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Articles for Learning Chinese & Culture
Book Expo in LA
I was at the Book Expo today. Overwhelming! It was wonderful to meet in person some of my suppliers. People who I have spoken over the phone for years. I also found out about some neat products that I will get soon. I wish I had more time there, but since I am in charge of picking up the daughter, my time was limited... I did not even know my suppliers would be there till I was walking the floor. My main purpose was to see a friend I had not seen in many years who worked for a supplier, but has moved jobs. Labels: childbook
Dim Sum & Sea Food in Rowland Heights
Hong Kong Palace - They have a custard that is nice! Long lines on weekends! Happy Harbor Restaurant - Next to 99 Ranch Market and you order from a menu. Rowland Harbor Seafood Inc - More traditional, no frills Dim Sum. Little less costly than Hong Kong Palace. Long lines on weekends! New Capital (I have not been to since they changed names). Parking in this plaza can be frustrating. On the second floor. www.yelp.com/biz/new-capital- seafood-restaurant- rowland- heightsNewport Seafood Rowland Heights is very good for sea food and has good lunch specials. www.yelp.com/biz/tan-cang-newport- seafood- rowland- heightsCute book about Dim Sum  |  | | | | | Dim Sum For Everyone! by Grace Lin | Our Price: $6.99  |
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Just right for young children, Dim Sum for Everyone! celebrates a cultural custom and a universal favorite activity--eating! Great book! |
Labels: Chinese Food
By Age - Learning Chinese
Memorial Weekend Customer Purchases
After a 3 day weekend, shipping is a challenge and usually results in a late night. Some popular items this past Memorial Weekend: Labels: childbook
China's Mood with Foreigners
The Positive ViewOutpouring of Help Shifts Mood in China - washingtonpost.comI was very worried about the mood in China after coverage of Tibet in the western media and the Olympic Torch demonstrations. Fortunately aid from outside China has helped calmed down the nationalism per the Washington Post article that I was finding worrisome. There is still a bit of it, for example comparing WalMart's contribution to the Sichuan earthquake to Katrina (next state over from Arkansa). The Negative View:The Wall Street Journal has the opposite conclusion Donations Pour In, but Resentment Arises. Conclusion:There is probably both. I would not be surprised if the Chinese government also cooled down protests against donations (they do read the papers). This is a benefit when you have a huge amount of people manning the great firewall of China, and checking out blogs published internally. Labels: china's future, earthquake
Foreign Language use by Country Leaders
Changing perceptions in using the English language - Taiwan's latest President is a Harvard Graduate and speaks excellent English. It seems there is a bit of a controversy of him speaking directly to foreigners, instead of using English. My guess is there is just a bit of politics in this (Election was bitter). The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd speaks Chinese. Many leaders will use translators even though they know English, as a way to gain additional time during negotiations. Many Russian leaders were known to do this. And a surprising change in how China's leadership communicates with Western Reporters - seismic shift in China’s relations with West where many foreign reporters accompanied the Chinese Prime Minister to the earthquake damaged area. Labels: Learning Chinese
Wedding photographer captures earthquake moments
Learning to Speak Olympics
Learning to Speak OlympicsWow! The goal of having 35% of the population understanding English by the Olympics. Funny quote: My best student is the local constable, Officer Li. He approached me about a private lesson in English vulgarities, “so I know when a foreigner is cursing me.”
This is the stuff you usually don't learn in class.
