It’s never too early to start learning a new language. Studying a new language is an irreplaceable experience for people of any age, but young children have the most advantage from this challenging yet encouraging opportunity. There are numerous benefits of being fluent in more than one language — it promotes healthy development, is fun to learn, and its social-cognitive benefits will last a lifetime.
Chinese is one of the most studied languages in the world. It is considered an important language worldwide due to its increase in presence in the business industry. It is also a great choice to pick as your child’s second language. Read on to learn about the importance of learning Chinese for children.
Learning Chinese can be fun
Contrary to popular belief amongst students in school, Chinese can indeed be fun. It only seems a chore because students tend to fit Chinese into a small box, where they don’t get to use it in their daily lives. Yet, when they realise the number of doors that can be opened because of their mastery over this versatile second language, it often becomes much more fun and rewarding to commit to understanding the foundations and concepts required to be proficient at the language.
It’s easy to make learning effective for kids if the process is enjoyable. In fact, various language learning platforms have made learning more fun by creating a game element to the learning process. Incorporating a proper reward system, encouraging peer-to-peer friendly competition, and acknowledging their progress often makes it gratifying for children to learn Chinese.
Learning language feeds the brain
Research has shown that learning a second language improves one’s critical thinking, listening, and problem-solving skills. It also enhances your child’s concentration, memory, and multitasking ability. It has been proven through multiple studies that bilingual individuals are more perceptive to different cultures and their surroundings, are better list makers and are faster at researching important information.
Studies say that it’s easier for children to learn a new language than adults since an infant’s brain can absorb more information. In general, children who speak more than one language have better social and analytical skills, which could benefit them in the long run.
Learning Chinese helps train a child’s ear
Learning melodious languages, such as Chinese, is easy for children. This is because young children are more sensitive to the differences in sounds, which helps develop accurate hearing and interpretation. Children can accurately depict various sounds when they begin learning at a young age. The familiarity with tones and sounds helps children pursue their musical ability. Chinese has five tones – a long flat one, a rising tone, a dropping tone, a dipped tone, and a neutral tone.
Opens up different doors and opportunities
Gain access to a whole new set of rich history, culture, and values. From making full use of opportunities like language and cultural exchanges to interacting with primarily Chinese speaking communities – there’s so much more to be gained than just grades or financial benefits when learning Chinese.
Language education is essential for the future workforce, and it is undeniable that being bilingual broadens learning opportunities. Being bilingual also gives your child a leg-up when they apply for various internships soon, as many organisations look for people who can communicate with multiple communities. It can be said that learning two languages can often grant many benefits with few or none of the drawbacks to speak of!
Conclusion
One common misconception about the Chinese language is that it is difficult to learn and that you will need a great deal of time and effort just to get the basics right. In reality, Chinese is no different from other languages, and it’s one of the easiest languages to learn if you apply the proper learning methodologies. The list above showcases just some of the reasons why you should let your child learn Chinese as their second language!
Although staying at home and personally teaching them using various tools is effective, one effective way to develop Chinese vocabulary is by creating a proper community to help your child pick up and master the language effectively. If you are looking to start your child’s Chinese learning journey, Connect Learning offers effective Chinese tuition in Singapore.
With our engaging lessons and dedicated teachers, we strive to make learning Chinese fun for children to encourage them to strive for better grades. Learn Chinese online with us, and we’ll help your child along on a fruitful Chinese learning journey!
