Where to learn Mandarin for kids

[LMei]

I have made the decision not to send my son to a Chinese school. But I would still like for him to learn and pick up Mandarin. I saw a recommendation for Smart Little Bean. Does anyone has experience with this place? Or any other center to recommend? Or would it be better to hire a private teacher to teach him?

Your thoughts are much appreciated. Thank you.

[currymee]

LMei,

The HARDEST part of learning Mandarin (or any language) is to create and generate the INTEREST and IMMERSION.

I have been through countless Mandarin tuition in my younger days and also POL classes, but my interest was not there, so all that I learned was a smattering of SIMPLE Mandarin. However, coming from an English-speaking family, I hardly use the language at home, so there was NO IMMERSION in the language, so learning Mandarin become laborious and a torture.

For your children, you have to think and consider the above factors carefully. People tend to learn a language well when there is a NEED, rarely esp for children out of interest and enjoyment (except for the bad words !! - which I can swear in 10 different languages !! )

Ironically, right now, my Mandarin is picking up because of my children. As I tutor him at home, I realised that sometimes I have to use some Mandarin to explain something, as a result, I also improved VERBALLY but reading wise, I still SUCKS !!

As for learning Mandarin (without SJKC exams), IF you can get the child in A CLASS, it will be BETTER, more interaction, more fun, better learning !! Avoid one-on-one private tuition IF your child is not taking any Mandarin exams ... it will "kill" his interest faster, kids learn BEST from other kids AT PLAY !!

[Fledgeling]

I have made the decision not to send my son to a Chinese school. But I would still like for him to learn and pick up Mandarin. I saw a recommendation for Smart Little Bean. Does anyone has experience with this place? Or any other center to recommend? Or would it be better to hire a private teacher to teach him?

Your thoughts are much appreciated. Thank you.

You can try Bao Bei Reading Wonderland in USJ Taipan (Tel: 03-56353661). I sent my daughter there for 1.5 years since she was 4 y.o. Reason I chose Bao Bei is because they use flashcards, songs and poems.