處處皆學問 What might a fourth grader learn in a week?

haha come on, this will only discourage people studying Chinese at a later stage in life, which obviously is extremely different from studying from infancy. For one thing, grammar comes as naturally as walking. I don't even think my textbook had as high a standard as this when I was 10 haha

Was the textbook actually in Traditional?

Yes Bazza, the textbook series that I got this from is in traditional and uses bopomofo. Most textbooks that I have seen use bopomofo through the fourth grade, then 5th and 6th grade only have bopomofo for new words. babliku, my point of bringing up a child's ten years of immersion is to remind us adult learners not to be discourage. If an adult after ten years of living in Hong Kong or China still finds the above text difficult, well, I don't have much to say about that. This should also show adults, if given helpful teaching and environment, Cpod is an excellent example for long distance learners, yes an ADULT can learn how to read characters. Its my hope that people enjoy something a bit different than a dialouge or a media article, something new. Stories can be a very enriching way to learn.

The text is beautiful. I am printing it out it and keeping it in my wallet. A daily 'feel good' affirmation.

Man2Toe， so it is from Taiwan? I have seen quite a few textbooks from the Mainland for various ages - and they all come with Pinyin (and Simplified of course). I have never seen this bopomofo thing before someone at CPod posted in it.

WALLET INSERT - If Jenny's printing this out and carrying it around, I'm gonna put some more time into reading this...not that I'm not totally into your post M2T. :) Here's the simplified & vocab list. 在我们的生活中, 处处都是学问. 清凉的夜晚, 仰望天上的群星点点, 有些人只看见星星的美丽, 有些人却发现了星星运转週期; 在经过的研究记录, 人类终於了解了宇宙天体的奥祕. 海边捕鱼的人, 都知道什么时候潮起, 什么时候潮落. 可是有人格外细心观察, 发现潮起潮落和月亮的圆缺, 竟然有意想不到的 [巧合]. 经过不断的探索, 人们发现了一个祕密, 原来 [潮汐] 是月亮和地球玩的遊戏. 小草在春天裡发芽, 叶子在秋天飘落; 毛毛虫会变成美丽的蝴蝶, 小蚂蚁发现了食物就兴高采烈的呼朋引伴; 裁判哨音一起, 球员便开始比赛, 展开激烈的龙争虎斗; 指挥家双手一挥, 演奏的人就能心领神会的吹奏出和谐动听的乐章. 你知道为什麽吗? 这其中都有很多的学问哪! 只要在生活中倾听, 在生活中感觉, 在生活中仔细观察, 在生活中静静思考, 你会发现奇妙的世界裡处处皆学问, 等待你去探索, 等待你去追求. 你也会发现聪明的人类, 已经将许许多多的知识, 应用在生活中. 不必刻意去寻找, 生活裡就有知识, 知识就在我们的生活中. This lesson's new word list: 研究, 类, 解, 宇宙, 奥, 潮, 格, 索, 食, 烈, 寻, 裁判 研究 yánjiū research NOUN 类 lèi kind NOUN 解 jiě separates VERB 宇宙 yǔzhòu outer space NOUN 奥 ào obscure NOUN 潮 cháo tide NOUN 格 gé frame NOUN 索 suǒ large rope NOUN 食 shí food NOUN 烈 liè ardent NOUN 寻 xún to seek VERB 裁判 cáipàn judgment NOUN

Henning, Try this link to get a feel for bopomofo: http://www.mdnkids.com/BoPoMo/ The textbooks are published in Taiwan. Come Autumn, I am thinking about posting a lesson a day. Starting with the very first lesson, trying to get through sixth grade. However, I am a bit concerned about copyrights. I am not sure how to properly produce the post so that recognition of the publisher is rightly given. I've been hoping that Cpod might start a new level that would produce a similar series. These textbooks have several excellent qualities about them. My favorite of them is that each lesson builds upon past lessons. Old vocabulary reoccurs and each lesson is enriched with a hand full of new characters. The textbooks are not designed for speaking really, but are to teach reading and writing. Yet if Cpod would produce podcasts on them, grammar links could be made and oral practice sentences could develop out of the lessons. Food for thought. Jenny, You have given and are giving so much to the Cpod community. I am happy to hear that this post was able to give you a bit of positive in return. Thank you for teaching us Jenny.