Children and parents have embraced the Mandarin language program which is currently in place at Ocean Street Long Day Preschool since 2010. In 2013 the Mandarin language lessons were extended at the request of centre families. The demand for Mandarin classes to be extended to a Saturday morning is now being sought by many of the centre families and people in the local community.
Young children have an amazing appetite for learning and especially a unique aptitude for learning a second language. Learning the Mandarin language is made easy when the lessons are programmed to be entertaining, fun and interesting. Our interactive and encouraging teaching methods inspire a lifelong love of the Mandarin Chinese language and the Chinese culture.
Advantages of your child Learning Mandarin:
Communication: your child learns to communicate in the language and develops an understanding that there is more than one way to interact with people.
Academic: your child learns about how languages work and their literacy skills are enhanced because a clear link exists between learning another language and literacy development in English.
Critical thinking: your child’s analytical skills are increased along with their ability to transfer skills across languages.
Cognitive: your child’s problem-solving skills are enhanced along with thinking laterally and working collaboratively.
Personal: your child’s self-confidence, self-esteem, resilience and tolerance are increased.
Cultural: your child develops an understanding and respect for other cultures, people, their ideas and ways of thinking.
Vocational: your child’s career opportunities will be greater in an increasingly globalised market.
Social: your child’s global connections are enriched.
What age should my child start learning a new language?
While it doesn’t matter when your child begins to study another language, it’s best to start them as young as possible. Why?
• Young children have the ability to learn a new language without their first-language accent.
• Their oral skills are easily developed.
• They tend to be happy to experiment with the new language and its words.
• They’re generally confident to practise the language with other people
“Learning a second language aids in the development of metalinguistic awareness because it broadens children’s experience of language generally. Monolingual children have a limited set of resources to help them to develop metalinguistic awareness. However, children who have acquired a second language from an early age and those learning a second language are more readily able to ‘step back’ from, or abstract about, their own language and compare it with another language system. They are more readily able to reflect on language as a system, and to understand that the relationship between the form of a word and its meaning is an arbitrary one. These kinds of experiences help them to develop understandings and insights about the nature of language which they need in order to develop literacy”. (Liddicoat 2001; Yelland et al 1993; Bialystok 1987; 2000).
Our Mandarin Speaking Educator- Hung Hung Tsang’s profile
Hung Hung is a passionate and experienced Early Childhood Educator who is committed to teaching young children. Hung Hung’s love for children and the pride she displays in her Chinese culture contribute to Hung Hung being the excellent teacher she has become. Hung Hung’s Mandarin lessons are fun, exciting and very interesting.
Hung Hung was born in Hong Kong and spent 7 years working in hospitality and E-commerce industry. She came to Australia for working holiday in 2014 and she totally fall in love with this beautiful country and all wonderful people she met here. In 2016, she decided to expend her career to early childhood education. She has Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care and completed her Diploma in Early Childhood Education and Care in 2017. She is multilingual as she can speak English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Teochew. In her spare time, Hung Hung loves cooking Asian food especially Hong Kong and Japanese cuisine. She also loves going on adventures around Sydney, finding new and interesting places to explore. One more thing about Hung Hung, she was working at Hong Kong Disneyland so she believes that children learning through play is a wonderful opportunity for young children to enhance their knowledge. Hung Hung’s Mandarin lessons are fun, humorous, interesting and easy to understand.
The Mandarin language program in the preschool setting have proven to be very successful, Hung Hung’s methods of teaching are fun, exciting and informative.
My daughter is so excited for school she is wishing the weeks away, haha! But she did say to me the other day, "Mummy I don’t want to be a big girl
and go to school I want to stay just like this". So sweet! She will miss you and the girls that's for sure.