若說起在海外初學中文，坊間都有不同的派別。
✨單獨認字識詞
很多家長一開始都會先教導小朋友認讀單字或單詞，這也是香港幼稚園小朋友學習中文的方式。這種方式的好處是家長和小朋友都能有滿足感，能夠快速看到成效，也能以識字量去衝量小朋友的學習進度。對於不能大量投入時間共讀的家庭，也比較容易系統化地和小朋友重溫所學。
而且單獨識字，小朋友能使用不同的記憶策略（圖象、聯想、感官、動作、遊戲）幫助記憶，對於非視覺型學習者、對文字不敏感的小朋友來說，比起直接反覆閱讀句子更容易入手。
不過，上文曾提及過，單單認字識詞並不能使小朋友直接學會閱讀。香港幼稚園小朋友能以這種方式學習，是因為他們還有很多輸入書面句式的環節配合，小朋友在認字識詞的同時還會唱兒歌、朗讀書面句式的童謠，而且他們日常生活中接觸不同的詞彙機會也比海外小朋友高得多。
所以海外的小朋友若單純只花時間在認字識詞，家長沒有花額外的時間和小朋友一起閱讀書面句子、閱讀故事，情況就如一直學英文單字卻不會任何英文語法的小朋友；或是一直在岸邊陸地上學習游泳卻很少親身下水一樣，成果如何大家都能想像得到。
✨透過閱讀直接識字
坊間也有家長會讓小朋友透過閱讀直接識字，理論上這是最好的學習方式，透過閱讀去學習閱讀，就是直接跳進水裏學游泳。
小朋友可以坐在爸媽的懷裏，輕輕鬆鬆地聽有趣的故事，自然而然地就輸入了大量的詞彙；而且家長若有意識地引入書面語指讀，小朋友更同時能學習到書面的句式和語法。
從小和小朋友一起共讀優質的圖書，是真正的愉快學習中文方式：既能擁有高質量親子互動時間，培養小朋友閱讀的興趣，又能同時透過大量閱讀來增加詞彙量及提升語感和閱讀技能。
而小朋友前期的中文輸入量足夠時，當到達識字敏感期，更能透過重覆閱讀的方法來自然識字。
不過若是方式如此美好，為甚麼大家都不用這種方式呢？
因為這個透過大量閱讀識字需要有前設的條件：
- 家長在初期要持續投放大量時間和小朋友共讀和指讀
- 廣東話家庭共讀時要按小朋友意願分配口語互動及書面朗讀時間
- 要選擇合適小朋友心智、興趣和程度的優質圖書
而且，在閱讀前期（一至兩年）家長可能不會看到任何成效，在沒有方法衝量小朋友的學習進度時，家長的信心容易會動搖。一旦一兩年過去後發現小朋友進度不如期望時，小朋友也已經長大，有機會錯過對簡單圖書感興趣的時期。
而各圖書內出現的詞彙、句式未必有重覆，除非小朋友會反覆重讀同一本繪本，否則小朋友不能把這些偶然出現的文字儲存在長期記憶區，每次讀過後就遺忘，只會事倍功半。
由於以上兩種方式都各有優點（而且剛剛好能夠互補不足），有選擇困難症的我在初期教導女兒中文時，這兩種方式也有採用和嘗試。（詳細見《不同的教材功能》一文。）
Different Approaches to Learning Chinese as a Beginner Overseas
When it comes to learning Chinese as a beginner overseas, there are various approaches out there.
✨Learning Individual Characters and Words
Many parents start by teaching their children to recognize individual characters or words—this is also the method commonly used in Hong Kong kindergartens. The benefit of this approach is that both parents and children can feel a sense of accomplishment, see quick results, and measure progress by the number of characters learned. For families that can’t spend large amounts of time on shared reading, this method also makes it easier to systematically review what the child has learned.
Moreover, learning characters in isolation allows children to use different memory strategies (such as images, associations, sensory input, movement, and games) to help retention. For children who are not visual learners or who aren’t naturally sensitive to text, this method is often easier to get started with than repeated sentence reading.
However, as previously mentioned, recognizing individual characters and words alone doesn’t enable a child to truly learn to read. Children in Hong Kong can learn this way because they are also exposed to many activities involving written sentence structures. In addition to learning characters and words, they sing songs and recite rhymes that feature formal written sentence patterns, and they have much greater exposure to vocabulary in their daily lives compared to children overseas.
So if children overseas focus solely on learning characters and words, without parents spending extra time reading sentences and stories with them, it’s like learning English vocabulary without ever understanding grammar—or like learning to swim only on land without ever getting in the water. The results, as you can imagine, would be limited.
✨Learning to Read Through Reading Itself
Some parents choose to let their children learn to recognize words through reading directly. Theoretically, this is the best method—learning to read by reading is like jumping straight into the water to learn how to swim.
Children can sit in their parents’ laps and enjoy fun stories, naturally absorbing a large amount of vocabulary. If parents intentionally incorporate pointing out written language while reading, children can also begin to learn formal sentence structures and grammar.
Reading quality books together from a young age is truly a joyful way to learn Chinese. It not only provides valuable parent-child interaction and fosters an interest in reading, but also builds vocabulary, language intuition, and reading skills through extensive exposure.
When children have had sufficient early Chinese input, they will reach a stage of character sensitivity and can naturally start recognizing words through repeated reading.
But if this approach is so ideal, why doesn’t everyone use it?
Because this method requires several conditions to be met:
- Parents must invest a significant amount of time early on in shared reading and pointing out text.
- For Cantonese-speaking families, oral interaction and formal reading need to be balanced based on the child’s preference.
- Books must be carefully chosen to match the child’s cognitive development, interests, and level.
Furthermore, in the early stages of reading (typically the first one to two years), parents may not see any visible results. Without a way to quantify their child’s progress, it’s easy for parents to lose confidence. And if, after a year or two, the child’s progress doesn’t meet expectations, the child may have already outgrown the stage of being interested in simpler books.
Since both approaches have their strengths (and conveniently compensate for each other’s weaknesses), I—someone with chronic indecisiveness—used and experimented with both methods when I first started teaching my daughter Chinese.