

This post contains affiliate links.
This post contains affiliate links.
We just love this game Rush Hour. It is challenging! It is fun! It is portable! It is hard to lose too many pieces! 🙂
Seriously, though, we love it. My son, Lucas (11) recently decided to start a Chinese tutoring class fueled in part by a desire to buy Pokeman cards (which he has yet to purchase – thank goodness) and a new-found pride in his Mandarin-speaking skills. He has used this game often during his tutoring sessions because it is a great way to explore numbers, directions and simple vocabulary while still challenging his students. His students range from 5 to 11 and so he needs to find games that will appeal to all ages — and this one is it!
Here are some colors to get you started:
FRENCH:
black noir/noire
white blanc/blanche
gray gris/grise
red rouge
blue bleu/bleue
yellow jaune
green vert/verte
orange orange
purple violet
brown marron
pink rose
SPANISH:
black negro
blue azul
brown marrón, pardo
green verde
grey gris
orange anaranjado
pink rosado
red rojo
white blanco
yellow amarillo
MANDARIN:
Color | Pinyin | Simplified |
white | bái sè | 白色 |
blue | lán sè | 藍色 |
yellow | huáng sè | 黃色 |
green | lǜ sè | 綠色 |
red | hóng sè | 紅色 |
orange | jú sè | 橘色 |
brown | kāfēi sè | 咖啡色 |
black | hēi sè | 黑色 |
purple | zǐ sè | 紫色 |
grey | huī sè | 灰色 |
This post contains affililate links.
Playing games is the best way for children to learn a second language! Children have fun while using vocabulary in a meaningful way. Some of the simplest games provide a wonderful opportunity to explore simple language in a second language!
Why use these games to teach a second language?
Simple games enable children of almost all levels of second language abilities to play along. If a child only knows colors in a second language, he can play Candy Land or Twister. If a child has just started learning numbers in a second language, Chutes and Ladders is a great game to reinforce numbers.
Check out these wonderfully fun, but simple games available on Amazon:
In our house, we have “Mandarin Hour” once a day– or at least we try for an hour, but sometimes it ends up being “Mandarin 15 minutes” instead and that is ok. The idea is that the children speak only in Mandarin for an allotted time each day. They can choose the activity (blocks, legos, games), but they need to speak only in Mandarin Chinese for that time.
In the video below, I chose the game Candy Land to illustrate how a child with more advanced speaking skills, my older son Lucas, can teach his younger sister. Lousha, colors in Mandarin Chinese.
I have written the pinyin and the simplified character on each of the cards so that my children see the writing as they play to get familiarized with the written forms of Chinese.
The following video captures and unscripted and unrehearsed video of my children playing Candy Land:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYWPrIEoq38&feature=g-upl
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Filed Under: Games to Learn a Second Language, Playdates, Posts with Videos, Uncategorized