Over the weekend, I had a chance to sit down for a forum with Fiona Walker, Principal Director of Julia Gabriel, Huang Ying, their Head of Mandarin and several other parents over some mini sandwiches at The Pines. We were supposed to talk about how to help our kids learn Mandarin, a topic that I’ve been refusing to touch with a ten foot pole. But you know me, any chance to sit down for a smoothie without the kids and I’m totally game.
Ever since the kids were born, I’ve been determining my success as a parent by whether or not they survived the day without losing a limb. If both kids were still in one piece by nightfall, it was time to pop the champagne and celebrate.
Seriously, who’s got time to think about things like education, much less in Mandarin.
Besides, the husband and I, we’re not Mandarin people. I mean, we’re Chinese, but it’s a matter of ethnicity rather than conversational ability. Thanks to the gahmen’s successful Speak Mandarin campaign, we are conversant in the language but we’ve been using it as a secret code whenever we don’t want Tru to pick up on what we’re saying. So we’re very good at those key words like “strawberries, yoghurt and cheese” but not much else. Also, we’ve never been very concerned about having them learn Mandarin because after all, we made it through much of our lives speaking mostly English.
Yes, there’s the whole issue of China’s meteoric rise as an economic powerhouse and how speaking Mandarin will be the secret to enormous wealth because you can now sell stuff to 1.3 billion people. But then again, I speak Mandarin and I’m already having trouble selling a muffin to the 70-year-old Aunty next door.
So we tend to find it hilarious rather than upsetting when Tru says his Chinese name with a weird accent. He’ll learn eventually and if he is never effectively bilingual, I think we’re fine with that.
But then as we got to talking, I realize that our predisposition to NOT speaking Mandarin could be more detrimental than we thought. What if our kids turn out to be linguistically inclined? I wouldn’t want them to be deprived of that chance just because daddy and mommy thought it wasn’t cool. Because how cool would it be if they did manage to sell muffins to 1.3 billion Chinese people? VERY COOL.
Long story short, we’re officially starting our Speak Mandarin campaign. We’ll start off with meal times. It will be strictly Mandarin whenever we sit down to eat, so that’s our secret code out the window. We’re concurrently learning all the French words for food as a back up plan. I already know fromage, which is a good start, I suppose. We’ll also start to introduce some Mandarin books into our daily reading material.
It’s been a paradigm shift for us, really. I used to think that I’d much rather our kids be very good at English rather than just ok at both languages but it doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive. Maybe they can be great at both if we give them a chance to be. I know it’s not likely, but hey, one can always hope.
What about you? Any good tips on how to get your kids to speak Mandarin?
18 Comments
So sad I missed it!!! :( Was trying my best to rush back from my zone retreat but still couldn’t!!!
.-= kless´s last blog ..Pulai Springs Resort Special: Part I =-.
@kless, we missed u there for sure! Hope you had a great retreat at least… the girls look like they had lots of fun.
I have the same difficulties with the language myself, usually leave them with my mandarin speaking in laws once a week so that helps somewhat.
@Kelly, that’s true! I picked up Cantonese from my grandparents too.
Yes, please any good tips on how to get your kids to speak Mandarin?
With the other parent being from a notoriously non-pro Chinese school and a peranakan lineage, my kids are already predestined to suffer from this linguistic handicap. So far, I’ve tried to do my part by enrolling the elder into a Chinese class once a week, and to speak to her in Chinese whenever I can. Part of me can see history repeating itself with her, as she has the same ambivalent attitude towards the uncool language as I did. Owell, i’ve decided not to be too influenced by the other kiasu parents out there and stand firm in my belief in children’s inborn ability to adept and learn. But if u do find a way to teach them the language enjoyably (for both them n us!) do share!! :)
.-= Jacqueline yeo´s last blog ..[K’s first day at Kindie] =-.
@Jacqueline yeo,
Hello Jacqueline. I can really relate to what you wrote:)
@Novie, what a coincidence! had a phonecall from my dd’s chinese teacher which prompted a looooong post… do leave a comment!
http://gracierei.blogspot.com/2010/03/chinese-eyes.html
.-= jacqueline´s last blog ..[K’s first day at Kindie] =-.
@jacqueline, Thanks:)
@Jacqueline yeo, which Chinese class does Gracie go to? I’ve been thinking of sending Tru for a Mandarin playgroup once a week but I’m not sure where to start looking.
BTW, I started speaking Mandarin to Tru during mealtimes and I say a total of about 10 words to him, which are basically “stop spitting” and “swallow your food”.
