Ni Hao Kai-Lan : Lulu Day

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I don’t think I’m going to review every single one of these, but Lulu Day was a slight improvement on Kai-Lan’s Carnival because both Ye-Ye and Lulu threw in a few Chinese phrases. Each phrase was a one-off and went by without explanation and minimal contextual explanation, though if kids watch the episode enough times, the phrases will rub off. (The only catchphrase Kai-Lan seems to use is “Gēn wǒ lái!”). There was a “repeat after me” moment at the end of this episode which was wasted on saying “Aaaar” like a pirate – which was doubly wasted because at least Kai-Lan could have said, “Now you know how to say ‘two’ in Chinese!”

Kai-Lan’s Carnival light on Chinese, heavy on sap

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I suppose Ni Hao, Kai-Lan is the 800 pound gorilla in the English-Chinese bilingual space, but put me down for unimpressed after watching the first episode of this DVD, the titular “Kai-Lan’s Carnival.” The entire episode makes a serious effort to teach only one Chinese word, “lā” (拉), and a half-hearted run at teaching Chinese numbers. There’s also some fuzzy message about apologizing or something like that, which represents the biggest lost opportunity: the singing is all-English. Nothing helps stick words in your head like a good song, so why they didn’t even try to throw some Chinese in there baffles me. (They didn’t try teaching the Chinese equivalent of “I’m sorry,” either).

The one thing I am impressed with so far about Ni Hao, Kai-Lan is that it’s relatively calm and evenly paced (in sharp contrast to the seizure-inducing Yo Gabba Gabba). Kai Lan often pauses to ask the viewer what she thinks, and based on watching friends’ kids reactions, it’s a technique that works. Too bad most of the questions she asks in this episode have nothing to do with Chinese.

CD Review: Chinese Lullabies

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Parents suffering from sleepless babies will pay anything for relief, and retailers make fortunes off pseudo-scientific quackery. Chinese Lullabies is the real deal: music that really can help a baby go to sleep. Or, at least, our little Jacob.

I’ll admit this CD won’t teach either you or your child much Chinese, except maybe “mā ma” (mother) and “bǎo bao” (precious one). It’s hard to glean Chinese out of singing, where tones are distorted; the Chinese in these songs are formally poetic (that is, not everyday language), and I find children’s voices (with lots of echo) hard to discern. Maybe if you really know your Chinese, you’ll do better than I.

What recommends this CD is the music, which is decidedly Chinese and not some Chinese translation of “Rock-a-bye-baby.” It’s uniformly soothing and peaceful – what you’d want from a lullaby album. The instrumentation seems to be a mix of authentic instruments and synthesizers, but it actually works. (I’ve got some other Chinese children’s CDs whose over-the-top synthetic sounds definitely do NOT work).

Jacob’s gone to sleep to this music for nearly nine months now – he doesn’t really need it anymore, so we occasionally skip it. We can’t really prove that this music soothes him because it’s good or because he’s so familiar with it after hearing it for most of his life, but really – isn’t the point of these lullaby CDs really to soothe the parents after a long day? I say yes. Buy this CD today.

CD Review: Speak & Sing Chinese with Mei Mei

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Speak & Sing Chinese with Mei Mei is one of the best resources we’ve come across for getting Chinese into a predominantly English-speaking family. The CD comprises a mix of basic vocabulary lessons and songs that incorporate those words. For example, the lesson on body parts is followed, naturally, by a Chinese version of the well-known English children’s song Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. There’s no drilling on tones, grammar, or any of that, just “repeat after me” words.

Jacob loves this CD; for a while, it was an indispensible part of his morning routine. As we’re still waiting for his first words of any language, we can’t know if he’s learning any Chinese (or English).

Gene: I think this is a wonderful resource for both children and parents. Songs and music are fun and much easier to remember than just vocabulary words themselves. I find myself humming or singing many of the tunes from this CD throughout the day. Mei Mei exaggerates her pronunciation and tones, which I think makes it easier for a non-Chinese-speaker to pick up on the hardest aspects of the Chinese language.

For whatever reason Hu Mei Mei isn’t selling the rest of her resources on Amazon, but you can find them on her site, Mei Mei and Me. The DVDs (and VHS!) seem quite dated; I hope she does some upgrading soon as I really like this introductory CD. Highly recommended!