How to Find Chinese Character Stroke Order Using Yellow Bridge

One of the challenging things parents have to do is trying to teach their children a language which they themselves have no knowledge of. This is even more so for Chinese Mandarin. Learning Mandarin is like no other language. There are all those Chinese characters that you need to know. Not only that, you have to know how to write them correctly, stroke by stroke.

If you have no knowledge of Mandarin, it can be quite challenging trying to help your child with Chinese Mandarin homework. This is where apps and Chinese online dictionaries come in handy.

Here's an online dictionary which you can use to find the stroke order for Chinese characters but just how do you do that. It is quite confusing to use if you have no knowledge of Chinese whatsoever. This mini tutorial is to help parents find the stroke order for Chinese Mandarin characters so they can help their children and in the process learn some Chinese too!

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Open up this link: Yellow Bridge You will see the following page. Click on "Chinese-English Dictionary & Thesaurus.

Step 2. Next, you will arrive on this page. Type in the word you want to search in the "English to Chinese" search bar. The example I have used is "book"

Step 3: You will be presented with a list of words related to your search term. Select the one you want. I have selected the single character 书 . Click on the character.

Step 4: Click on the "Strokes" tab to view the stroke order for the word.

Step 5: By default, the animate mode is selected. Your Chinese character will auto play. Select "trace outline" if you want to practice writing the strokes using your mouse. That's it! You have learned a new Chinese character stroke and will be able to teach your child how to write the characters correctly. In Chinese Mandarin, children are often tested on the order of strokes too so this it is very important to get it right.

Finally, I recommend returning to the main screen to click on "Animated Stroke Order Rules" to learn the basic rules for writing Chinese character strokes. This will help you a lot in future exercises. Happy learning!

Mandarin Classes For Kids 2017

Learning Mandarin Is Fun At Imprint Mandarin

Do you have a child who hates learning Mandarin? She resists learning the language and has trouble memorizing Chinese Characters let alone make Chinese sentences. For children like this, you have to find a way beyond the usual rote memorizing way to get them to learn Mandarin effectively. 

Imprint Mandarin uses its own syllabus to teach pre-KSSR and KSSR Chinese in a non-conventional way. The emphasis is on fun and creative learning. Imprint Mandarin's syllabus consist of:
Reading and Grammar, Speech and Drama and Creative writing. The emphasis is on making the most out of the 90-minute lesson and letting the student enjoy what they are learning. Not by drilling and doing tonnes of worksheet as they do conventionally. Other enrichment activities (taught by specialist teachers) all conducted in a full Mandarin environment are also used to supplement learning. 

Mandarin Education For All Students At Imprint

Imprint Mandarin accepts and make learning Mandarin fun for every student whether your child is in SJKC, SK, SJKT or Private or International School. Those in a non-Mandarin learning environment will find it a conducive place to have their child learn Mandarin as if they are learning Mandarin in a Chinese school environment.

What also sets Imprint apart from other Mandarin-enrichment programmes is its steadfastness in grouping kids according to age and ability. Kids of similar level are grouped together to make learning more effective and no child will feel bored or left out.

When it comes to writing, creativity is encouraged rather than memorizing or regurgitating essays. This is very important especially with the shift in UPSR questions from objective to a more subjective form of questions requiring High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS).

Children are not forced to learn beyond their ability. That is why it is important to conduct an assessment to place children according to age and ability and not in a mixed level group.

Free Mandarin Asssessment Drive For 2017 Intake

Imprint Mandarin is currently running an assessment drive for their 2017 intake  on the following Saturdays in December. Sessions start from 10 am to 7 pm.

3rd December 2016
10 December 2016
17 December 2016

Location: 《Imprint 拇指坊》Lot 100-1. 013, Level 1, The School, Jaya One, No. 72A, Jalan Universiti, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Contact: 03-74969053/ 016-6646521
Email: imprintmandarin@gmail.com
Website: www.imprintmandarin.com
Facebook: Imprint 拇指坊

Whats Better Than Google Translate For Translating From Chinese To English

I have children studying in Chinese school but I don't understand Chinese. This makes it a challenge when it comes to guiding them with homework. Fortunately, there are many tools available to help me.

Now, I use google translate a lot because it is quick and easy. It also has image recognition technology which makes it even simpler. Just snap a picture with my smart phone and translate. However, the translation is often not very accurate. Sometimes it does too literal a translation which doesn't work at all figuratively.

Fear not. There are many other tools. I find that the Yabla Chinese English Pinyin Online Dictionary excellent in terms of translating from Chinese to English, much better than Google translate. I'll show you why.

