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 be bilingual. Heidi Yu Spurrell and Lisa Ting wanted an app that featured both Mandarin and Cantonese for their kids, so they got to work creating one.

Chinese for Munchkins has four different modes: Animals, Numbers, Memory, and Counting Pigs. The Animals section is similar to Langu, another language-flashcard app, except instead of photography it features the whimsical illustrations of Bibi Devoy, which are really cute. Also, tapping on the animal itself makes it spin around and play a noise — actually, a woman’s voice saying the animal noise, which is not the most accurate but is pretty funny. (The giraffe says “Streeetch. Streeetch.”) You can also tap the words, both English and Chinese, to hear those words spoken, and there’s a setting to change between English and Mandarin. I can’t vouch for the Cantonese pronunciations since I don’t speak it, but the Mandarin is fairly accurate. (Originally I found some of the pronunciations a little off, but a recent update has corrected those.)

Numbers mode uses the same animals but shows different numbers of them so you can learn the numbers as well. The memory game gives a choice between matching animals and numbers, and has five difficulty levels, ranging from six to twenty-four cards. Each time a card is flipped, the animal or number is pronounced; matching cards reveals the illustration behind. Finally, there’s a Counting Pigs mode: winged pigs fly across the screen, and the app counts them out loud as you drag them into the barn. It’s quite silly and random, but my kids loved it.

What I like about Chinese for Munchkins is that it looks like a kids’ book — the illustrations are wonderful — and the interface is simple enough that my three-year-old had no trouble with it. Both of my kids (the older is six) enjoyed hearing what sounds the animals would make, and I found that without my prompting they were repeating the animal names and numbers as they played with it. Of course, no app is a substitute for actually hearing the language spoken live by a person and practicing, but it helps make Chinese fun for my kids, which is all I can ask for.

Chinese for Munchkins is $1.99 from the App Store. Or, you can try out the lite version for free; it has the same functions but the counting only goes up to ten, and there are fewer animals. For more about the app and its creators, visit the Chinese for Munchkins website.

Wired: Delightful illustrations, Cantonese and Mandarin options, a number of modes to entertain and educate your kids.

Tired: Not a substitute for other language education, but a pretty fun little game.

Disclosure: I received a free download code for review purposes.

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: “Hey! Did you hear what your teacher said? If you concentrated and practiced more, you could be even better.”

It wasn’t until the next morning that I realized what I had done.

Oh my God, I thought – I am my father’s son! I’m not the cool American parent hanging his child’s drawing on the refrigerator – Good job Timmy! Let’s go for ice cream! I’m the Chinese parent saying, Is that it? You’re going to do better than that, right?

There should be a special category in parenting dedicated to the art of the “Chinese Compliment” – An 80, son? Well, I guess that’s good if that’s the best you can do. Sometimes it isn’t even what they say but how they’re saying it. I imagine an American parent saying the same thing but the tone is all different. In my head I am hearing a more excited pitch (akin to awe or expectance) – An 80, son? Well, I guess that’s good if that’s the best you can do. Now, let’s go for ice cream. There’s no ice cream when the Chinese voice in my head says it.

A friend and I joke about the extreme differences in our upbringing when it came to compliments. He says when he came home with 60s on his tests, his parents would say, “That’s Great! You did good this time! You know a 60 is more than half way to a 100! Let’s go out for ice cream!”

I’ve failed more than my fair share of tests – passing is a 75 – and can say with great confidence that I’ve never gotten ice cream.

I want to say here that (ice cream or not) I love my parents. As a parent now myself, I have learned that sometimes it is not so much about being fair or liked by my children but about what is necessary to insure good habits – Sometimes you need to be the bad guy in order to raise a good child.

And there are sacrifices. I like ice cream too but there is the proper moment for it – There is an appropriate time – An appropriate time that I (as father) need to choose and stick with – My children don’t need mixed messages from me regarding treats and rewards – I think in Parenting 101, most experts agree that consistency is important.

Maintaining consistency and good habits is hard. Complicating the process is determining when. Just like the cliché of the punishment fitting the crime, the reward must fit the deed. What’s an ice cream occasion and what warrants a visit to the toy store? Every parent has his own measure of success and this measure is incremented by that parent’s expectations of his child.

I expect my children to strive to be the best at whatever they decide to do. This is different from expecting them to be the best. I make the distinction because I feel too often children as students get too comfortable. They define a set of skills and academic subjects they are immediately successful at and cease to strive for more. As a parent, it’s my responsibility to nudge my children along so they can develop the necessary habits to achieve greater successes and learn to cope with their failures.

