안녕 … 안녕 … 선생님! *
In our circle of public school friends are quite a few mixed Korean families. Almost all of the kids are not too familiar with the language though – especially those, whose mothers are non-Korean or second generation Korean-American. A few weeks ago at pickup, i noticed that two of Mika’s best friends are attending a casual Korean after school group that is run by a native Korean mother of another class mate. At the spur of the moment, i decided that it would be a great thing to try and now both Mika and Tobin are going to Korean class every Thursday. Mika’s big kid group is mostly about reading and writing, and building up basic vocabulary. She has a lot of catching up to do as her vocabulary is almost non-existent (hence the flash cards). Once a month, they do a cooking or craft activity instead, which is a lot of fun. In Tobin’s group, all the little brothers of the big girls come together with a few more 4 to 5-year olds. They sing, do crafts and games, but have a few small writing exercises as well. As you can see, Tobin can now write his own name in Korean, and the word for “hat”, which illustrates his origami figure. He even brought home a CD with children’s songs … * here is the first track:
[audio:http://www.minitosu.com/audio/BrooklynKoreanPlaygroup_01.mp3] 안녕 (Hello) Song
ninja responded on February 3rd, 2013 at 2:32 am
Sooki – you are probably saturated with K-kid music, but in case you want to grab any tunes for Lukas, here’s the link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yjmtj2f16fe7v1w/50hZSotCOq
sooki responded on February 5th, 2013 at 2:53 pm
Ninjette, that’s sooooo awesome Mika and Tobin are learning Korean!! I noticed Lukas forgot a lot of the Korean words he used to know so i am reading him a Korean book every night and waiting for the 2 big boxes of Korean books my mom/sister is sending me. I need to make a curriculum here… Thanx so much for the music, just downloaded it :)
ninja responded on February 5th, 2013 at 8:56 pm
Sooki, Lukas is still lightyears ahead of our kids. Our two guys have ZERO passive vocabulary. If somebody speaks to them in Korean, they are as clueless as i am. They only know a few phrases. I just figured since the “resident Korean” wasn’t going to do anything about it, i have to sign them up or it’ll never happen. Better a little Korean than none!
I am not sure how long it will take them to comprehend everyday spoken sentences, but knowing a bunch of new words will definitely help them understand what is being said around the house. Also, it will be a lot of fun for Sung’s family to help with the teaching/practice next time we visit Baltimore.
Perhaps i let Mika make sticky notes with words of objects around the house. She can stick them all over their place, and then walk around practice reading and speaking the words. That’s a fun game we played during Mika’s “emerging readers” phase of elementary school, 3 years ago.
In any case, Sung’s grandmother will be extra happy. She doesn’t speak any English.
ninja responded on February 7th, 2013 at 11:02 pm
Actually, Sooki, children’s songs and audio books/stories are perfect to help build vocabulary. Mika and Tobin have a LOT of German CDs and some German animated movies and TV series (for iphone). Along with the many books, they helped put a little German into their lives in moments where i didn’t have time to read to them. They would just rock out to some tunes early Saturday mornings, or when i am in the kitchen making dinner.
Now we have some Korean CDs as well, and the kids love humming along those songs s well. There is something about music that gets words into your brain much more easily. The funniest thing: there are quite a number of universal children’s songs that they now know in 3 languages (heads, shoulders, knees and toes), but also a number of songs that exist in German and Korean (!)
Jeeun responded on March 13th, 2013 at 6:34 pm
Ninja!
Can you resend the link to download? I arrived here too late. I am now working 4days a week and am struggling. Am struggling with the korean also. Your efforts are amazing, best of luck!! Love, jeeun
ninja responded on March 13th, 2013 at 10:17 pm
Whoops … sorry, Jeeun. I took the files down without thinking that this post was still linked to them! The new link is: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yjmtj2f16fe7v1w/50hZSotCOq
The kids are still far from speaking Korean – or understanding anything if a native speaker starts chatting them up. But they are having fun and building a little vocabulary, and hopefully one thing leads to another!
Jeeun responded on March 14th, 2013 at 6:28 pm
Thanks ninjette!
Kudos for even attempting to turn your kids trilingual. Apparently you have until 12-16 yrs of age to get the language to the best side of the brain. If anyone can do it it’s you!