Right. Let's say you went into this website called zuowenku to look for Chinese model essays. Zuowenku has many sample or model Chinese compositions. You get quite intimidated when  you enter the site if you do not know Chinese because it is fully in Chinese and so wordy! Well, it is after all an Essay sample site.

Ok. So you enter the site and click on 小学作文which means primary school essays. If you hover over that link, you will see six columns, the first being for std 1, second is for std 2 right up till std 6. The rows denote the different types of essays.


Now, go ahead and click on any of the links. I clicked on the first link on the first column and first row and came to the following page. Intimidating right? Especially when you don't understand a word. I clicked on the one with the number 150. It means that essay has 150 words.



That brings me to the following page. This is the page with the 150 words model essay for standard one primary school. I copied the whole first line of the passage which I highlighed in yellow and now I'm going to get that whole line translated to English and pinyin. Watch the translation.



I paste the whole highlighted sentence on Google translate and this is what I got. It says "I am a : handsome , sometimes a little guilty of two boys" Oh dear. That doesn't sound right!

Now, I copy and paste the same sentence on Yabla Chinese English Pinyin Dictionary and this is what I get. (Copy and paste the whole sentence in the search box indicated by the arrow and hit search.  From this, I can guess that the sentence means "I am a handsome school boy who sometimes makes mistakes" or "I am a handsome but sometimes naughty school boy" something to that effect.

What's good about this is you get each character broken down and explained in detail which pinyin given as well. If it is a phrase it will be shown as a phrase. If it is an idiom, it will be shown as an idiom with the meaning given.

My translation of the meaning may not be perfect but with it broken down like that, you understand it a lot better.


You can also do this using the mbdg Chinese dictionary. Or if you want just the pinyin, you can  use this Chinese to pinyin converter which also gives you the meaning in English. Try all three to see which you prefer. I like the Yabla one best but sometimes when an idiom is given, I like the mbdg one because when you click on that idiom, it further breaks down each and every character in the idiom which will help you understand how that idiom was formed. Very interesting. You can use the one you prefer or all, like I do.

There is a right tool for everything! You just have to find it. With these tools, you can help your child with their Chinese homework, even if you do not know a word of Chinese!

If you found this useful, go ahead and share it.

30 Commonly Used Math Terms For Kids Bilingual English and Chinese

This post is for all English speaking parents who send their kids to Chinese school or commonly known as SJKC in Malaysia.

Helping kids with homework is not an easy thing. It requires patience and time. Even more so when you do not know the language.

Kids in SJKC have to study Math and Science in Chinese. They used to have to study it in two languages doing Math and Science both in Chinese as well as English. Although I would have preferred Math to be taught in English, I was secretly glad when it was reduced to just one language because it reduced the kids burden. Burden in terms of having to sit for extra papers as well as burden in carrying workbooks, textbooks and exercise books to school.

However, one of the problems faced by kids who come from homes where families speak in English, Malay, Tamil or Chinese dialects other than Mandarin is the lack of practice and exposure in the language. If they are weak in their Mandarin subject, they will have trouble in their Math and Science in Chinese even if they understand the concepts well.

One of the things we've done as banana parents is to teach our kids Math and Science in English. That way, at least half the battle is won when they understand the concepts well. The other half of the battle is to help them with the Math and Science terminology or vocabulary.

In this post, I have come up with 30 commonly used math terms in English with Chinese translation and pinyin as well. These are very basic terms for kids just starting out in Primary one or Standard 1. Things like addition, subtraction, multiplication etc. These terms will be used in all other areas in Math whether you are studying the topic on Money, Time, Volume, Mass, Shapes etc. Every topic in Math requires basic calculation.

You will also find that if you make an effort to help your child master some commonly used math terms, by standard 3 and higher, they will be all right because in Math practice, the sums may get harder and harder but the basic terms do not change. You may learn some new topic specific terms but the basic calculation terms will remain the same.

I hope you find these 30 commonly used Math terms in English, Chinese and pinyin useful as a Cheat Sheet to help your kids with homework. You can also get your kids to learn these terms well so that they recognize the terms easily when they come across them in a question.

This free printable math term is password protected for members only. 
Members can login here to download and print them.

As a  parent who do not know Chinese myself, I had to rely heavily on Google translate and a Chinese to pinyin converter to come up with this list.

As a parent who do not know Chinese with kids in SJKC, I use a lot of online tools and apps which are freely available. I share some of them below:

• How To Use Google Translate For Education
• 5 Best Apps For Learning Chinese With Your Kids
• A Review Of The Baidu Translation App With Image Recognition
• What Is A Good Chinese To English Dictionary App For Learning Chinese
• Science Experiment Terms You Should Know - Bilingual English and Chinese With Pinyin
• Chinese Character Worksheet Generator

I agonized over the decision on whether to send my kids to SJKC and was undecided right up to the last minute! I wrote this ebook as a guide for parents who go through the same thing "Should I or should I not send my kids to Chinese school?" "Am I doing the right thing?" 