Now, I am certainly not justifying my words to my eldest when his piano teacher complimented him. It’s also my responsibility to inspire my children. There is a time to relish the moment – as in an instance of a compliment – and a time to be pragmatic – as I was trying to be when I told my son he could be even better if he practiced more.

I guess I got too comfortable in my role as a Chinese parent. I guess I need to take my own advice and stop being comfortable. I need to take my own advice and strive to be the best dad I can be.

HippoDict: Chinese-English Dictionary for iPhone

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 how to use a dead-tree dictionary, it’s so much easier being able to simply write the character. And when I’m trying to teach my kids Chinese, occasionally we run into words I don’t recognize, or English phrases that I don’t know the right Chinese words for. (Side note: How would you organize a dictionary in a language with no alphabet? How do you look up a word in such a dictionary? It’s actually quite an interesting system, but perhaps the subject of a later post.)

Search by Character

I was given the chance to try out HippoDict, a Chinese Dictionary for the iPhone or iPod touch. HippoDict runs on the public domain CC-CEDICT dictionary, which has over 80,000 entries and can display in either Simplified or Traditional characters. More than the 20,000+ entries of many “starter” dictionaries but far fewer than the 240,000 claimed by the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (my paper dictionary of choice), the CC-CEDICT is a bit like Wikipedia: fine for everyday use but possibly a little less rigorous if you’re doing some serious research. I found that it serves me pretty well and I haven’t come across words I wanted to look up which weren’t in the dictionary.

You can search using English, pinyin, zhuyin, or writing the characters: this is actually integrated with the iPhone’s own OS language abilities, which are much better than the Palm’s. If you have an iPhone, you can simply turn on the Chinese language settings from the settings menu to enable handwriting recognition for characters or pinyin and zhuyin input. Once you look up a word, it shows the Chinese character, English definition, and pronunciations in both pinyin and zhuyin. It also gives you the option of finding other words and phrases which contain the entry. In the case of phrases, it gives you a short definition of each word in the phrase. There are also built-in links to various other dictionary sites (Dict.cn, Google Dictionary, MDBG, Nciku, and YellowBridge) although I rarely ventured further than the basic page.

Customizable Flashcards

One other option available is flashcards, which allows you to store entries in your choice of decks, and then train yourself with a SuperMemo-type program. You go through the cards, and mark which ones you recognize; the next time through, it quizzes you more often on ones you missed. For myself, one handy use was creating a flashcard deck of family relationship titles. (Did you know there are different words for “father’s older brother” and “father’s younger brother”?) It comes in handy when I’m writing letters to my various aunts and uncles in Chinese and need to make sure I’m writing everything correctly.

It’s a pretty speedy dictionary, although I admit I don’t have much to compare it to other than my Palm which is admittedly totally outclassed by the iPod touch. It starts up quickly (even compared to some of my other iPod apps) and searching feels instantaneous without long wait times. HippoDict is available for $9.99 on the iTunes store, which puts it in the higher price range for iPhone apps but is still a few bucks less than most paper dictionaries.

The one thing I wish HippoDict had was a large view of the character. It’s something my Palm’s dictionary had, so you could get a better view of the character. HippoDict’s display is far from tiny, but it would nice to be able to zoom in a bit for the more complicated characters.

HippoDict Detailed Entry

I will mention the one other Chinese dictionary I’ve tried for the iPhone is the DianHua Dictionary: it’s a free app with a paid add-on module which will pronounce words for you. DianHua also runs on the CC-CEDICT database so its contents are much the same, but the interface is generally clunkier. However, it does have an “inspect character” feature which puts the character in full-screen. I’ve generally been using the HippoDict for most of my searches; if they put in a full-screen feature in a future update I would probably drop DianHua.

Wired: Quick startup and searching, handwriting character recognition, and flashcards to train yourself.

Tired: Not as comprehensive as the Oxford C-E Dictionary, but sufficient for most everyday use. A magnify option would be nice.

"Ni Hao, Kai-Lan" image: Nickelodeon, used with permission.

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, Kai-lan” features a Chinese-American girl, her grandpa (YeYe) and several animal friends. In addition to teaching the Chinese language, however, Kai-lan aims to teach kids a bit of multiculturalism as well. For instance, some of the episodes I’ve seen involve empathizing with the character who’s upset or unhappy, and trying to see things from their perspective. (Has Dora ever tried that with Swiper?)

