We need to find all the ways to get kids motivated at learning a foreign language, which benefits his or her whole life. Parents especially Mandarin Chinese instructors should utilize all the tools available to help kids learn. Our students in Mandarin Chinese program at Minnetonka schools have been watching Mandarin Chinese dubbed movies at the suggestion of one Chinese instructor. So far, the approach has been a great success. These movies are produced in Hollywood or Disney, such as Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Little Maid, Beauty and the Beast, etc. However, they are translated and dubbed in Mandarin Chinese. With Mandarin Chinese (English available as well) audio conversations AND English subtitles, the kids can understand very quickly because these are the movies they have been watching since their childhood. Several immediate benefits are obvious: the correct way to pronounce Mandarin Chinese, how conversations are conducted in Mandarin Chinese, and efficient learning because kids learn from listening to Chinese conversation while reading the English subtitles on the screen!
Our kids got on such Mandarin Chinese dubbed movies program at the beginning of this summer, and so far, they have been doing well, and they have a collection of 30 some Chinese dubbed movies from website
http://www.ChineseDubbed.com, from which the Minnetonka schools also order their Mandarin Chinese dubbed movies for their libraries.
Parents, school officials, and Mandarin Chinese instructors should know these tools are available for students to use.