Year after year, parents are asking themselves this question and go through the exact same dilemma I did. If you know of anyone going through that dilemma now, do recommend them my book "Banana Mom's Guide To Preparing For Chinese School - For Non-Chinese Speaking Families." Thank you.

Find out More

Banana Mom's Guide on Facebook

Chinese Character Worksheet Generator

While I was researching the translation from Chinese to pinyin and with English meaning for yesterday's post, I came across a very useful and interesting site which I would like to share.

This site called Purple Culture has lots of interesting Chinese tools including the Chinese character to Pinyin converter which I was searching for.

It also has a Chinese Character Worksheet Generator. Now, there are many sites out there which provide this Chinese Character worksheet tool, I rather like this one because it does not require any registration, is free and is in English.

Here's how to use this Chinese Character Worksheet Generator. First navigate to the site Purple Culture and click on the Chinese Tools tab. You will see a page like the following one which shows you all the tools available on the site. Do browse through them if you have the time. They are all interesting and useful. However in this post, I will  be talking about the Practice Sheet Generator. Click on that link as shown in the red arrow in the screen shot below.

Your next steps are as follows (Please refer to the screenshot below with the corresponding numbers).

1. Type your Chinese character in the box provided. If you are not sure how to type in Chinese, you can read my previous post here on how to add the Chinese keyboard on your computer to input Chinese characters or you can copy and paste a Chinese character you come across online.
2. Select "stroke order". This is useful so that an example of the stroke order for the Chinese character will be shown on the worksheet. (Updated: Stroke order is no longer a free feature so leave it out if you don't have a paid account)
3. Under "No. of traceable characters" select "3" or more if you like. This will print out grey scale characters for you to trace before attempting to write on  your own. 
4. The default font is "Kai Ti". That looks good so leave that alone. Finally, click on the "Generate" button.

I input the following characters which means "I love you" and here is a sample of my Chinese Character Worksheet generated in pdf for me to print out and use.  As you can see, it has the stroke order at the top of each character and 3 grey characters for me to practice by tracing before attempting to write on my own.

Cool right? This is very useful for Chinese Mandarin learners as well as parents coaching their kids in Chinese.

I also like the "Vocabulary List Generator" in the Chinese tools link. It allows you to generate a list of chosen vocab (which you can type in or copy and paste in). The list gives you the vocab in Chinese, pinyin and with English translation.

Super love this site!

Where To Learn Hanyu Pinyin On The Internet

Hanyu Pinyin is included in our Malaysian school syllabus for the Chinese Mandarin subject. I actually like the study of hanyu pinyin because it makes it easier for me as an English learner to read Mandarin. Sort of like a cheat sheet for reading Mandarin. I often buy bilingual Chinese/English storybooks with hanyu pinyin so I could read with or to the children. They didn't know my trick when they were younger but now they laugh at my horrible slang.

Free App For Learning Mandarin Chinese For Kids And Adults Too

My kids are studying in Chinese school but I don't know Chinese. In order to keep up with them, sometimes I study from their textbooks and workbooks in order to "teach" them. I also look out for apps and tools to help me in my quest to learn Chinese on my own.

I was delighted when I found this app. It is called ChineseSkill and available for download on Android as well as the iOS devices including the iPhone and iPad. If you have both, they will synchronize so you can use one or the other while learning. You can use the iPad at home and continue with the iPhone on the go.

Learning Chinese As A Second Language For Kids

There are many English speaking families who send their kids to Chinese schools or plan to do so. There are also families which plan to send their kids to Kebangsaan school but they realize the importance of learning Chinese as a second language so they choose to learn either on their own or through a tuition center. Commitment and follow through is required to learn Chinese on your own. Finding the right programme and learning materials is also important.

5 Tips To Help Your Child Learn Chinese As A Second Language

1. Start early. This is especially important if you are planning to send your child to Chinese School
2. Find a good programme or center for learning Chinese. If you do not speak Chinese at home, this is important to introduce your child to the language
3. Exposure. Expose your child to Chinese using various media. Conversations. Cartoons. Books. Music.

How To Type Chinese Characters From Your Computer Keyboard

One of the first few "challenges" we faced with a child studying in Chinese school is how to type in Chinese using our desktop computer. This started as soon as our kid was required to do a project or search for something on the internet.... in Chinese. We didn't know how to type in Chinese. It took me hours to figure out how to input Chinese characters using our keyboard.

