Play as a Language:
Rethinking Language Learning Through Real Life
Play as a Language:
Rethinking Language Learning Through Real Life
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Rethinking Language Learning Through Real Life
Mandarin Learning Tours
@mandarinlearningtours
Jolyne has spent the last five years asking one question: what conditions actually let a child absorb something, a skill, a language, a relationship, rather than just be taught it. She first built an answer through Tiny Play Club, a play community for families with children aged 0 to 6 that she ran from home from 2021 to 2024. She now runs Mandarin Learning Tours, where she designs and hosts Mandarin immersion journeys for families with young children in Beijing, China, each one customized around the individual child. She homeschools her own two children, aged 3 and 5.5, alongside this work.
Mandarin had zero presence in Jolyne's home before October 2024. Her own Mandarin is conversational, not fluent. Within six months, her two young children were speaking Mandarin with each other by default, even though English remains the main language at home, well enough that Beijing cab drivers assumed her kids weren't hers. The usual models of language learning, hours of exposure, early starts, a fluent parent at home, did not apply. What did apply was LIVED, the framework she uses to design every Mandarin Learning Tours journey. In this session, Jolyne breaks down what each part of LIVED looks like in practice, and how any parent or educator can apply the same conditions in their own setting.
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