate her points about the parts of the body, names of fruits and animals, etc. There is a little clapping game at the end which was fun.

However, this video didn't strongly appeal to me or my 2-year old. The majority of the video is presented in a classroom-ish manner: the instructor held up different fruits, animals, etc, and named them in Chinese. Then she drilled the audience on the names again. I guess the drills were game-like, but didn't seem too engaging. The video did not have stories, drama, music, etc. to keep my child interested. He has not wanted to watch it again after the first time.

Much of the spoken language on the video is in English. Given that my child is 2 years old, I think a total-immersion approach would be more effective. I also noticed that sometimes the instructor would use a Chinese word in an English sentance, and would not pronounce that Chinese word with the correct tone. I think this model could be confusing to kids.

Jade, the instructor is attractive, pleasant and charistmatic. She used props in many cases to illustrate her points about the parts of the body, names of fruits and animals, etc. There are a few attempts at interaction with clapping and singing along but mostly the exercises fail to capture your attention.

In fact, this video did not appeal to me, my students or my 4-year old. The entire video is incredibly slow-moving and speaks to you as if you are incapable of swallowing. (I would look for similar videos on Chinasprout.com.)

The majority of the video is presented in a classroom setting: the instructor held up different fruits, animals, etc, and named them in Chinese. In many instances Jade's pronunciation was less than perfect. Then she drilled the audience on the names again. I guess the drills were game-like, but weren't at all interesting or engaging and, over time, became extremely irritating. The video did not have much to keep me, my students or my child interested. Afer a partial viewing we immediately sold this tape on eBay.

Jade's Go to Market Video is engaging for children and adults! I was amazed at how quickly we were able to pronounce and distinguish the different foods we were shown in the market. It was fun to experience the Chinese market, to hear the sounds of life in another part of the world. My son and I both felt confident in how much we learned and are ready for more. I would recommend this series to anyone with a young child who is curious about China.

As a parent of a child from China, I am always looking for sources to help supplement my daughter's learning of Mandarin. Jade's video is an absolute treasure. My daughter has really responded to Jade's warm and friendly presence on screen. Having taught ESL, I was a little concerned at first that Jade doesn't use an immersion model for teaching. However, it works. Indeed, when I have tried to introduce other videos that use an immersion model my child simply gets up and walks away. Jade's video has provided my daughter with a great bridge between the culture and language of China and the culture and English language that she is exposed to living in the US.

My wife wants my daughter to learn Chinese. She takes Chinese lessons from a younger girl in our neighborhood, and also watches "Ni Hao Kai lan", which is similar to "Dora the Explorer", and "Go Diego Go" in format, how it attempts to teach some token Spanish words, similar in production value, which is quite low when compared to a show like "Little Bear" where scenes are lovingly hand drawn and hand colored, with original musical scores, good voice acting, humor that is funny to both her and me, and morals that apply to real life.. contrasted against finding a gooey geyser, so they can get to the muddy road, where the muddy mud puddle spits upside down trees at fish swimming in a cloud.

Jade at least, is better than that in my opinion. It follows a more classroom like approach to learning, for better or worse, showing a familiar object, saying it's English name, and then saying it's Chinese name. My daughter has actually learned some words thanks to that approach, but it doesn't hold her attention long. Jade enunciates English words poorly. The musical score is an almost eerie drone.

Take it for what it's worth. I got it for around $5. It's hard to find educational material that is quality, especially as it relates to children and foreign languages. I'm giving it 4 stars only because of it's "originality", being one of only two programs I know of that present Chinese at an early age to kids in a format they can understand.

The Follow Jade dvd's are great. There are two, one going to Kindergarten, and one going to the market. Only thing is that she teaches you the name of the fruits, but doesn't teach you how to ask for it in a sentence. Hope she expands on that with more dvd's.

Also, the mei mei dvd's are great. Her songs are very catchy and my kids loves singing along with her.

Plus, we also bought this gorgerous "ASIAN AMERICAN BERENGUER GIRL DOLL" from EBAY, and my daughter absolutely loves to play with the beautiful doll and watch her Chinese dvd's.

Highly recommend.

My kid's and their friends found this to be very engaging. It was presented in a manner that really kept their attention.