In actual fact, it is quite easy to input Chinese characters or type in Chinese using your computer keyboard. All you have to do is add the Chinese keyboard. The steps are similar for whatever system or desktop computer or software you are running on your PC. I have shown it in the diagram above. Some of the tabs may be named a little differently then shown above but the steps for adding a keyboard in another language is similar to the above. If you wish to know in more detail, you can go here for the step by step guide on how to change your computer's input language.

Once you have installed your Chinese character keyboard (remember to choose simplified Chinese rather than traditional Chinese), you may need to learn how to toggle between your English and Chinese keyboards.

How To Use Google Translate For Education

I am writing this post specifically for parents who want to support their children who are learning a language unfamiliar to them (the parents).  For example, my kids go to a Chinese school and sometimes it is frustrating both to them and me when I can't answer a question. I am unable to help them not only in Chinese but also in Math, Science or History etc because everything they learn is in Chinese. This is where I find the Google Translate app very handy and useful.

I'm going to show you how to use google translate for educational purposes in this post.

If you have a tablet computer or smartphone, first you have to download the google translate app. It is really useful as a translation tool for educational use. You can use it for lots of other purposes when you require translation for example when you are travelling and you need to read a menu. However, this post uses the google translate tool effectively for educational purposes. The google translate app uses optical character recognition technology that allows you to take a picture of the words you wish to translate.

Here are the links for the google translate app for iphone, ipad or android devices. The app is free to download.

• Google Translate app for ios devices on iTunes store
• Google Translate app for android devices on Google Play store

Previously online translation tools often spewed out laughable garbage with its too direct translation. However, as we get more and more data and information, translation is getting better and better too. Not quite 100% but good enough for you to know the meaning of the word, phrase or paragraph or even an entire page of information.

Here is a step-by-step pictorial guide on how to use google translate for education. I'm going to be translating from Chinese to English for this simple tutorial. 

Step 1. Make sure you set the language you wish to translate from and to. (highlighted in red). Just tap on the language to change the language or tap the arrows in the center to interchange. Then tap on the camera tool (highlighted in yellow).

Step 2.  Point your device camera to the page you wish to translate and take a picture. Tap the "scan" icon to take a picture (The scan icon is on the right side bar)

Step 3.  After scanning, your photo will look something like this with each Chinese character or phrase in a box. You can  use your finger to highlight the text you wish to translate. This may be just a word, a phrase, the entire paragraph or the entire page.

Step 4. If you wish to translate the entire page, tap Select All to select all the words on the page

Step 5. Alternatively, you may highlight only a line, a character or phrase. After you have done that, hit the arrow key to return to the translation page

Step 6.  Tap audio to listen to the translation. Written translation is provided in pinyin and English for translation from Chinese to English. You can listen to audio for both the language you are translation to and from

That's it! It's a piece of cake! Now, you can translate words easily from one language to another. Speak to a native in a different country using a different language, read menus, newspapers, magazines etc in a different language. Cool isn't it? I love new technology. It can be used for so many wonderful things. I love how this makes it easier for me to help my child in Math, Science and other subjects in Chinese. Once I know the translation, I can answer the questions they have and am able to give them the support they need in their homework or studies.

Chinese Characters Pictographs or 象形字

One of the most interesting thing about learning Mandarin is how Chinese Characters evolved to what it is today. Sometimes kids are asked to identify the Chinese Characters Pictograph during examinations to see if they recognize a certain ancient form of a Chinese character. This helps children picture words and visualize them. It helps in the identification of modern Chinese words as you see them today. Of course simplified Chinese characters are so simplified that you sometimes do not see the connection. However, you can sometimes see or view the Chinese character pictographs in your mind when reading traditional Chinese characters.

Here are a few sites with a list of Chinese Character Pictographs for kids and adults who are learning Mandarin.

First, here is a simple introductory video of Chinese Characters Pictographs or Pictograms.



Next, I also like this very comprehensive Chinese Characters Pictograph List from chuansong.me. You will find this reference most useful. Even kids in secondary school level are sometimes asked how a certain Chinese Mandarin character looked liked in the past before it evolved into the present Chinese Character. This list will come in handy then.

Here is another 象形字 list that is just as comprehensive from hxlsw.com

With the above two lists of Chinese Character Pictograms you will be able to look up many Ancient Chinese Characters.

While this is a free printable worksheet of Chinese Pictograph Mandarin Characters for those just starting to learn Chinese.

Remember to bookmark this page. You will need it when your kids are sitting for Chinese tests with Chinese pictograph questions.