Traditional vs Simplified Chinese (Lesson 4 - cont'd)

We learned several Chinese writing about the nature in lesson 4.  I have to admit that they are difficult to memorize, especially for beginners.

In this lesson, there is an exercise for you to search for the traditional and simplified Chinese characters of what we learned.  It is also the perfect time to discuss this topic.

I was taught traditional Chinese since day 1 at school.  Like many languages in the world, Chinese writing evolved throughout the years until it became what it is nowadays.  Traditional Chinese characters have more than thousands of years of history.  However, simplified Chinese words are less than a century old.  It was an attempt to increase the literacy in China after the PRC was formed.

Please don't get me wrong.  I am NOT against simplified Chinese.  In fact, THANKS to these simplified Chinese characters.  I took a lot of advantages of writing it since year 10 in high school, especially on my exam papers.  Without simplified Chinese, I most probably would not complete the exams on time.

However, in my opinion, we have the responsibility to teach our children to learn the basic and their heritage.  Just like playing music, if you start out playing piano and classical guitar, you will pick up electronic keyboard and electronic guitar in no time.

As you may have already known, there is occasionally a Chinese symbol inside the parentheses in the previous published exercises[ ( ) ].  Those are the traditional Chinese writing.  I highly encourage you to revise these traditional Chinese symbols with your child(ren) as well.  In the long run, he/she is the one benefit from it.

Click here to download the activity sheet and start writing Chinese, kid(s):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxJnXu3nperheldpOFJ3R1J3Vk0/edit?usp=sharing

If you can't open the file, click here to download the (FREE software) Adobe Reader:
http://get.adobe.com/reader/
 

Games of Strokes (for Writing Chinese)

In lesson 2 and 3, we learned how to write the Chinese words, "Up", "Down", "Square" and "Small".  They are pretty simple, right?  Yes.....

But it takes some time to allow a beginner to understand the concept that one simple stroke, like "Heng" (the horizontal stroke), happens to exist in 3 out of these 4 Chinese characters. 

The first page of the exercise is pretty easy.  When you move on to the 2nd page, it will take a while for a child or a beginner to get it 100% correct.  But please don't get upset.  Practice the writing a few more times and do the activity sheet again.

Click here to download the exciting Writing-Chinese-For-Kids game set for lesson 2 and 3:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxJnXu3nperhRHJYN1U5azdzQ1E/edit?usp=sharing

If you can't open the file, click here to download the (FREE software) Adobe Reader:
http://get.adobe.com/reader/

Let's Play Some Chinese Writing Games

Tracing the lines, following the strokes over and over again is very boring.  I believe that many parents experienced this, like me, when they were younger.  It was the old way how we learned.

However, do you know if your child(ren) really know what they learned? Well, here is a way to find out how much they know about the Chinese numbers.

There are 7 pages here in this file in the order of easy to difficult.  The last page has all the answers for you.  I encourage you to have some stickers ready.  If your kids completed a sheet 100% correct, reward him or her with a sticker or some other rewards that you think is appropriate.

Click here to download the exciting Writing-Chinese-For-Kids game set:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxJnXu3nperhR000MmdaN0c1b0E/edit?usp=sharing

If you can't open the file, click here to download the (FREE software) Adobe Reader:
http://get.adobe.com/reader/