Marisha Theeboom is an experienced, trained Mandarin teacher and volunteer community worker since 1987. She has worked with a variety of ages, cultures and in different continents whilst involved with a large charitable organisation that spans Taiwan, America and South Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree from University of Cape Town, R.S.A.,1996.

 She married an Australian Pilot in 2000, migrated to Melbourne and has three daughters. As a migrant herself, she is aware of the difficulties involved in settling within the local community. Thus she has turned her love of teaching and community work into establishing Kimmba Bilingual Learning Playgroup Inc. Kimmba has been established for migrants and local residents to be able to gather together and understand each other through a fun and loving playgroup environment. In doing so, she hopes the establishment of Kimmba Bilingual Learning Playgroup enables more migrants from differing cultures to benefit by retaining their self-identity and at the same time develop proficiency in English language skills.

 Marisha has developed her own bilingual education program for young children, called Jo Jo Bilingual Education Program and started the first Mandarin bilingual learning playgroup at Taiwanese School of Melbourne in July 2006. She has further studied and obtained a Certificate in the Professional Development Program in Second Language Teaching Methodology for Teachers in Ethnic Schools (Chinese Phase I) from RMIT University November, 2006.

 This year Marisha is expanding Kimmba so that more children and families can be exposed to wide range of languages and cultures. She is opening a new Center in Prahran that will be available for students ranging from 0-6 years old to come from 1 hour- 15 hours a week to learn either Mandarin, German or Spanish. The Prahran center is set up as an early learning center with two fully qualified and trained teachers in every room. This center is hopefully the first of many to come as Marisha is passionate about exposing children and families to different languages and cultures to help build positive relationships with everyone in the community.    

To find out more , please visit  http://www.kimmba.com.au/

The turnout was similar to last year’s picnic – about 25 – and keen and useful links were made  between a range of languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Italian, Russian, Indonesian and Welsh.

 Most of the children who attended were too young for the ‘how many languages can you find’ game. However, those who had a go (and their mum!!) got something out of it.  For anyone wishing to follow up on the above language connections, please contact Mandy.Scott@anu.edu.au

Our classes are small with 5-6 children per class and divided into 4 age groups. Classes are held in a home like environment with beautiful surroundings to make your child comfortable and ready to learn.

Your child will have lots of fun learning Mandarin in a great atmosphere where they will be immersed in the Mandarin language.

Mandarin mandarin Bilingual Centre is located at 783 Bourke St, Redfern NSW, Australia 2016.

Read more at http://www.mandarinmandarin.com/.

In an article last year I discussed the multiple benefits that young children can gain from learning a second language.  These benefits include adding to communicative and intellectual skills, and laying the foundation for successful learning of further languages later in life.

This article introduces readers to a growing area of interest among parents – bilingual playgroups.

Over recent months I have visited three language-based playgroups in the ACT.  All are providing a bilingual experience for children and highlighting the fact that speaking more than one language is a natural and fun thing to do.

First I visited the Yeppeun Byol Playgroup at Hughes, where I found a warm centre of activity and intercultural communication.  The group focuses on Korean children under school age, but includes parents of various ethnic backgrounds who have adopted children from Korea.  Food was a major part of the morning’s activities, reflecting its cultural significance and the interest of the Korean mothers in various non-Korean recipes and vice versa – The Aussie pikelets were a bit hit with the children on the day I was there!  The Korean parents take a leading role in teaching Korean songs, music, games and other activities to the children and the other parents.

The German playgroup Spiel und Spass, is held in Cook.  Again it was a busy morning, with about 20 children.  After a period of individual play and a craft activity, the group came together to sing songs from the “German songbook”, collated by and for the group over time.  Most parents have some connection with the German language, either coming from a German speaking country or having German speaking partners.

As with all playgroups, the activities allow parents to get together as well as the children.  One mother told me of her pleasure at being able to speak her native language with others.  Another, a non-German speaker, was attending to broaden her own and her child’s experience.

I also visited a Chinese playgroup, which is held in the homes of various parents.  This was less structured than the other groups, and a happy, boisterous atmosphere was the order of the day.  Again, food was an important part of the activities.

