2/13-2/24
Charlotte finished five short Chinese novels in the last 10 days and is now captivated by the Chinese edition of the novel Twilight (暮光之城). Amazing. Our hard work over the past 10 years is finally paying off.
Here is one section of the first novel without zhuyin that she read:
"普通崖羊都是灰褐色的。高黎貢山的崖羊體毛卻深褐泛紅，到了冬天，毛色鮮紅亮麗，在鋪滿白雪的山上奔跑跳躍，宛如一團團燃燒的火焰。紅崖羊性情溫和，毛色奇特，是世界上獨一無二的品種，因此，極其珍貴。遺憾的是，紅崖羊的數量太少，只有孤零零一小群，生活在狹窄的納壺河谷。當地山民也知道紅崖羊是世界級的珍稀動物，從不傷害它們。母羊一年生兩胎，每胎產兩三頭小羊羔，繁殖力在牛科動物中算是高的。但不知為什麼，紅崖羊的數量就是發展不起來。據我請來的嚮導——藏族獵手強巴告訴我，他爺爺年輕時曾仔細數過，這群紅崖羊有66只，前幾天我在動物觀察站用望遠鏡數了一遍，不多不少，也是66只。
Here is one section of the first novel without zhuyin that she read:
"普通崖羊都是灰褐色的。高黎貢山的崖羊體毛卻深褐泛紅，到了冬天，毛色鮮紅亮麗，在鋪滿白雪的山上奔跑跳躍，宛如一團團燃燒的火焰。紅崖羊性情溫和，毛色奇特，是世界上獨一無二的品種，因此，極其珍貴。遺憾的是，紅崖羊的數量太少，只有孤零零一小群，生活在狹窄的納壺河谷。當地山民也知道紅崖羊是世界級的珍稀動物，從不傷害它們。母羊一年生兩胎，每胎產兩三頭小羊羔，繁殖力在牛科動物中算是高的。但不知為什麼，紅崖羊的數量就是發展不起來。據我請來的嚮導——藏族獵手強巴告訴我，他爺爺年輕時曾仔細數過，這群紅崖羊有66只，前幾天我在動物觀察站用望遠鏡數了一遍，不多不少，也是66只。
半個多世紀過去了，紅崖羊的數量一頭也沒增加，這不能不說是個悲慘的謎。
我連續跟踪了半個多月，終於找到紅崖羊之所以發展不起來的癥結所在。罪魁禍首就是兩隻貪得無厭的雪豹。"
2/25/14-ongoing
Upcoming project for 7 year old Georgia: reading till fluency of selected chapters of the Gospel of Matthews in Chinese with phonetics assistance first and then without. 
By about what age did you have them learn zhuyin by?
ReplyDeleteGood question. My younger one probably started learning zhuyin at around 5 and learned it well by about 6-6.5, possibly even before some children in Taiwan. My older probably started around the same time and learned it well by 7, I would say. The timing is very important, so that they may enjoy reading English and Chinese story books at similar developmental stage and age. The goal is to get them to read and enjoy books/novels of similar interest/level/topics in English and Chinese at around the same time, so that their enjoyment of English reading does not overshadow that of Chinese by too much. In terms of pronunciation, my older one has much better pronunciation. We plan to work on my younger daughter's pronunciation this summer in Taiwan during the 6 weeks she will spend there. Overall, it is probably much more "cool" to learn and know Chinese in the US now, compared to 30 years ago, with the rise of China. The other kids and teacher were amazed that my Charlotte is reading Twilight in Chinese during break and ask her lots of the same question all the time. I am pretty sure she can read Harry Potter in Chinese also, but she is not interested since she has read the series in English already. Hope this helps.
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