Learn Mandarin Chinese for the Beijing Olympics: Hello and Goodbye

Posted by Diane

July 31, 2008

Aren’t you excited? In a little over a week, the world’s eyes will be on Beijing for the Summer Olympic Games. Take advantage of this incredible opportunity to introduce kids to the country, culture, people, and languages of China. I’ll be dedicating several upcoming posts to Olympic themes and Chinese for kids.

I’d love for my boys to get an early start learning Mandarin. But I’ve got a confession to make—-Asian languages intimidate me. Learning Chinese definitely requires me to step out of my usual English-German-Romance Language comfort zone. Chinese, with all of those symbols and tones, freaks me out.

Of course, it’s a completely different story for my language-ready preschoolers. I’m confident that they will pick it up as easily and naturally as can be. Still, I’m starting off nice and slow with something I think I can handle: Hello and Goodbye. Ready? Here we go:

Ni hao – Hello
Zai jian – Goodbye

There, that wasn’t so scary, was it? Of course, you’ve got to hear the correct pronunciation and practice it a few times. You can listen here at ClearChinese.com

Let the Olympic language games begin!

Warm-up: Practice these phrases with your kids. Don’t forget a customary bow with the greeting.

Training: Toss balls or frisbees back and forth, saying Ni hao as you catch and Zai jian as you throw.

Event: Gather a group of fun-loving kids to play what I like to call Mandarin Duck, Duck, Goose. Instead of “duck, duck, duck . . .” say “Ni hao, Ni hao, Ni hao . . . “; instead of “goose” say “Zai jian” and get ready to run.

Medal Ceremony: Everyone’s a winner when you can use Ni hao and Zai jian naturally throughout every day of the Olympics.

For more ideas, visit my article on Foreign Language Greetings Games.

Do you want to learn Chinese along with your kids? Check out ChinesePod.com to get started:

Learn Chinese with ChinesePod.com
Learn Chinese with free lessons, vibrant community, web review, vocab study & more.

Zai jian!

Photo Credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:LogoBeijing2008-2.jpg

Beijing Olympics, Chinese, Foreign Language Fun, Foreign Language Greetings

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