The mothers were all Chinese and obviously enjoyed being able to discuss family and life issues in Mandarin.  Not that the group does not welcome non-Chinese: others are welcome – though as with the two previous groups, culture and language maintenance was the guiding aim.

There is a place in Canberra for language-based playgroups which focus on English-only families.  These are springing up in other cities across Australia as parents realise the value to young minds of being exposed to more than one language.  Canberra is a highly educated city with a talented multilingual community – and plans are already afoot for new bilingual playgroups here.

One of the Chinese parents at the existing playgroup is thinking of starting a group which will focus on non-Chinese families, where parents and children can experience a Mandarin-speaking environment and learn Chinese songs and cultural activities together.

An experienced preschool teacher from Belgium has also just moved to Canberra and is exploring the possibility of starting sessions for teaching French or Dutch to young children.

So: watch this space!

Playgroups are ideal environments for introducing children to a new language in a fun way.  Parents can also be fully involved and can continue activities in the chosen language with their children at home if they wish.

Mandy Scott has a PhD in Linguistics, speaks several languages and is an active supporter of languages education; she can be contacted at mandy.scott@anu.edu.au This article first appeared in PlayACT, the newsletter of the ACT Playgroups Association, in 2008

Sunday 28 September 2008, 10am-5pm

Explore the many languages of the Canberra region

Enjoy music, dance and food from many cultures

Join a free workshop! Try your hand at Arabic, Greek, Korean, Indonesian, Mandarin, Spanish, or an indigenous language; explore the Cyrillic script or Japanese writing; make a podcast in another language, hear how languages can be a career asset …

Roam around the stalls and discover the world’s languages!

Find out how and where they are taught in the Canberra region

Click here to download the event poster in PDF format

Click here to download the event poster in Word format

Receive a ‘global passport’ and get it stamped for each language you know or learn about on the day.

Raising a child in more than one language?

Share your experiences with other parents, hear some success stories, and discover more about the benefits of bilingualism (11.30am−12.30pm)

Have an opinion about language education in the ACT?

Talk to the politicians and leaders who make the policies (2pm−3pm)

Free admission

Fun for all ages

WHERE? University of Canberra: Main Concourse, Building 1 and Building 2

For more details, contact Faiz on 6201 2333 or email mandy.scott@canberra.edu.au

Click here to download the event poster in PDF format

Click here to download the event poster in Word format

In the LOTE@HOME pack, there’s a set of 50+ laminated cards for rooms in the home. Families attach the cards to the thing they refer to – the stove, the door, the dishwasher, the cupboard, the bath, the tap and so on. There are cards for the bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen.

Family members use the words on the cards, mixed in with their usual language, to make sentences. So for example, a parent could say to a child “… please close ‘la porta’ when you come in …” Gradually, everyone will absorb the Italian word for ‘door’. And so it goes with all the other cards.

Click here to go to the website

In another set of cards in the pack, it’s all about learning the names of body parts. With this set, you can play a game, like ‘Snap’ or ‘Go Fish’ but use the foreign words to do it. The pronunciation is explained too.

By using the cards, and reinforcing words around the house, kids will learn a new language in exactly the same way they learned English – by immersion and absorption.

LOTE@HOME packs are not intended to replace formal LOTE lessons, however they are intended to build an “in country environment” in the home that will support the formal learning of a second language.

Click here to go to the website

Our Mandarin Stars develop cognitive, gross and fine motor skills whilst being immersed in the Mandarin language. It’s a playgroup with a difference and designed for families of all nationalities.

Our curriculum has been inspired by Mandarin programs already taught in private, international Pre-schools, Kindergartens and Mandarin Playgroups in Hong Kong and China. With this inspiration, we have blended the Australian ‘playgroup’ approach in delivering our program and as a result, have created stimulating, fun mandarin classes for children age 1 to 5 years.

Click here to go to the website

They will be immersing in another language while they play and learn in our playgroups. In turn, they’ll pick up the language effortlessly and spontaneously .

Besides learning a new language, we also aim at building self-esteem and confidence. We encourage and help our children and their families to understand culture diversity and to promote community harmony.

We are the first playgroup centre in Victoria to provide a variety of languages. We have Mandarin, German, Cantonese and Spanish playgroups.

Click here to go to the website