Learn Chinese with Billy and Benboo

Meet Billy and Benboo, his Shih Tzu dog. Together, they teach viewers Mandarin Chinese vocabulary words and phrases used in everyday scenarios. Combining single words and sentences, both spoken and (rather tunelessly) sung, the six scenes presented here cover a wide range of topics: family titles, numbers, animal names, body parts, food, toys, various modifiers, and saying good-night. While the use of animal noises to teach the four tones in Mandarin is especially creative, the animation here is rudimentary, making reading proficiency a must--and since there is little explanation, the words must often be deduced from the context and then read in the bilingual captions. Unfortunately, the content level is geared towards kindergarten-aged children, who may be too young to have these skills. Although motivated older kids might learn quite a bit from this program, better choices for younger children here would be Follow Jade! Let's Visit Chinese Kindergarten (VL-11/03) and Follow Jade! Let's Go to the Market in China (VL-3/04). Optional. Aud: K, E, I, P. (E. Gieschen)