Mandarin For The Non-Chinese Students
April 17, 2008
Visited 702 times, 1 so far today
Eu has been going to school for more than 4 months now.
It has been interesting for us at home to hear her adventures of learning new things from school - from new words to many new songs which Qi picks up instantly. Let’s just put it this way, there are that much singing at home courtesy of the songs that Eu learnt from school that even their Ah Mah (grandmother) can sing some of their songs.
Her Mandarin has improved tremendously too and although I can understand some basic everyday Mandarin, there has been one occasion when she said something to me and I had to ask her to translate. My husband’s warning that I will soon be lost when my kids start speaking more Mandarin is fast coming true.
But I am in a way luckier than some of the other parents who have nil Chinese background and knows not a word of Mandarin and yet have their kids in a school where Chinese language is dominant.
At least for me, I learn a new word every few months or years judging from my how much I understand Mandarin and I’m sure I will never be that clueless. Unless Eu and Qi learn to converse in poetic Mandarin in which case even their father would be lost, I’m sure!
And 4 months along, I noticed that these few kids still shy away from the rest of the Chinese speaking students including Eu and I wonder what is it like in class for them.
I wondered because I have a cousin who comes from a non-Mandarin speaking household and his first few years in a Chinese school was a funny family story - he would regularly run out from his class. He now speaks passable Mandarin and my aunt is having second thought about having all her kids in a Chinese school as they have began to talk in Mandarin around her.
And I have another cousin who has not an ounce of Chinese blood and yet has mastered the language so well that she won an award as the best speaker in a statewide debate competition in Mandarin some time ago.
So I will not be surprised if these few students who now communicate with Eu with a combination of body languages and face expressions, might even speak the language better than her in a few years.
This will be an interesting thing to watch.
Posted in My Daughters, Thoughts
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April 18th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
I’m working in a bank where most of the staff are Chinese.
I found it hard at first, but I decided to teach me to speak Chinese. Mandarin, Canto - and I think now I understand some of their words when they’re speaking.
Really lucky to be Malaysian.
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Lucky you to pick it up so quickly! I’ve been among Chinese friends for more than 20 years and Chinese family for more than 10 years and my understanding is still quite poor.
April 18th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Bobby can’t really speak Chinese too and I have good time laughing when he communicates with my mum.
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That’s one of the reason why it’s hard for me to pick the language up. As I kept telling my husband, I cannot “hear” the difference in the tonal sound and it doesn’t help when he gives me a blank face whenever I attempted any word.
April 21st, 2008 at 6:33 pm
I speak mandarin but no good in writing, perhaps only my Chinese name plus some simple words. Now my No.1’s Chinese writing is so much better than mine that I have to regularly read her books to catch up with her. I have so far learnt new words too. Talking about throwing one stone at 2 birds. I am sure as Eu reaches primary level, you too would catch up with her - not a choice if you need to tutor her at home.
My No.2 grew up speaking English and Malay, nil Mandarin. Since going to school, she now speaks Malay to daddy, Mandarin to mummy and English to aunty. Never under estimate a child’s ability
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I gave up on trying to learn to pronounce Mandarin words - but I have picked up a few Chinese characters.
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:53 am
I went to a chinese kindergarten school. I could speak fluent Mandarin then. Then I met my partner whose parents spoke Hakka & Mandarin. Then his sister spoke Cantonese.
Me? I spoke English…. coz I can’t speak Chinese. I understand Hakka, Mandarin & Canto tho, yes, but I just couldn’t converse in Chinese. Bida eh!
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Sometimes I wished my parents had sent me to a Chinese school then too…perhaps it would be easier for me to pick it up then.
April 28th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
me no speak chinese, mandarin, hakka or cantonese… But i do understand them, especially the cantonese.. maybe too much wah la toi for me. I even can understand hokkien. hahaha.
Can’t wait for my son to go chinese school. must be havoc LOL.
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Oh, I’m sure many more pick up some Cantonese from those HK drama serials! M-tak! M-koi! I know when Hokkien is spoken but I have no idea of the words at all - luckily my in laws speaks Mandarin which I have like 0.01% of understanding!
May 18th, 2008 at 12:13 am
My son speaks/understand better Hakka than I do! He speaks the lingo to Gonggong.. Me, I can understand a lil Mandarin / Hakka / canto / Hokkien, but I gave up trying to speak either one… I get confused with the 4 tone thingy and what ever I say all lintang pukang… Would love if ds can pick up the language, even reading; but I am very reluctant to send my kids to Chinese school because of their indirect mental torturing!