New U.S. Children's Show Teaching Chinese

boran
February 14, 2008, 11:00 AM posted in General Discussion

A new children's cartoon debuted on Nickelodeon in the U.S. last week.  It's called Ni Hao Kai-lan and it looks like it's trying to do for Chinese what Dora the Explorer has done for Spanish.  Here's a description from Nickelodeon's site:

About Ni Hao Kai-lan

 

I managed to watch one episode that was about dragon boat racing.  Even though I'm not exactly its target demographic, it was amusing hearing English-speaking cartoon characters occasionally break into Chinese.  Anyway, just another sign of the growing popularity of Chinese here in the states.

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darcey
February 14, 2008, 03:49 PM

Oh, this is neat! I will have to set up my DVR to record it.

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Julesong
February 14, 2008, 06:44 PM

Gonna take a look! Thank you so much for letting us know about it. :)

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rich
February 14, 2008, 11:17 PM

yeah, I'm not it's target demographic either. Where can I watch a Simpsons-like cartoon in Chinese (uh, other than watching the Simpson dubbed, ha ha. Wish there was one in Chinese culture but not Japanese animination [no offense])

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calkins
February 14, 2008, 11:37 PM

Here's a six minute youtube of the premeire. You're right boran, it does have a Dora feel to it. I like it.

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azerdocmom
February 15, 2008, 01:00 AM

Here's the CPod lesson with the same song as the above clip: Two Tigers Song http://chinesepod.com/lessons/two-little-tigers-song/discussion

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darcey
February 15, 2008, 01:01 AM

I'm watching it on YouTube, and I think this is going to be great... It's deliberately meshing biculturalism, not just bilingualism. We should support this show. ;)

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boran
February 15, 2008, 02:05 AM

user3881, 不用谢 (bùyòngxiè) calkins, thanks for finding the clip. I figured there was something out there but I was too lazy to look for it :) azerdocmom, good lesson find. I really enjoy the song lessons - I'm still singing that "新年好 (xīnnián hǎo)" song to myself like a crazy person darcey, the episode I watched had the grandfather teaching calming exercises to Rintoo (the tiger) because he was getting angry about losing the dragon boat race. Of course, through the use of these exercises he won the race in the end. For some reason, every time Kai-lan calls her grandfather "爷爷 (yéye)" I find it unbelievably cute. If anyone in the U.S. has Comcast digital cable, some of the episodes are available from its on-demand channel as well.

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Julesong
February 15, 2008, 04:08 AM

Boran - hearing "yéye" *is* cute. :) I've been watching some of the shows online this evening. It's awfully cute, and surprisingly enjoyable for a little kids' show. I love combining learning and music.

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lordstanley
March 08, 2008, 06:09 AM

It's been picked up in Canada as well, by Treehouse - Sunday afternoons and Tuesday and Thursday early evenings. The opening song is catchy, my 22-month old loves it. I thought they could sprinkle a bit more Chinese in it though. Usually a flurry in the first 5-10 minutes, but then can go the next 5-10 minutes without a word of Chinese spoken. Rintoo is a suck, hope at least once this season 爷爷 (ye2 ye) breaks out the 功夫 (gong1 fu4) on him, haha.