Teaching English at Xiada Kindergarten

As I mentioned a while back, I suggested (with the help of one of the parents as interpreter) to Maya's teacher that I come to teach the kids some English once a week. Today was our first meeting, and the kids were great! One of the parents who speaks a little English (actually, the husband of the parent who acted as interpreter to arrange this) came to help -- apparently no one believes you can teach a foreign language unless you also know the native language! He was a help, but I think we would have managed just fine without him, too (but don't tell him that!).

When I got there, the teacher had all of their little chairs lined up in the center of the room, and the kids were singing Chinese songs. Naturally, I first taught them "Hello," which most of them knew already, and the teacher helped by telling them to speak louder (at least, I'm assuming that is what she said, judging from their reactions!).

We then covered some basic body parts, with them saying the Chinese, then me saying the English, and then they repeated the English. Then we sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." The kids really seemed to love that, and we did it again and again. I would ask, "Do you want to sing it again?" and my parent helper would translate, and they would yell, "Yes!" in unison. The funniest part for me was watching the two teachers try to do it, too! I was thrilled that they were willing to play along.

We also sang "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," with the hand gestures and everything. They were tickled to do the twinkle, twinkle part. And again, we did it again and again! I left with the teacher one of our CDs that has Twinkle, Twinkle on it, as well as other English songs, and she says she will play it for the children.

I made up a song a few years ago using what little Chinese I know -- the lyrics are essentially

Ni Hao, Ni Hao, Ni Hao Ma?
Wo Ai Ni, Wo Ai Ni
Ni Hao, Ni Hao, Ni Hao Ma?
Wo Ai Ni!

(OK, so I'll never be a song writer!). We sing it before bed each night. I had Maya sing them the Chinese version, and then I taught the class the English translation to the song:

Hello, Hello, How Are You?
I Love You, I Love You
Hello, Hello, How Are You?
I Love You!

I've even made up actions to suit the words -- waving, shaking hands, hugging. Boy, the kids loved playing along with that.

I also did counting -- 1 through 10. I was surprised that one little boy already knew how to count in English! A lot of the parents know a little English, and teach their kids, but most seem to know only "hello" and "thank you." (Not to diminish that -- that is certainly more than most English-speaking kids know of Chinese!).

I once heard something that has always stuck with me in my teaching -- it is a Jewish tradition to put a drop of honey on a child's tongue on the first day of school to teach them that learning is sweet. So the last thing I taught the kids was the word "candy!" I brought a bag of candy, and had each child say "candy" before I gave them a piece of candy, and then had them say "thank you" after they got the candy, and then I said, "You're welcome."

I had a blast, I think the kids enjoyed it, too, and I think the candy ensures that they will be happy to have me come back next week!