How to make sure my 1 year old child can speak English and Chinese FLUENTLY...

[encal]

The optimal age for language acquisition is prior to 7-8 years old i believe. i myself grew up learning Chinese and was only exposed to English after 8, but now speak and write more fluently in English even though Chinese is still the only language used at home and with my fiancée. I think the language used by wherever you are right now will ultimately determine your child's primary language ability, especially when this concerns Chinese, where the reading and writing components are hard to develop and maintain if not school taught and used on a daily basis. I'd suggest reading material, videos with Chinese caption, and writing consistently to keep your child's Chinese ability up. But then and again, there's still a few years before that comes around

Congratulations on the baby!!

best of luck

[HedgePig]

For us the one parent, one language approach has worked fairly well.

It's also worth pointing out that every kid is different and will progress differently. Our elder one is fully bilingual (speaking, reading and writing) but our younger is definitely more fluent in Mandarin. The elder is also way ahead of the younger in both languages when comparing their respective levels at the same age.

When we are together as a family, we still tend to follow the one parent, one language approach. (I understand enough Mandarin to follow conversations with 5 and 7 year old roughly.) This is more habit than an active decision and we probably should be using English given the limited exposure here in China, especially for the sake of the youngest.. Fortunately both children like to speak both languages. However, the older one refuses to speak Shanghainese although young slowpoke actually enjoys using her few words..

From my own observation, I noticed that a lot of Chinese children in the US refuse to speak Chinese once they start school. So perhaps it will be much harder to carry on using both languages at this age, although the dynamic may be different in a bilingual family.

Also, if you want your child to have more exposure to Mandarin, get the Chinese grandparents to come over. It has the added advantage that you'll get to eat a lot of good, home-cooked Chinese food as well.

Best of luck!

Edited March 5, 2009 at 12:23 PM by HedgePig

[Meng Lelan]

From my own observation, I noticed that a lot of Chinese children in the US refuse to speak Chinese once they start school. So perhaps it will be much harder to carry on using both languages at this age, although the dynamic may be different in a bilingual family.

Absolutely true. I've seen this firsthand. Once they start school they refuse to speak Chinese anywhere. And they get angry when the parents remind them to use Chinese. And they get even angrier when the parents point out that white American kids at my Chinese School like to learn how to speak Chinese. The only exception I have ever seen was a 12 year old son of a Chinese School teacher came over to the US to start sixth grade, and even though his English progress is amazing, he is very polite and will answer in Chinese when spoken to in Chinese, and he has been a tremendous help in helping his mom type up presentations and posters in both languages. I saw him at a statewide Chinese teacher's meeting a few weeks ago and I was impressed with his layout of a poster in Chinese describing his mother's new Chinese writing class.

[gato]

Absolutely true. I've seen this firsthand. Once they start school they refuse to speak Chinese anywhere. And they get angry when the parents remind them to use Chinese. And they get even angrier when the parents point out that white American kids at my Chinese School like to learn how to speak Chinese.

They think they'll look like FOBs if they speak Chinese. (FOB = "fresh off the boat") It speaks to the low social status of Chinese.

[Meng Lelan]

This was 10 years ago, I remember going to the playground and seeing this very bright 9 year old boy just arrived from China. Fresh off the boat, or more rather, fresh off the plane. He and I started talking and playing in Chinese, then his mom ran over and scolded him for using Chinese, kept ordering him "Speak English! Speak English!". It was so incredibly sad because we were having fun playing badminton and talking until his mom had to ruin our fun.

[HedgePig]

I think the phenomenon of Chinese children not wanting to speak Chinese is a combination of the low social status of any foreign language in the US as well as the fact that their parents urge them to speak English, as Meng Lelan observed. Or perhaps this is all one and the same thing - the parents are urging the children to speak English because they themselves are aware of how their imperfect English has held them back.

For the original poster, I don't think a child with one native English speaking parent is under quite the same pressure to speak perfect English. But I think the child will probably lose his Chinese skills unless they are maintained at home.

I'm still in awe at just how easily kids do pick up languages. When I think of the effort I've put in and how little I have to show for it and compare it with how children simply absorb languages, it makes me wish I was two years old again! (Hmmm....maybe not. I don't miss the wet diapers :-)

[jbradfor]

They think they'll look like FOBs if they speak Chinese. (FOB = "fresh off the boat") It speaks to the low social status of Chinese.

Rather, I think it speaks to the low social status of recent immigrants, which seems pretty universal across all cultures and eras. Not everything has to be viewed as against Chinese.

And also speaks to the need to fit in, which is also pretty universal. There are few things worse to most kids than being different.

[daofeishi]

I'm still in awe at just how easily kids do pick up languages. When I think of the effort I've put in and how little I have to show for it and compare it with how children simply absorb languages, it makes me wish I was two years old again!

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/ncrcdsll/epr5.htm

[lingjas]

Raise the child up in Singapore. Believe me he or she is bound to speak both languages fluently.

[echo_zkl]

Raise the child up in Singapore. Believe me he or she is bound to speak both languages fluently.

I know a Singaporean who speaks little Chinese..Probably it's because she lives in Australia for too many years:roll:

[huier]

Speaking from personal experience here, I would say, just immerse your child in Chinese Language (i.e. speak only chinese, watch chinese programs etc etc) until about pre-school level. As soon as the kid enters pre-school where EVERYONE speaks english, he'll pick it up pronto. Vice versa if you're living in China.

