There was this comment from Diana Neubauer in response to my comment about how she in her Chinese classes starts stories early in the year with “She is…” or “He is…” instead of “There was a girl.” or “There was a boy.” –
You can do “there is a person” in Chinese, too, but I wait for a while to do it. The second story is one done in the first week of Chinese 1, so this is really aiming to stay super-simple — they know like 5 words! Plus, the word for “have” and “there is…” is the same in Chinese. I like to get them used to “have” first. I think maybe I use “there is…/there are…” at the end of the first month.
By saying “She is” or “he is,” I avoid having to teach word “is named” which I have found confuses them if it is introduced so early (they look for something that equals “name” and there isn’t). Plus “is” is super-useful all the time.
Same deal with “is good” “isn’t good” in Chinese. That is my super-simple way to avoid having to teach “happy” “sad” “angry” etc. too early. Those likewise come later, within a couple months.
I think we should all consider doing this year. Why? For the very reasons Diane gives above. It’s simpler and the kids get lots of reps on she and he and it. We all know that we can never get enough reps on is. Then later we can do “There was…”.