3 Steps to Help Your Child Embrace Chinese

Chinese seems to be a headache for parents nowadays as we often hear of how children have problems dealing with the subject, or worse, claim to hate Chinese. Such parents will then scramble to sign up their children for Chinese enrichment programmes or tuition. Often, this will not address the root cause of the problem especially if the children have been brought up in an environment that favours English. I am no expert but just like to share my personal views on how we can help our children embrace Chinese naturally.

Speak Mandarin to your children

Children need to be exposed to Mandarin from young in order to pick up the langauge natually. Yet I see many parents insisting to speak only English, or worse, Singlish to their children. It never fails to baffle me how couples who converse to each other mostly in Mandarin would switch to English when they turn to their children. What kind of message are we conveying to our children if we refuse to use Mandarin with them?

I think we need a reality check on our present circumstances. We live in a different age and time from our parents, many of whom are not proficient in the language. Yet, we seem to be rooted in their same fear that our children will grow up being disadvantaged if we do not give them a head start in English. The reality is, children have more opportunities to be exposed to English than Mandarin nowadays, so there is really no worry that they will have problems with English. Rather, we should worry that they will be exposed to too much English once they start schooling, at the expense of building a strong foundation for their Chinese.

I personally feel that the best way to help our children pick up the language is to speak more, or at least some Mandarin with our children at home, especially if you are proficient in the language. It is unlikely that a child who grows up in a Mandarin-speaking or Mandarin-condoned environment will resist the language.

Make Chinese a part of your children's lives

Do you read as many Chinese books as you do with English books to your children? I too was guilty of not introducing Chinese books to my firstborn as early as I did with English books. I simply had no idea where to start. However, after looking at what kind of books a friend who's a Chinese language teacher reads to his daughter, I have not looked back since. In fact, I find that some translated Chinese books actually bring out the story much better than those in their original languages. I will share some gem finds in my subsequent blog post.

Likewise, I have been exposing my children to age-appropriate Chinese programmes on TV and DVD. I personally find such Chinese programmes to be a better vehicle to impart moral values, maybe because the context is more relevant to us than those in English. 

I believe that once Chinese becomes a regular feature in our children's lives, they will pick up the language naturally. A Chinese educator from Taiwan once told me that Chinese should be learnt in the sequence of 听说读写 (Listen-Speak-Read-Write). Some of us rush our children to recognise and write Chinese characters from young, without giving them sufficient time to pick up the language naturally in listening and speaking first. Since Chinese characters are more complicated than English, it is no wonder how we may end up facing the adverse consequence of killing their interest in Chinese.

Immerse your children in Chinese culture

In Singapore, we celebrate many Chinese festivals with much pomp and fare throughout the year. Have you been using these occasions to help your children appreciate our culture and customs better? I try to impart the significance of each festival to my children by doing related some art and craft and/or cookery together. Such hands-on experiences help them enjoy a part of our culture.

Research has shown that children learn best when they are having fun. Which is why we often take part in the festive events organized by community clubs, malls and temples. The fun and colourful ways that are used to celebrate such festivals have been an enriching experience to my children. And the best part is, most of these events are open to the public at little or no cost!

When the children start to love our culture, I am sure they will start to develop an interest in the language itself.

Contributed by Bee Lan, a mother of three young children who blogs at Play Dates! (http://beyondplaydates.wordpress.com/)

 
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