Continue from easing language barriers part 6




We purchased a picture dictionary in China for Caleb to use because Jeff liked that it was in alphabetical order. The only problem was, it was in alphabetical order only in English. This will be great when Caleb knows more English and needs to look up a word, but right now, it is almost impossible for him to use unless he hunts through the pictures to find the word he wants.

The one that I prefer because it has an English index in alphabetical order as well as a Chinese index ordered by characters is the Oxford Chinese-English picture dictionary.

The words are arranged on pages by category, so for example, words related to school will be on a page with photos of a school, objects you would find in a classroom, etc.

It can be painfully slow to look up a sentence word by word and try to convey the complete thought to your child, but if you want to teach vocabulary related to one topic such as members of the family or things you would find in a kitchen, it is an excellent resource as all of the words and pictures related to that topic are arranged on one page.

The only drawback to this dictionary in my mind is that it has the English word and then the Chinese character. I have the same dictionary in Haitian Creole and it is easy to read the Creole word and then try to say the word. With Chinese, however, I would need the pinyin with the tones above the word to tell me how to attempt to pronounce it. With only the Chinese character, my son can read the word as he looks at the picture to know what I am talking about, but I have no way to attempt to say the word myself until I hear him say it first.

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