(River Edge, NJ) On Saturday, May 17th, the River Edge Library in Northern New Jersey welcomed a group of 20 children ages four to ten, along with their parents and grandparents to a Mandarin language class. The class was the first of a series of six class sessions sponsored by the River Edge library and Babble*Mandarin (babblemandarin.com). Babble*Mandarin is a language school dedicated to propagating the Chinese language across children of all backgrounds ages 4 to 12, and thereby giving them access to new world horizons and future possibilities.
Classes are free of charge to River Edge residents and will take place once a week on Saturdays for the next six weeks. "I'm just lucky to live in a beautiful town with a great library that offers wonderful programs like this." Debbie Chin, a grandparent exclaimed enthusiastically.
During the 45-minute class, students enjoyed fun stories and puppet shows about China, its history, and about the origin of the Chinese language. Children learned basic greetings in Chinese and learned how to write a few Chinese characters, which they were proudly showing off to their parents. The class concluded with a character recognition game in which every kid participated; all the youngsters were able to recognize all the characters that they learned during their first lesson. This is vivid proof of how fast children can absorb a new language when effective teaching methods, such as interactive puppet shows, story telling, songs and games, are used by a well trained and caring instructor.
"My motto is: The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery". Ling Luo, Babble Mandarin head language instructor said after class, and added: "I am not here to teach. I am here to help young children discover how exciting and entertaining it is to learn to speak, read, and write one of the most difficult and yet most popular languages." Apparently she achieved just that. Students left their first lesson looking forward to their next class.
Babble* mandarin
708 Third Ave, Lyndhurst, New Jersey. 07071. Phone: 201-916-7242 or 201-933-5784. learn@babblemandarin.com
Comments (0)
Greater Paramus News and Lifestyle Magazine
http://www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20080521130105826