Labels: China Olympics
Fortune Cookie Chronicles
Somebody is doing some serious press: It's a good read that is interesting and fun to read. Labels: china food safety
Baby Learning Chinese Books, DVD's, and Products
Baby Learning Chinese Books & DVD's is a new category I put together. I have gotten a few requests on parents who want to teach their little Baby's Mandarin Chinese. I will be getting in more products to help out with this interesting area. I understand in NY they are even having baby classes for Mandarin. There are also some specialty products out there for teaching baby's Mandarin Chinese. The goal is to have a true bilingual baby, so when they grow up they can take advantage of the huge opportunity that China presents! Labels: baby learning mandarin
Design of ChildBook (Navigation)
A good friend of mine sent me an E-Mail about her frustration with navigation on ChildBook. I have known her husband since middle school. He also taught me how to do the Rubix Cube, that has now come back into fashion and was President of a Rubix Cube club in High School (he had a solve time of under 30 seconds if I remember right). Soon there will be some more changes on ChildBook.com on the layout making it easier to find the right items. Life is easier when you have fewer items, but with over 1000 items and a lot of categories, the navigation needs to be tweaked to make it as easy as possible for customers to quickly find the right products. I believe the changes I did in the books for Learning the Chinese Language and Culture are good, as well as the Learning Chinese & Culture DVD's. The Chinese Culture area needs help, since it's duplicated in sub-categories under DVD's and Books, and keeping everything synchronized manually is hit and miss. Labels: childbook Web Site
Curriculumn for Learning Chinese
China's two Countries - Rural and the Coast
China has two different societies, one on the coast that is privileged and the other rural. One that is becoming incredibly rich, and the other that is so poor it generates tremendous amounts of migrant workers that do construction and other service jobs without papers. For internal immigration in China is still controlled, and to enroll your child in school requires papers. In the US in the 1960's, the poverty of parts of rural America lead to the war on poverty. Katrina showed that the US still has incredible poverty in areas. President Johnson's response to the extreme poverty was programs to create a Great Society. China has advanced tremendously. In Shanghai there is even a magnetic train, where the US has none. I was thinking about a book I carry, and wondering if it is still relevant. It does not show the magnetic train of Shanghai, or the traffic jams and pollution in all the major cities. The damage to the environment. It does not show how rich China has become in many areas. It shows an older, rural China that still exists as the recent Earthquake has shown. With villages that have no road to them. The book is the Colors of China by Shannon Zemlicka and it's a nice book that uses colors to show the flavor of an older, rural China. I also have a series of Chinese Culture DVD's that are very good about Ping Wei, and you can see the changes that are occurring in China in a typical village. A documentary system that is well done.  | | | | | | One Day in Ping Wei - A Documentary of China - DVD | | Our Price: $24.95 |
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What is life like…in China? China is changing at a remarkable rate but the countryside, where the majority of China’s 1.3 billion citizens live, remains much the same as it has for centuries. This documentary, shot entirely on location in China, offers a window on life in rural village, capturing in compelling detail the daily life of a Chinese family.  | | | |  | | | | | | New Year in Ping Wei - A Documentary of China - DVD | | Our Price: $24.95 |
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How is Chinese New Year celebrated in rural China? Follow Liu Yen Twin and her family and find out!. From
preparation of the family reunion dinner and the symbolic burning of paper
money to firecrackers and fireworks. | | | |  | | | | | | Land of the Dragon - A Documentary of China - DVD | | Our Price: $24.95 |
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Travel through China, learning as you go about history, customs, culture and language. Narrated in both English and Mandarin (with subtitles), this documentary takes you from Beijing to the Yangtze River and beyond - offering a rare glimpse at life inside the Land of the Dragon.
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 | | | | | | Return to Ping Wei- A Documentary of China - DVD | | Our Price: $24.95 |
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It's been two years since we visited Liu Yen Twin and her family, and the fields of Ping Wei are alive with the spring harvest. Liu Yen Twin is a teenager now, and school is taking on a whole new importance. |
Labels: china's future
3 pandas missing after China quake
3 pandas missing after China quake from the SF Chronicle. Key Points: - The largest Panda reserve, Wolong Nature Reserve, was 18 miles from the Epicenter of the Quake
- 60 Pandas live there and 3 are missing.
- 5 Staff died
- All house for the Pandas was damaged.
Some Panda related products: Labels: earthquake, panda
China's Earthquake Response
Earthquake and 8's Symbolic Meaning
 This text message was sent around China: January 25 — Snowstorm equals natural disaster; 1+2+5=8 March 14 — Bald Tibetans equal man-made disaster; 3+1+4=8 May 12 — Earthquake equals seismic disaster; 5+1+2=8 8.8.08 — the Olympics. Coincidence? China will be hosting the 2008 Olympics, and the official start Date is August 8, 2008. The number 8 is considered lucky in Chinese, because it also sounds like wealth in Mandarin. The start date is on the 8th day of the 8th month of the 8th year of the century, a lucky day in what was supposed to be a lucky year for China. It's also Chinese Father's day, since 8 also sounds like Father. My local bank to celebrate the Chinese Olympic and has many of the paper 8's hanging from their ceilings. Directions below so you can make your own Chinese Olympic paper cut. Chinese Olympic Papercut Mobile Craft Project for hanging from your ceiling
- Celebrate China's hosting of the Olympics starting on the 8/8/2008
- Project only takes minutes to do!
