Have you considered learning a language through music? Music is an additional resource to help reinforce language learning.
How to learn a language through music
Learn the lyrics
When I really love a song, I try to learn the lyrics so that I can sing along. You can quickly find the lyrics to your favorites songs with just a quick search online. Singing your favorite songs on repeat is a great and effective way to help you memorize and retain Chinese vocabulary and phrases. Learning the lyrics also helps you learn the meaning of Chinese phrases and how to use them in sentences. If you can’t read Chinese characters, simply convert them to Pinyin with one of these tutorials.
Where to find Chinese Music
You can listen to music for free on Spotify. The options are truly endless and Spotify’s recommendations based on songs that you like are very helpful. Below is a playlist of my favorite Mandarin language pop songs and another playlist of Chinese music for kids.
More Chinese Music for Children
A Love So Beautiful Theme Song - This is a sweet song to sing with your little ones. Here are the lyrics to “我多喜歡你 你會知道”, A Love So Beautiful theme song in Traditional Chinese, Pinyin, and English. Continue Reading
Fruity Pie Soundtrack - Unlike typical ear-piercing Chinese children’s songs, the Fruity Pie Soundtrack features modern melodies and lyrics. Fruity Pie (水果冰淇淋) is an award winning education show for preschool age children produced in Taiwan. My son use to watch the show and I’d catch myself humming the tunes as I cleaned. We borrowed the CD from the library and played the songs during car rides. I regret not remembering to buy the CD when we were in Taiwan. Here’s a link to the… Continue Reading
Xiamen High School Choir - Since Mother’s Day, my daughter has been singing and listening to 我的好媽媽. I even hear her singing it from her bed at night. In the car we listen to the same 儿歌 CD on repeat. Repeat. Repeat… I needed to find some new tunes, and quickly before lose my mind. I spent half the day yesterday searching for Chinese music for kids that we can really enjoy to as a family. I was deep in my Spotify and YouTube obsessive… Continue Reading
感謝: Our Preschool Graduation Song - Just like that the last 5 years have flown by and my baby is going to Kindergarten. His preschool is preparing a graduation ceremony and the class will sing a song. I like to follow along with the schools curriculum at home. My hope is that it will boost their confidence when they realize they are already familiar with some lessons. This way not everything seems unknown and difficult. I created printable lyric sheets for 感謝: our preschool graduation Song… Continue Reading
Father’s Day Song & Lyrics - My son’s preschool class is learning 爸爸,去哪儿? for their Father’s Day performance. I found the music video on YouTube and downloaded the MP3 file for our C-Pen. I also created lyric sheets so that we can read along as we listen to the audio from the C-Pen. Our C-Pen is now an expensive music player! Below is the Father’s Day song & lyrics. Enjoy! 爸爸,去哪儿? English Translation: Daddy, Where Are We Going? 爸爸去哪儿? is the them song from a very… Continue Reading
The Moon Represents My Heart - What can I say? I love this song! Who doesn’t love The Moon Represents My Heart “月亮代表我的心” by Teresa Teng. The song starts up and my chest tightens. It conjures memories of my childhood, those quilted Chinese jackets my grandma made me wear, Taiwan in the early 80’s, mopeds zipping down dusty roads… It makes me nostalgic for everything I can only relive in my mind. I’m sure every Chinese kid of the 80’s grew up hearing this song. This… Continue Reading
Chinese New Year Song for kids - Here’s my Spotify playlist of Chinese New Year music! Just kidding. Frankly, I’m not big on holiday music and even avoid malls after Thanksgiving. How can anyone shop with “Jingle Bells” playing on repeat? It did cross my mind that perhaps the kids should listen to some Chinese New Year music. After a quick search my ears decided it’s not necessary. I did find the cutest YouTube animated video of Andy Lau’s “Gōngxǐ fācái”. Sharing below because it’s not terribly… Continue Reading
Chinese Songs for kids: Learn To Meow - According to Google Trends, the top search term related to “learn Chinese” on YouTube is “learn to meow”. This insight is gathered from worldwide search data for 2018. Data from the United States included no meows, just a boring query for “how to learn Chinese”. As of today the top video result on YouTube for “Learn to Meow” has over 46 million views. Even if your child’s Chinese is limited they can still sing along to the chorus. “Learn to… Continue Reading
Fruity Pie - One of my favorite children’s shows that you can watch on Youtube is 水果冰淇淋 (Fruity Pie). This show is the longest running preschool program since it’s first episode aired in 1998. The main characters are four curious puppets and their grandmother. Granny Fruity Pie is played by 趙自強 (Chao Tsu Chiang). He is a supporting actor in over 14 movies and dramas such as The Queen of No Marriage and Miss in Kiss. If you love Taiwanese dramas then he’s surely a familiar… Continue Reading