國語週刋 = ㄍㄨㄛˊ ㄩˇ ㄓㄡ ㄎㄢ = Guo Yu Zhou Kan
My girlfriend's uncle is the more intellectual type, but also obsessive in some ways, too. He hails from Kinmen--the little island off the coast of China, about 10 km from Xian. He's a collector. His house is chuck full of teapots, thousands of teapots, big and small. He's also a journalist and teaches the same at a university in Taipei. (Now that I've written the obligatory segue, it's time to get to the real point of this entry.)
Last week I came home from church to find a stack of large books--the size of those atlas' that your elementary school had in their tiny but fairly well-stocked library--on the table. The books are actually a collections of magazines bound together. I didn't count but perhaps a year's worth of issues per book for a total of 12 issues in each collection.
Yes, these are actually intended for Taiwanese children to learn Mandarin Chinese. Furthermore, just as in the other children's books that I am reading, the ubiquitous bopomofo in use render's every last word pronounceable. There's enough material there for three years of reading if I were to follow the schedule of the issues as outlined in the table of contents.
Brilliantly, the editors have also included games and other thought inducing activities to keep the learner's mind sharp and focused. I believe I will have to take a break from the fairy tales for now and switch to the more varied activities offered in these magazines.
(Pictures pending)