- Make more than one for your bedroom or class room!
Labels: China Olympics, chinese craft
Per the Wall Street Journal, Chinese Reach Out to Orphans there has been a huge outpouring within China to adopt any orphans of the Earthquake. Demand exceeds supply. Key Quote from the article: The sad reality is that there may not be many orphans, officials say, because many of the estimated 50,000 dead are children. The earthquake came during school hours on a Monday and demolished many schools. Authorities aren't showing any signs that they will make it easier for foreign families to adopt the children, after implementing tough new adoption rules last year. And per the Official Chinese Media the adoption process will take a year: Chinese civil affairs departments considering registration of Adoption OffersLabels: china's future
Outside help for China' Earth Quake
Doctors without borders is there (I did not realize this). http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=2706The only help China is accepting is some quake experts per this NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/world/asia/16china.html?scp=1&sq=taiwan+japan&\
st=nytMy opinion is China does not want to lose face by showing they need too much outside help. I am surprised they are even getting quake experts from Taiwan (very interesting politics) and Japan (still strange). The type experts are ones who have tools to find people buried such as fiber optic probes, etc. They are also allowing direct flights from Taiwan to China (usually only happens on Chinese New Year since 1949, but promised to change with the new government that will be assuming office in Taiwan soon). Labels: china's future
Chinese Kids - Purpose of Education
China's Student Quake Deaths Spark Anger at School Construction
Toll now at 12,000 - Chinese Earthquake
Toll is now 12,000 with an estimated 25,000 trapped. The government is being quicker to respond than to the New Year Snow storm. The high toll was because of the time it struck, mid-afternoon. The article is so so, but the comments are interesting - China bloggers cook up quake conspiracies I appreciated the kind comment from a person from Taiwan towards the victims. Popular Mechanics has an article on Quake Detection technologies (still working on them is my take) 3 Quake Tech Frontiers to Save China (and Help the US Next Time).Quote from the article - prediction remains something of a scientific dead end.
And since I live in Southern California, home of the San Andreas fault and having lived through the Whittier, Northridge, and Sylmar Quakes. And the big one is expected at any time, quake detection would be nice! The good news is after every quake the retrofitting of freeways and such gets better and better. In the Sylmar quake, the I5 collapsed. Same in Northridge and in downtown LA the 10 freeway (a huge mess for traffic until it was fixed). San Francisco Loma Prieta Earthquake collapsed a double decker freeway. My Uncle was in a convention center and all the lights went out, not a pleasant experience.
Labels: china's future
Donations to help with Sichuan Earthquake
www.halfthesky.org, a wonderful organization, has set up a fund to help with Earthquake. Please not in your donation it is for earthquake relief. The Earthquake in Sichuan Province, China has resulted in almost 10,000 dead. The quake had a magnitude of 7.8, and was the biggest to hit China for a couple of decades. The San Francisco quake was approximately of the same magnitude. The Long Beach quake was only 6.25. The Long Beach quake destroyed many schools, but happened at 6AM resulting in few deaths. There were many improvements in building design after the earthquake. NPR has two reporters in Sichuan that are now covering the quake, there story today on the school that collapsed is heart breaking. China's leadership is being very active in the quake areas to put the best face forward. Chinese leadership is often judged on how well they handle natural disasters, such as the storm during Chinese New Year. If not handled well, this is seen as an omen that a change in government is needed, since they have lost Heaven's Mandate. On that vein of thought, this is interesting - Tibetan tectonics triggered China quake I wonder how long till somebody connects the Chinese actions in Tibet to this quake. Labels: China's Government
China and US Linked inextricably
Solar IPO - Real Goods Solar
School Fundraising - Not Fun!
