Piano teacher. “What’s your piano teacher’s name?” I asked. One of the kids answered, “I don’t know.” They all shrugged their shoulders. Then, another one whispered to me, “We don’t like her.”
The poor piano teacher.
I had one, too. He was my poor piano teacher years ago. He always said I was not ready for the recital. My friend, Yu did. He was so good at playing piano. He practiced playing the piano every day.
His younger brother, on the other hand, was in the same group as I was. He was never ready for the piano recital so we sat together watching others play.
“The tempo was too fast here,” the piano teacher said, “…slow down, speed up, the tempo was too slow there…” We had been playing the same song for the past several weeks. Over and over.
Sometimes you might find yourself doing the same Chinese lesson, unit, or topic repeatedly with your child. You want to keep going but your child seems to need more practice.
More practice so she remembers the right way to say a Chinese expression or a response. Only if she can remember two more words, or identify them from the word pile. You have worked very hard to put together all the resources together so she can go from Lesson 2 to Lesson 3.
But the progress has been slow. There might be some tension between you and your child. Do you remember when you first started this journey? It was singing and playing. Your little one had fun singing Chinese songs. She also had fun doing some coloring, craft projects, and nursery rhymes.
Were you repeating the same song repeatedly? It is likely that the little one did. She enjoyed a particular Chinese song so much and she just kept singing. You didn’t care. One song after another. You were listening the audio program together during the commute every day.
What has changed?
As your young child advances in the learning the more target language input she needs. It is nice to add new material to the topic you are working on. Language is everyday life. The more you use it with your child on a regular basis the better for her.
It can be an expression. Or, it can be Chinese characters she needs to learn. Maybe what you need is to connect the spoken words with the written language in a different format. One single character might be able to connect with another single character. When you have two characters you might be able to create an interesting phrase with big meaning.
Does it sound like playing piano at the beginning? One note is a little lonely. Two notes are getting interesting. More notes, then there is music and it gets quite exciting.
What do you think you will do tomorrow with your child during Chinese routine?
Image by Ruth Hartnup
