6 Activities to Boost Cantonese Language Development
I strongly believe that kids learn things much quicker when they are enjoying the process and having fun. So how exactly can we make Cantonese learning fun? Here are some simple activities I do with my kids on a daily or weekly basis in order to boost the development of their Cantonese (their minority language).
Read together. Search for books that have colorful pictures or your child's favorite animals. Read to your child every day, several times a day. Several times a day sound a lot but it is actually not that difficult to achieve. My toddler always asks to read the same book over and over again so we can easily read the same book 3-4 times in less than an hour! Reading is simply describing the pictures in a book without following the written words (it probably works out best as most Chinese books are not written in spoken Cantonese). You can also discuss the illustrations together, ask them to tell you what they see and ask them to point out specific items on the page.
Sing (and dance) together. Kids love songs and rhymes. You will be surprised how many words and phrases children pick up from singing a song. Sing simple songs and recite nursery rhymes together. If you need a reminder of the lyrics, you can find some song sheets here. You can also find many great resources from my Pinterest "Language: Cantonese Songs 兒歌" board. You can throw in some silly movements here and there to make it even more fun. The sillier the better!
Play the "yes-no" game. There are so many different ways to answer yes and no in Cantonese. I find this a great game to give your child sufficient context to learn how to answer yes-no questions in Cantonese. Ask questions such as:
Are you a girl? 你係唔係女仔? (Jyutping: nei5 hai6 m4 hai6 neoi5 zai2)
Yes / No. 係 / 唔係 (Jyutping: hai6 / m4 hai6)
Can a pig fly? 豬識唔識飛? (Jyutping: zyu1 sik1 m4 sik1 fei1)
Yes / No. 識 / 唔識 (Jyutping: sik1 / m4 sik1)
To make it more challenging, encourage your child to make up questions and try to fool you. They love it!
Encourage details. Many children love to share. They like to tell you what they see and what they know. My toddler loves to show off new words or new things she has learned. When children tell you something, try to build and expand on what they say. For example. Our recent topic is colors so my toddler has been very keen to point out all the colors she sees. When she points at something green, I would say, "Yes, that is green. It's a green bus. It's big!". This way, she can pick up more words like bus (巴士; Jyutping: baa1 si6)) and big (大; Jyutping: daai6).
Describe your actions. Verbally describe what you do or what you see. Yes, it feels like talking to yourself and it may feel weird at first. But admit it, it works! Your child will pick up new words and phrases from what you say. Toddlers and younger children may even join in the conversation. I "talk to myself" a lot while cooking or shopping for groceries. It looked really odd when my daughter was just a baby, but now (at the age of 3 and being a very talkative little girl) she likes to join in and have a discussion with me about how I should cook, what I should make and so on.
Talk to them. Yes it is just that simple! Just talk to them and treat them like an intelligent person (because they are!). Consciously hold conversations with them and ask for their opinions. If they have used wrong words or pronounced something wrong, don't correct them directly - simply repeat what they said back to them to model appropriate use of words or pronunciations. And make sure that you have your child's attention before you speak (kids sometimes have the attention span of a squirrel, you know!). Don't force it if your child doesn't feel like having a conversation. Just try again another time.
Do you have any activities up your sleeve? Share with me in a comment!
