Hilarious (and fascinating) article from today's L.A. Times about the challenges of bearing gifts back to China. I guess the mini-Hershey's chocolates of my youth in the '80s don't cut it anymore.

I’m always looking for ways to encourage my kids to learn Chinese — a task that is not always easy in small-town Kansas, where their bilingual education is largely up to me. Chinese for Munchkins is an iPhone app developed by two moms who are raising their own kids to ...

[Cross posted on Cranial Gunk]I pulled a real Chinese parent move recently. My eldest’s piano teacher told me he was playing very well but instead of turning to my eldest and saying: “Hey! Did you hear that? That’s excellent! Good Job!” I said:...

When I was considering retiring my Palm TX in exchange for an iPod touch (no AT&T service in the rural area where I live, so no iPhone), one of my essential applications was a good Chinese dictionary. I speak Chinese fairly fluently but I’m not very literate; although I know ...

If you have kids, I imagine it’s impossible not to know who Dora the Explorer is, even if you haven’t seen the show yourself, because she seems to be absolutely everywhere. Kai-lan is a newer entry in the genre, introduced in February 2008. Now in its second season, “Ni Hao, ...

The Nickelodeon show “Ni Hao, Kai-lan” is currently in its second season. “Ni Hao, Kai-lan” is like a Chinese analog of “Dora the Explorer,” and both of my daughters love to watch it. I had the opportunity to interview 13-year-old Jade-Lianna Peters, who does the voice of Kai-lan. I let ...

How do you teach your kids another language? If you’re Ben Morrison, you write an iPhone app. Ben, a web developer at a marketing company, explains: My wife and I adopted our daughter, Violet, from Taiwan.  We want Violet to be fluent in both English and Mandarin.  We do our best to ...

(Cross posted on bigWOWO)Edit: Okay, I just saw some of the later videos, so I have to correct what I wrote. Some of the later DVDs in the series are quite high tech and shot from China. They look like they had professional choreographers and makeup...

I’m a sucker for Bruce Lee documentaries. Not because I am a kung fu practitioner or even a big fan of his movies. It’s because he took on the stereotypes of the Chinese in Western pop culture and won. The impact his fame has had on my personal ...

Listen to this: http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/128940 He has a point. Why don't we call each other "people, people, and people" or address each other by our names? The question above closes Beth Fertig's report featuring students atte...