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m trying to raise my kids to be bilingual, so when I’d first heard about the show I was really excited. My daughters (especially the older one) have always been big fans of Dora, and I thought it would be another way for them to have fun learning Chinese. After watching a few episodes with my kids, though, I’ve learned something that I’m sure other parents have experienced: it’s kind of hard to watch. Now, don’t get me wrong: my kids love it. They’ll watch the same episode over and over again, given the option. But it reminds me of what Malcolm Gladwell described in The Tipping Point, about the “stickiness factor” of kids’ shows. “Sesame Street” didn’t know what it was doing, and based on science now, it’s a wonder any of us actually learned anything from it. But shows like “Blue’s Clues” have been designed to make the lessons stick in children’s minds … and the result is that they’re not as entertaining for adults.

One particular element that I know is useful for learning but annoying to adults is the way Kai-lan asks questions, and then waits for an answer, and then continues with the assumption that you’ve shouted out the correct answer. I’ve noticed that my three-year-old responds exactly as intended at these parts. My five-year-old, however, has gotten to the age where she realizes it’s a TV trick. She’ll occasionally say “NO!” when asked if she wants to help, or give the wrong answer to a question, just to be ornery. But, she still wants to watch the show.

I do really appreciate the lessons that are being taught in “Ni Hao, Kai-lan,” and I find it a little more palatable than “Dora the Explorer.” That may because I’m biased toward Chinese, but it seems like more of Kai-lan’s shows are about relating to each other and problem solving, rather than following the map for an exploration. And because the lesson is usually couched in a song (precisely designed to get stuck in your head for days), it’s easy for the kids to remember and I’m able to ask them about what they’ve learned.

One complaint is that occasionally some of the characters don’t pronounce all the Chinese perfectly. Kai-lan and the animal characters are all kids, and I don’t think any of them are native speakers of Mandarin, although I know they do have Chinese coaches working with them. Yeye (the grandfather) is an adult and his pronunciations have been flawless at least in the episodes I’ve seen. For me, though, the biggest reason I let my kids watch “Ni Hao, Kai-lan” is because it generates enthusiasm for learning Chinese: they want to speak Chinese because Kai-lan is speaking it, and that makes it cool, not weird.

(Fun geeky fact about the show: “Kai-lan’s Great Trip to China” is an episode that premiered this past summer, in which Kai-lan visits her great aunt and gets to see a baby panda’s naming ceremony. The great aunt’s voice is provided by none other than Ming-Na, the voice of Disney’s Mulan and also now appearing on “Stargate Universe.”)

The show airs at at 1:30pm ET/PT on Nickelodeon, and you can find out more about the show (and watch clips) at the “Ni Hao, Kai-lan” website.

My daughters enjoy the Dragonboat Race Game. Photo: Jonathan Liu

This fall, Nickelodeon also introduced a new line of toys and games related to the show. The products try to integrate Chinese language and culture, much like the show, and are mostly aimed at preschool-age kids. I tried out the “Dragonboat Race Game” with my kids. It’s a fairly simple spin-and-move game, but kids are encouraged to cheer on other players; the first player to win three races gets to lead the parade with a cardboard dragon mask. It doesn’t offer much for adults, but after I played a couple times with my girls, they decided to continue playing on their own a few more times.

"Silly" Kai-lan doll

Other products include video games for the Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS, the Leapfrog Tag Reader and the new Vtech game system Jenny Williams reviewed last week. There are also Kai-lan Mega Blok sets (I know, you LEGO purists out there would never consider these, but they’re at least more creative than just a straight dollhouse). Finally, there are some plush Kai-lan dolls with different faces (”Happy,” “Silly,” “Giggly,” “Sweet”). Each doll has the word printed in English and Chinese on its shirt, as well as a matching necklace for the child to wear. I did have my personal Chinese expert (my mom) take a look at the Chinese characters they used, and she gave them the stamp of approval, which is nice. I find that Chinese translations are often sloppily done and not quite accurate, but they’ve done a good job getting accurate Chinese for the toys.

Overall, I’m pleased that there’s a kids’ show that features Chinese, particularly since they teach about the culture as well as the language.  I do worry a little bit about Kai-lan merchandising becoming as ubiquitous as Dora, but there’s probably no way around that. I also wonder how boys will respond to the show: the main character is a girl, but three of the four animal friends are boys. I don’t know if there will eventually be an analog to Diego to draw them in a little more. For now, though, they can choose from Rintoo the tiger, Tolee the Koala, or Hoho the monkey.

