What’s the best age for children to learn Chinese? Some sources look at the minimum age and cite as young as 4 years old, while others recommend any age before 12 years old. Maybe the exact number isn’t as interesting (or true). But by understanding the situation we can better understand the ideal age, or rather, ideal age range.
Children acquire languages while adults need to learn them
From our article ‘children learn languages differently than adults‘, we can summarize:
- Children understand new languages through context and the way it is spoken to them.
- Children can easily switch between two or more languages intuitively.
- Children pay more attention to semantics and less attention to whether the grammar is correct or not.
- Adults focus on vocabulary & grammar and transfer them from one language to the new language to communicate.
Why start learning Chinese early?
One of the biggest advantages children have when starting to learn a foreign language early is that they (their vocal cords) much easier adapt to produce the foreign tones of a new language. An example is the hard G in Dutch, or the French ‘J’.
If you are an adult and you are learning Chinese (or have learned Chinese), you may know how difficult it is to learn to pronounce characters right: the different sounds between zh, ch, and sh — or t and q (such as 天Tiān and 前Qián). And we haven’t even started talking about tones yet! This is much easier for children to learn and pronounce and hear correctly.
This is mentioned by researchers too. A study from the University of British Columbia shows that children are more adept at picking up different sounds, and this ability decreases after the age of 12. Starting to learn the Chinese language young means children are more likely to develop an accent indistinguishable from a native speaker.
Should children learn two languages at once?
A study from the University of Washington shows that growing up bilingually has lots of cognitive benefits. Some children grow up in households where two languages are used, but in a single-language household, taking online Chinese classes of course would be an option. Even with a few hours per week, very young children can start learning a second language. Also importantly, the study shows that the child’s mother tongue isn’t negatively affected by learning a second language.
Can children learn Chinese characters?
Chinese Hanzi characters are often cited as very hard, but anyone can learn them. There are over 50,000 Chinese characters, but nobody would be able to learn that many characters. Most educated Chinese people can recognize about 6,000 different Chinese characters, while knowing 3,000 characters allows you to read a lot in China. Even knowing 1,000 characters will do wonders.
And yes, children can learn Chinese characters just fine. Our Chinese teachers teach characters in a slightly different way to children than with adults. But through play and structured classes that make repeat the most essential characters, children can learn characters.
What if my child doesn’t want to learn?
Our Chinese courses for children aren’t designed to feel like typical school courses. They incorporate play, they challenge the child and yet they’re highly educational. You can see a trial Chinese class for children with Jenny老师 and Gideon here:
When is it too late to start learning Chinese?
While it’s good to start as young as possible, there is no age limit. At GoEast Mandarin we have had plenty of students who in their 30s, 40s, or 50s made themselves fluent in Mandarin Chinese within a few years, through hard work & dedication. There are multiple goals for learning a language, you could simply be enjoying the learning process.
We hope that gives you a better idea about the best age for children to learn Chinese. There is no exact answer, but definitely a range.