Vivian’s story – Learn Chinese characters directly

I think it was harder for my daughter because the only time she got to practice reading Chinese characters was when she did Sagebooks. We didn’t have many Chinese books when we first started with her so she had a lower yield. With my son now, we have an massive library (we probably have the same amount of books as Dots) so we tend to read more picture books and we point out the words he’s learned. Also, it’s easy with my son because he likes being with his sister and does whatever she’s doing. My daughter is now at that point where she reads more whether it’s out loud or on her own. We have Chinese tutors and reading tutors. I think learning zhuyin after Sagebooks helped because she already knew approximately 100 characters before we introduced zhuyin. Knowing those characters helped with her zhuyin blending because she would start reading on her own and was confident in her abilities to attempt sounding the zhuyin for characters she’d never seen.