Related Posts:

GeekDad Goes to Taiwan: Bilingual Kids

Langu Teaches Your Toddler to Be Bilingual (or More)

“Ni Hao, Jade-Lianna”: GeekDad Interviews the Voice of Kai-lan

Kai-lan (left), and her voice, Jade-Lianna Peters

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 my older daughter ask the first question.

You can read the transcript of the interview below, or listen to it using the embedded players or by downloading the MP3s of part one and part two.

Ridley: Why do you speak English and Chinese?

Jade-Lianna Peters: Well, English is my first language, because I came here when I was only 8 months and my parents are American. So they taught me English and so I didn’t know much Chinese. But when I got the part of Kai-lan I started, and I practiced really hard to start knowing the language better, so that I could be Kai-lan and know Kai-lan’s part even better for knowing Chinese. So, I know more English than Chinese, but one day I hope I can speak fluent Mandarin.

(I continued the rest of the interview myself.)

GeekDad: I know you had to record a lot of the lines for the show before it actually started airing. When did you actually get the part as Kai-lan, and when did you start working on the show?

JLP: When I was in fourth grade, when I was nine, I got an audition and so I went to Chicago and I auditioned, and then they liked me. So, then two more auditions, and I got the part! And this was toward the end of fourth grade, almost when I was ten. But then when I was ten and a half, I started actually recording the show. For the first two episodes, they flew me out to L.A. So, about four years ago.

GD: Have you gotten to meet some of the other voice actors, the people who play YeYe, and Rintoo, and all the others?

JLP: I’ve met every character except for YeYe.  I think the grandpa lives in New York. I never met him, but I did meet Rinto, Lulu, Hoho, and Tolee.

GD: That’s kinda neat.

JLP: Yeah, it was really fun, they’re all really nice.

GD: All the other voices are all kids, right? I mean, I know YeYe’s a grownup.

JLP: Yeah, they’re all children. Lulu is I think 12, Rintoo’s 11 and Tolee’s 11, and Hoho is 6.

GD: I was going to ask you but I can tell by listening: I was wondering if you use your regular speaking voice when you do Kai-lan’s voice.

JLP: I kinda do, but when I’m more excited my voice kind of goes a little higher. And Kai-lan’s always excited, so, just a little bit higher in register. But, yeah, I use my normal voice.

GD: What’s your favorite thing about being on the show?

JLP: My favorite thing about being Kai-lan is learning the Chinese, because learning another language is a good learning experience. Also I really wanted to learn my language, and in these circumstances it’s really fun. But even though it’s my favorite thing, it’s also the most challenging. Because, you know, there’s four tones. When you say a word, if you use the wrong tone, it means something else. So it’s a little challenging to remember which word is what tone, but I’m getting the hang of it as we go.

GD: Do you study Chinese at school or mostly just for the show?

JLP: I have a Chinese teacher at school, and I do it every day. It’s for an hour a day, and I also do it at home too, sometimes.

GD: And I know you’ve got a little sister, who’s also from China …

JLP: Yeah, her name’s Alexis-Mariah.

GD: … do you guys speak Chinese at home, to each other?

JLP: Well, sometimes. Right now I’m a little more advanced than her but I’m helping her with her Chinese so she can get better too.

GD: That’s great. I’m Chinese, and my wife is American, so I speak Chinese to my kids. But that’s something that I know I hope they do too. If they speak Chinese to each other, they get a lot more practice. Have you gotten to visit China?

JLP: Well, I was adopted in China, and I went when I was four years old back to China, to get my sister. But since I was four, I don’t really remember anything. I really do want to go back though. I want to sight-see of course, and go back to the orphange that I was from, and make sure they’re taking care of them well and that they all find a loving family. I hope I’m fortunate one day to go back.

GD: That’s really great. I think you would enjoy it if you got a chance to go. And you really get a chance to experience the language differently when you go to China than when you’re learning it in the United States, too. What grade are you in now?

JLP: I’m in ninth grade, at the Milwaukee School of Languages.

GD: What’s your favorite subject there?

JLP: My favorite subject I think would be math. I also like science, though.

GD: What type of science do you like?

JLP: Well, right now I’m in biology and we’re learning about cells, and what’s all in them, but I like all science. It’s fun to learn more about nature. Whatever I learn in science, I’m happy.

