Changunnie seems to be fine with three different languages at home. She even translates in some occasions. However, she doesn't like to speak anything other than English at her playgroups.
Changunnie adores the teachers in her English classes. When it's Chinese time, she prefers to pace around (dang! That's what I did as a kid). Is it the schedule, the teacher, the content or she has no confidence when not speaking English?
The struggle I have is whether I should always use Chinese with her or English during the day, Chinese at night as some people suggested. Development experts said more than 2 languages can confuse a child and delay her verbal development. I don't think that's the case for Changunnie as she's been giving me instructions clearly in English since 20-month "Mummy! Baby like Teletubbies. Not this channel. Not this one!!!"
I am not hoping her to be able to do stand-up in eight different languages (her mum cannot even master one so mummy will be reasonable here) but I do want her to know about the Chinese and Korean culture as those are her heritages. It is therefore crucial for her to communicate comfortably in both languages. What's the optimal way to teach her? The last thing I want is for her to have an identity crisis.
Tokyo 2024 day 5: the god of tempura
1 week ago
I read a book on that. experts say that if the child has a preference in one language- so be it and we should just accept that. This can change later on anyway. I saw that with Alyssa. Even though I always spoke French to her while Ian was away she used to answer in English. I kept speaking in French and just translated her English answers into French. Suddenly, one year later she decided to answer in French. Now she tackles it very well, although English is definitely her strength. Even with multilingual kids apparently it's best if they have one language they are better at than others. If they have a good base in one language it will help them them to deal with the other languages much better...so they say. from what I've seen so far- I support that. hope this helped :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks! That's definitely good to know.
ReplyDeletePlay group is still a bit chaotic. She doesn't want to sit down during the Mandarin session. The only drawing power is snack. Her school puts snack time as the first activity of the Chinese session and Changunnie follows her nose into the classroom. In fact, that's the only time she speaks Chinese in order to ask for more food!