@Daphne, haha, yes, it does make it awkward to talk to them in chinese initially (ok, who am i kidding, always!) i’ve decided to ditch conversational chinese and we do our chinese only during playacting or something structured like ‘helping mama cook in chinese’. G goes to Berries at Palais. What do you think of all these ‘tuition centre’ type of places? I had a real hard time deciding to put her into one of them….
.-= jacqueline´s last blog ..[K’s first day at Kindie] =-.
@jacqueline, thanks! Will have to go take a look… school shopping is not one of my favorite things to do. I used to think that they will learn everything in school just like we did but I’m slowly morphing into one of *those* parents.
I found your post via Jacq’s :) loved reading yours and her musing about Chinese. I’m Chinese, born and raised and left when I was 14. By all means, English is my primary and preferrred language. I happened to be a very good student in school, and my strongest subjects were Chinese and English, so I’m one of those people who are linguistically inclined as you had blogged and I also speak French fluently. I live in Minnesota, the only Chinese people here work in the oriental grocery stores. LOL. I married a non-Chinese, so the only opportunity for me to speak Chinese was when I talked to my parents on the phone. until… my first child was born. From that moment on, I spoke/speak ONLY Chinese to her, mandarin for that matter, not the Shanghai dialect which I prefer over Mandarin. My oldest is now 6 and her only chance to speak Chinese is with me and my parents, and she does just that. She never speaks to me in English unless she doesn’t know how to say it. I was utterly and completely determined that my children WILL speak Chinese. Thankfully, even though they have no environment here in the U.S. to interact with other Chinese speaking people, today’s multi-media makes teaching them a bit simpler. We loaded up on all the Dora books and DVD’s, Dora is bilingual in Chinese and English. We got all the Kipper books in Chinese. You name it, we got it in Chinese. Basically, my method is: before they can decide that Chinese is not cool, too late, they already speak it, read it, and can write some. And yes, my 6 year old can read at least 1st grade Chinese books. Obviously, it is of utmost importance that my children learn Chinese, and I can tell you why. Having learned two languages myself, I know how hard it can be and how rewarding it is!! If when they grow up and can use their Chinese to tap into the amazing Chinese economy and make a living, GREAT, I would have done something to pave the way a little. If not? GREAT still, they speak Chinese!!!! It’s like being able to play the piano or violin, you may not be a concert pianist or violinist, but what enrichment for your life!! So I press on, doing everything I can to help my children to learn Chinese, even though I myself would much much much rather speak English. It is a continously rewarding experience, difficult, but rewarding.
.-= Jing-Jing´s last blog ..Happy Happy Day =-.
@Jing-Jing, you hit the nail on the head for me. At the end of the day, I want them to be able to speak Mandarin because they can. Even if it doesn’t end up as a means of income, it’s still a skill that will be useful to them. If they love it, they will fly with it, but if not, that’s really cool too. And my job is to expose them to as much as I can first so that at least, they will have a chance to say that “I LOVE Mandarin” when they’re old enough to like it.
Wow!
It looks like u are 1 step ahead of me and already starting your Mandarin at meal times…I seem to be procrastinating very consistently :)
Btw, Glad to see you at the JG event!
@ED, thanks for organizing the event! It was a real eye-opener for me. Oh and Nadine is really sweet. She just sat there the whole time without fussing!
[…] course, I’m going to introduce the expert to you now. Remember the time I sat down for a forum with Fiona Walker, the Principal Director of Julia Gabriel, and I became very well-acquainted with the mini […]
Hi Daphne
I’ve recently posted three blog pieces to talk about the impact of the home environment on a child’s learning of languages:
“Children from English-speaking and Chinese-speaking homes do not begin at the same starting line in learning languages. Do you agree?
Part 1 of 3: My niece as a case study
Part 2 of 3: My student, Sharon Tan, as another case study
Part 3 of 3: A second chance at learning Chinese”
I chanced across your blog and thought you might be interested to read about this topic.
Feel free to visit: http://l2chinese.wordpress.com/
That’s still not the end of the story. In future blog entries, I hope to write more about what parents from English-speaking homes can do to help their children master Chinese and share some stories on what some parents have done to help their kids.
So let’s keep our fingers crossed!
Chee Wan
Ng Chee Wan´s last post ..Children from English-speaking and Chinese-speaking homes do not begin at the same starting line in learning languages Do you agree Part 3 of 3- A second chance at learning Chinese