GD: That’s great. Do you have any thoughts on what you want to do when you grow up?

JLP: When I grow up I either want to continue my acting, because I really like acting, and it’s a way to express myself. Or, if that doesn’t work, I also want to be a doctor … a heart doctor? Yeah.

GD: All right. It takes a lot of work to be a doctor, but it’s a really good thing to do, too. And if you pay lots of attention in biology, that’ll help too.

JLP: Yeah, I agree.

GD: Do you ever get recognized—probably people in your neighborhood already know who you are—but do you ever go anywhere else, and people recognize that you’re the voice of Kai-lan?

JLP: Yeah, sometimes, because there were articles in the newspaper for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and stuff like magazines, stuff like that. Some people notice it. And also, on Nickelodeon, there are promos where there’s like a video of me recording, and then there’s a picture of Kai-lan. So, some people notice it. My mom also tells other people about it and then they’re like, “Oh, I read about that in the paper.” And some people just stand there: “Hmmm, I dunno, is that her?” All of my neighbors know about it. Oh, and when I was in Washington, we went to this store and this little girl kept staring me and she started saying “Kai-lan! Kai-lan!” And her mom didn’t speak much English. She knew Spanish, and my mom was trying to tell her that I’m the voice of Kai-lan and that her daughter recognized it. And so my mom took her to the Toys R Us and showed her the Kai-lan doll, and then she understood. She got the girl a little doll. It was sweet.

GD: That’s really neat. Do you have any hobbies you like to do?

JLP: Well, I’m on a swimming team, and I also play guitar, violin and piano, and i do those in my spare time. And I also like to read, and playing with my puppy! Her name’s Kai-lan. Yeah, we named her after the show, obviously. We called the creator of the show. We asked her if we could name our dog after her and she was really honored, and she said yes. So we have a doggy named Kai-lan, and we have a dog named Sunshine.

GD: So do you get much free time? It sounds like you keep pretty busy.

JLP: I do have free time during the weekends and stuff. And I like to spend time with friends and my family.

GD: Well, is there anything else you’d like to share with people who read our website?

JLP: Yeah! Hopefully that everybody keeps watching Kai-lan, and they’re learning more Chinese and more of the culture. And, that even though Chinese is really hard to learn, learning another language is good in the long run. And, keep trying no matter what! That’s all.

GD: One more thing: since we’ve been talking about Kai-lan and speaking Chinese, I think we could have something from one of the shows, maybe.

JLP: Sure, I’ll try! Ni rang wo hao kai xing! Zai jian! It means: “You make my heart feel super happy! Bye-bye!” Yeah, that’s what Kai-lan says at the end of every show.

GD: All right, well, it’s been really fun talking to you!

JLP: You too!

GD: And I wish you good luck with the show and with learning more Chinese, and everything else that you’re interested in.

JLP: Thank you!

GD: All right. Zai jian!

JLP: Zai jian!

Stay tuned for a look at the show itself, as well as some new Kai-lan toys and games that debuted this fall.

Kai-lan image and Jade-Lianna photo courtesy of Nickelodeon; used with permission.

My 3-year-old tries out Langu. (The fleece hat holds the earbuds in place.) Photo: Jonathan Liu

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 expose her to many different channels of learning the language, like Mandarin immersion preschool, Chinese picture books, even bootleg “Dora the Explorer” translated into Chinese.  And, like many kids, one of her favorite activities is playing with my iPhone.  So I decided to make an app for that.

Langu was recently approved and is now available from the App Store for $4.99, in both Mandarin and Spanish flavors. I was given a download code to try out the program, and it’s been a hit with my kids. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m raising my kids to be bilingual and I always appreciate ways to expose them to the language (other than scolding them in Chinese, a method which is cheap and portable but probably not quite as enjoyable for anyone involved). Check out the video demo to see the app in action.

I found Langu to be a pretty slick program: the interface is quite simple, starting with a list of categories (Animals, Colors, Body, Shapes, and so on). Tapping one brings up what looks like a flashcard: a single photo on a bright, solid-color background, with the text underneath in Chinese. Sliding the photo down reveals the text in English, and sliding left and right switches between different cards in a category.

There are three modes: Learning, Pronunciation Practice, and Quiz. In Learning mode, the word is automatically pronounced whenever you switch between flashcards or languages, and also when you tap the screen. Pronunciation Practice is similar, but only pronounces the word when you tap the screen. Quiz mode hides the text, and then reveals the text and pronounces the word after you tap. The Chinese version also has options for displaying in Pinyin, Simplified characters, or Traditional characters.

