How to Help With Chinese Homework You Can't Read

You can help with Chinese homework without reading Chinese by taking over everything around the homework and leaving the Chinese itself to your child. Your job is the routine (same time, same table), the tools (a Zhuyin chart, a dictionary, a translation app used carefully), and the questions: “Teach me this one,” “How do you say it?” “Show me the stroke order.” A child explaining a character to you is doing a useful review, and you are learning something at the same time.

This guide is written for parents whose children attend a Taiwanese school, a weekend Chinese school or an immersion programme, and who cannot read the worksheets themselves. Some of it is specific to Taiwan, because that is where the vocabulary below comes from. Weekend schools abroad vary, so treat the school’s own instructions as the final word.

What the homework usually looks like in Taiwan

Taiwanese primary schools commonly send home a 聯絡簿 (lián luò bù, ㄌㄧㄢˊ ㄌㄨㄛˋ ㄅㄨˋ), which the MOE dictionary defines as a book the school uses to notify parents of coursework information, exchange opinions and keep in touch. The child copies the day’s assignments into it, and a parent usually signs it (簽名, qiān míng, ㄑㄧㄢ ㄇㄧㄥˊ) to show it has been seen. If you see only one Chinese phrase on your child’s desk every day, it is this book.

Many classes also run a parent group chat. LINE is the app most people in Taiwan use for this, so notices about tests, supplies and deadlines often arrive there in Chinese. Paste a message into a translation app to get the gist. Check dates and numbers yourself, because they matter more than the wording.

Common assignment words you will meet:

Word	Pinyin	Zhuyin	Meaning
作業	zuò yè	ㄗㄨㄛˋ ㄧㄝˋ	homework, assignment
習作	xí zuò	ㄒㄧˊ ㄗㄨㄛˋ	exercise workbook that goes with the textbook
課文	kè wén	ㄎㄜˋ ㄨㄣˊ	the main text of a lesson
生字	shēng zì	ㄕㄥ ㄗˋ	new characters to learn
造詞	zào cí	ㄗㄠˋ ㄘˊ	make words using a character
造句	zào jù	ㄗㄠˋ ㄐㄩˋ	make a sentence using a word
抄寫	chāo xiě	ㄔㄠ ㄒㄧㄝˇ	copy out
聽寫	tīng xiě	ㄊㄧㄥ ㄒㄧㄝˇ	dictation
默寫	mò xiě	ㄇㄛˋ ㄒㄧㄝˇ	write from memory
預習 / 複習	yù xí / fù xí	ㄩˋ ㄒㄧˊ / ㄈㄨˋ ㄒㄧˊ	preview / review
筆順	bǐ shùn	ㄅㄧˇ ㄕㄨㄣˋ	stroke order
部首	bù shǒu	ㄅㄨˋ ㄕㄡˇ	radical
考試	kǎo shì	ㄎㄠˇ ㄕˋ	test
訂正	dìng zhèng	ㄉㄧㄥˋ ㄓㄥˋ	correct your mistakes
國語	guó yǔ	ㄍㄨㄛˊ ㄩˇ	the Mandarin subject

Keep this table open in a tab until the words become familiar. After a few weeks you will recognise 作業 and 生字 on sight.

Zhuyin: the one thing worth learning first

Zhuyin (注音, zhù yīn, ㄓㄨˋ ㄧㄣ), also called Bopomofo, is the set of 37 phonetic symbols Taiwanese children learn before they can read characters. The MOE’s curriculum guidelines place Zhuyin teaching in the first ten weeks of grade one, and list it as content for the first learning stage (grades 1 and 2). Your child’s school sets its own timetable within that.

For you, the point is practical. Early readers and many worksheets put Zhuyin beside the characters, and the symbols tell you how a word is pronounced. Once you can read them, you can sound out a line of homework with your child, even without knowing what it means. The site has a Zhuyin chart to keep open on your phone, and the plan in how to learn Zhuyin fast is written for adults who want to get through the symbols in short sessions.

If your child’s school teaches pinyin instead, the same logic applies with the pinyin chart. Which system the school uses is covered in Zhuyin or pinyin for your child.

Tools that work for a parent

A dictionary and a handwriting keyboard. The site’s dictionary search finds a character by the character itself or by its pinyin. For a character you can only see on paper, a phone keyboard with handwriting input lets you draw it. If you have not set one up, how to type Chinese on iPhone and Android covers it. A dedicated dictionary app such as Pleco does the same job.

A camera translator, used for the instructions only. Translating the instruction line (“請把生字各寫三行”, qǐng bǎ shēng zì gè xiě sān háng, “write each new character three lines”) tells you what is being asked. Translating each answer defeats the point of the homework, and single characters taken out of a lesson often come back with the wrong sense, because the exercise may want a specific word the teacher taught that week.

Your child as the expert. Ask them to read the text aloud while you follow the Zhuyin or pinyin. Ask which character is the radical, and what the new word means. Then ask them to write a character while you watch the stroke order. You will not catch every mistake, but you will notice when your child cannot answer, and that is a signal worth passing to the teacher.

The teacher, early. A short message to the teacher, translated if necessary, saying that you do not read Chinese and asking what kind of help is useful, is a normal thing to send.

Learn just ahead of your child

The most useful kind of parental help is being a few weeks ahead on the same material. You do not need much. If your child is learning the days of the week, spend ten minutes learning them yourself first. If the topic is family words, read Chinese family kinship terms once. Being slightly ahead lets you ask real questions instead of general ones, and it means you can tell “I don’t understand” from “I don’t want to do this.”

Keep your own study separate from your child’s homework time, if you can. The two paces differ: a six-year-old copying characters in a workbook and an adult learning from scratch need different material. Learning Chinese alongside your child is the longer version of this idea, with a routine that does not turn into a competition.

A short routine that holds up

1. Same slot every day. Ten to twenty minutes after school, before screens.
2. Sign the 聯絡簿, then look at one thing. Read one assignment line with the table above, even if you only recognise the first word.
3. Ask for a read-aloud. Your child reads one 課文 paragraph while you follow along on the chart.
4. Look up one word together. Pick a character your child finds hard and look it up in a dictionary. Note the radical and stroke count.
5. Leave the marking to others. If you are unsure whether an answer is correct, write the question in the 聯絡簿 or message the teacher.

What to avoid

Do not copy answers from a translation app into your child’s workbook, even to be helpful. Do not correct pronunciation from half-remembered tones if your child hears Mandarin all day and you do not. And do not turn homework into a test of your own Chinese. If you are struggling with a character, say so; it shows your child that not knowing is part of learning.

Some parents find that they want more structure than their child’s schedule provides. Adult learners have their own track: Traditional-first lessons, audio recorded by native Taiwanese speakers, and handwriting practice with stroke checking are what Zhong offers, and lessons 1 to 5 are free. It is built for adults and is not a children’s app, so use it for your own practice rather than as your child’s homework.

Related reading

• Learning Chinese alongside your child
• Zhuyin or pinyin for your child?
• How to learn Zhuyin fast: a day-by-day plan
• Zhuyin chart