An article from the WSJ brought back memories of School Fund raising with an interesting title - Little LomansLomans refers to the main character from a Death of a Sales Person, Wily Loman. The problem I see with most school fund raisers is they don't raise much money. Our local school district is talking of budget cuts in the millions, and fund raisers if you are lucky bring in a couple of thousand dollars. Bake Sales a couple of hundred. Some school districts ask the parents to donate directly as this Steve Lopez of the LA Times wrote about Ponying up for a public education. When I was in High School, I was selling waxless candles. They arrived late, and then delivering them to people and explaining they had ordered them was embarrassing. I had sold door to door and my neighborhood had many retired people on fixed incomes. After that, I refuse to sell anything that would embarrass me. That's probably one of the major reasons that I have a 100% return policy. If you don't like the Learning Chinese Products you bought, just return them. I appreciate if you don't take advantage of the policy (some people do unfortunately). The big fund raiser at my daughter's school is Bingo every Saturday night, so I start my shift in a couple of hours. Labels: Education
Chinese Poems/Poetry Teacher's Guide
I just posted a Teacher's Guide for A Thousand Peaks: Poems from China by the authors. 40+ pages! Everything you need to know A-Z for teaching Chinese Poetry. Wow! The book is great and is one of the best books I carry.  | | | | | | A Thousand Peaks: Poems from China | | Our Price: $19.95 |
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Chinese Poetry that spans 2,000 years--from the Han dynasty to the 20th century--
- Rhythmic translations that capture the astonishing beauty of the original Chinese.
- The accompanying text describes the culture that inspired them, and the history that stirred their deepest emotions.
- Illustrations that foster an appreciation for the close relationship of poetry to other art forms.
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Labels: chinese poetry
Childbook Chinese System Comparison
Finished today adding in Chinese Made Easy and Kuaile Hanyu (Happy Chinese) Learning Chinese Systems that include software, flashcards, textbooks, cd's, simplified, traditional, and workbooks. This is in addition to Practical Chinese - Effective way to learn Chinese.
The challenge is they all don't have the same features. So as a person wanting to figure out the right system to buy, what should you do? I look at other web sites and I just see a long list of items. That's useless. So what I did was put together a table and added a lot more categories to make this somehow meaningful. Of course this got finished after the weekly newsletter went out this morning ;-) I did finish one for textbooks that did get in. My work of art - Learning Chinese Systems Comparison. I plan on doing more of these type of comparisons to help people figure out the right products to buy. The goal is to make the shopping process as easy as possible. Feedback is appreciated on this work of art. For example what you would like to see added to it. It was nice that somebody ordered flashcards for Kuaile Hanyu (Happy Chinese) that had just been added this morning! Thanks, it made my day! Labels: Learning Chinese
Making Choices Easier
Which Learning Chinese Series should I choose? Which Singing Chinese CD should I get? Which Learning Chinese Video should I buy? I hope to prevent the first question with the table I have put together comparing the three different series I carry of Learning Chinese programs that include textbooks, workbooks, cd's, flashcards, and software. Here is a link to a draft of a Learning Chinese Textbook Series Comparison Chart/Table (think of it as version 1.0). I will also work on doing charts for the other three areas. I am not sure where to put it in the navigation, have it to the side or as the main navigation. Labels: Learning Chinese
Chinese firms bargain hunting in U.S.
Earthquake readiness taught in Mandarin
Site Re-organiziation
To improve the ease of use of Childbook.com I have made a few changes, the major one was to make it easier for choosing Simplified, Traditional, and English Books | Chinese Children. I created a separate sub-category for each, and then lot's of sub, sub categories. I also moved added to the main menu Flash Cards | Chinese (I need to add the word Chinese) and separated them into Simplified and Traditional Characters. It's surprising that some of the products don't say what they are. I also moved Grades, Study Skills, and College Admission Books to the main menu.
Labels: childbook Web Site
Language & how we think
How the Brain Learns to Read - The title in the print edition is How Alphabets Shape the Brain. The article mentions how one person may be dyslexic in English, but would not be in another language. And how different areas of the brain are used for the same activity, depending on the native language. Interesting article. The article compares English and Chinese. Labels: Learning Chinese
Fun Chinese Character Book - Long is Dragon
My first choice is Long Is A Dragon - Chinese Writing for Kids by Peggy Goldstein is a fun book that is a great read even if you are not learning Chinese Characters. - It's fun to see how the Chinese characters evolved.
- It shows for example a picture of an ox (with the horns), then the ancient Chinese Symbol that has a curved stroke that looks like a horn, and the current version that does not.
- The book also shows you the stroke order
- And explains what happens when you combine two words. Electricity and language, results in telephone.
- The end of the book includes some scrolls that people put on their walls.
It's a great book and a fun activity is get a brush and paper, and have your child do some Chinese Characters for fun! This is also a great book for class room activities. Labels: chinese characters, Learning Chinese
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