It was important for Ben to have native speakers pronouncing the words, so he had his wife read the English words and then searched online for voice talent, looking for standard-accent speakers. He also had “friends that were essentially ‘cultural sponsors’ for the each language, to make sure that the word and image choices were consistent and relevant.” I can vouch for the Mandarin speakers at least: the words are well-enunciated and pitch-perfect. I’m not a native speaker of Spanish, but those sounded accurate to me as well.

The photos, found using Creative Commons searches on Flickr, are excellent, and the bright backgrounds are a nice touch. (My only complaint about the photos was the one for “head,” which looks a little focused on an eye.) The program is pretty intuitive: both my five-year-old and my three-year-old picked up on it quickly. Ben said he wanted “to create a ‘toy’ rather than an app, something that is fun just to play with in a tactile way, and let the learning happen naturally.” I think it turned out really well.

One minor gripe about the interface: occasionally when I meant to slide up and down to switch between languages, instead the app thought I was sliding left and right to switch cards. That may be my own clumsy fingers, but it did seem like the left/right sliding was a little easier to initiate. Other than that, Langu is certainly a good idea well-executed.

As for my own kids, they’ve been enjoying the program, and even the three-year-old automatically started repeating the words to herself without prompting from me. While this won’t replace conversations and books, it will make for a really great supplement. And, as Ben pointed out, kids like iPhones—you certainly won’t have to force them to play with Langu.

So, what’s next for Ben?

I’ve been kicking around some ideas for other iPhone apps, most of them center around something I want Violet to learn… probably reading or math next.  And of course, if Langu’s well received, I’d like to make more versions… I’d want to tackle Arabic or Hindi next—I like typography, and am easily excited by non-Latin characters.

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 artists, and the sound quality is professional. So the following only applies to the other ones we saw. My bad, Mei Mei.

My original post:

For parents trying to teach their kids Chinese, there’s a huge selection of Chinese language DVDs out there. My three year old son Gun-Gun has checked out Ni Hao Kai Lan, Language Tree, and a bunch of others, most of which use high tech DVD tricks to create interactive dialogue. Language Tree, for example, asks the children to press buttons on the DVD remote in order to pass little pop quizzes. Ni Hao Kai Lan has stories about children and animals getting along and sprinkles Chinese in with the main English dialogue. These videos are good looking, well produced, and have all kinds of cute animated characters and dialogues. One gets the feeling that they spent a lot of money to bring in experts on language acquisition and child psychology. As the saying goes, “you get what you pay for,” so it naturally made sense to my adult mind that the high production DVDs would be the best.

So understandably, I was baffled when I found that my son’s favorite Chinese language DVD was not Kai Lan, not Language Tree, not any of these other high budget productions, but an obscure series called Mei Mei and Me that looks like a home video someone’s mother made with a Sony HandyCam in her basement.

The Mei Mei series of DVDs is really cheap looking. It looks like Mei Mei herself set up a tripod, shot from a cheap videocamera, and edited in the little videocam window (It’s almost as bad as my podcasts, but that’s a different issue.). The format is a woman named Mei Mei teaching little kids Chinese nursery rhymes and songs. There are no fancy cartoons, no DVD remote gimmicks, no lessons, drills, or cute characters. They don’t even have real music. Just a Chinese woman teaching, smiling, clapping, and singing unaccompanied by an other sound.

Mei Mei sings in Chinese and asks the children to repeat. They have a translation flash across the screen, but there’s no sing along book or explanation. You just have to pay attention.

My son can’t get enough of it. He says, “Ba ba, I want to watch the Chinese one.” And then he watches and sings. It’s wild. I don’t get it. I tried (and failed) to convince him that Language Tree was interesting. But he absolutely loves the Mei Mei Hu DVD. He loves watching the kids onscreen repeat after her when she speaks or sings. He loves singing along with it. I don’t even think he’s aware of the fact that it’s low budget. It reminds me of the times I bought him a fancy high-tech toy car only to watch him play with the box.

The good news is that he’s actually learning something from this DVD, something that doesn’t take place with Language Tree or Kai Lan. He actually used his Chinese for the first time the other day with an older woman that we met. Maybe because the woman was human and responsive to him, just like Mei Mei and the kids in the Mei Mei series. Go figure.

(Mei Mei, if you’re reading this, DON’T change the format. He loves it.)