I'm fluent in Cantonese and English, Cantonese being my Mother's tongue. But that's mainly because I lived with my maternal grandparents (who's speaks only Cantonese) before I entered kindy at about five. I watch insane amount of time watching Hong Kong shows and etc etc. My parents were too busy working at that time which limited my exposure to Cantonese.

As soon as I entered an English-speaking kindergarten, I was screwed. I couldn't make any friends as well... children have no patience communicating via sign language. But I managed to pick English up within two weeks and all is well from there on. Nothing inspires self study/progress like peer pressure. I'm quite chuffed to say I speak both fluently now.

By comparison, my younger sister can't speak Cantonese well at all. We thought she would pick it up as we speak a mixture of Cantonese and English around the house, but unfortunately she didn't. She can understand it well enough, but she gives me little looks of death when I start arguing with her in Cantonese (because she can't win).

OPOL is cool, but sometimes can get confusing. And I think it takes a lot of discipline. I've seen a lot of my relatives just give up, which results in my younger cousins being "Bananas" (yellow skin, but speak like a "White").

Alternatively, if you live in an English speaking country, then send your child to a Chinese-medium school. But make sure you drill them in English when they get back. Imo, this would be the best option as the child will be truly bilingual, i.e. can speak/read/write.

[Madot]

Another strategy for raising bi-liingual children is to speak one language for one part of the day and another for another part of the day. This works just as well as the OPOL approach, though there are practical issues to consider. The main thing is never to mix the languages, something we usually do NOT do in our second language (as a point of pride) but often do very naturally in our native one. (Think how often you use a Chinese word when you are lviing in China but speaking English.) This is deadly to serious bilingualism and is one reason why the children of many immigrant groups cannot speak their heritage language. Re: kids refusing to speak Chinese once they go to school-- it is not only Chinese background children. It happens almost universally with ALL immigrant children and not only in the U.S. (I've been living in Australia for the past 32 years and as Chair of the Community Languages Schools Board, I saw it in virtually every language community.) It has nothing to do with the status of foreign languages in the country and everything to do with peer pressure to be like everyone else.

That said, there are LOTS of bilingual kids around. It may be hard for the parents but it's easy for the kids. Keep at it! :-)

Mado

[hbuchtel]

Just to add to the discussion -

We have a 'One House One Language' rule for our 3-year-old. When we are at the in-laws (where she goes after pre-school) we only speak Chinese; when we are at our own apartment (evenings and mornings) we speak only English. The pre-school is Chinese, of course.

Both places are filled with lots of books and other media in the respective language.

Regards, Henry

[choisum]

Agree with madot's point about the peer pressure. I'd also add that the school language is a big factor. Since they are more expressive in the language in which they are educated.

Since the school vocabulary is much richer than the exposure at home, my daughter talks Chinese most of the time and throws in an English word where there is a vocabulary gap. So, I reply and use the Chinese word instead. It normally takes a couple of times to stick, since there is a tendency to express using the language in which she first learned the concept.

[taijiphoenix]

What do you guys think about trying to speak to your child in a language that you are not totally fluent in? When I have children, I would love to give them the oppurtunity to be bilingual. However, me and my husband are both native english speakers. I am learning chinese so hopefully by the time I do have kids I'll atleast be at an advanced level. Advice? thoughts?

Taijiphoenix

[XiaoXi]

A few years back, I read an article in Scientific American that stated, in terms of brain development, the human ability to distinguish between sounds, as language, is significantly reduced after the age of 18 months. As an example they sited a study that showed Japanese children exposed to "L" and "R" before 18 months have no trouble producing those sounds, while those exposed after 18 months have more difficulty.

Japanese actually do not have trouble with Ls and Rs per se, they just reverse them - well from our point of view anyway. Even in their own romanisation of the Japanese language is wrong from our point of view. Its the same with Vs and Bs. For example in Japanese Dai jo bu sounds like Dai jo vu to a native Engish speaker but they write it with a B. Moreover, its not that they sometimes mix Ls and Rs and Vs and Bs up, they are in fact ALWAYS reversed.

I once tested my theory. My sister in law is Japanese and I knew she for example pronounced the name 'Caroline' as 'Calorine' - simply reversing the Ls and Rs around. So one day I wrote down the word Calorine (I myself reversed the Ls and Rs) and asked her to say it. She did not know the word but tried to say it anyway. It came out 'Caroline'......

[Meng Lelan]

What do you guys think about trying to speak to your child in a language that you are not totally fluent in? When I have children, I would love to give them the oppurtunity to be bilingual. However, me and my husband are both native english speakers. I am learning chinese so hopefully by the time I do have kids I'll atleast be at an advanced level. Advice? thoughts?

Language acquisition experts would generally not recommend that approach. If you are living in a Chinese speaking country, your child is going to get exposure to Chinese outside the home anyway. If you are living in a non-Chinese speaking country, you will have to give your child some native speaking role model in order to learn Chinese exactly the way it is used.

[yan420honggg]

Don‘t do that ,it's harmful to your baby.In China,if parents speak different dialects,they usually talk to their baby with Mandarin;

[fanglu]

Edit: I'm assuming YanHong is replying to Taijiphoenix and not the original question of how to teach a child two languages.

Don‘t do that ,it's harmful to your baby

Is it really that harmful? I have two friends who grew up in Malaysia speaking only English at home with parents whose native language was Chinese. My friends both speak English as their native language and small amounts of Chinese.

While they also went to English language schools, which was probably important, and there is substantial amounts of English language media in Malaysia which they would have been exposed to, I can't see how their parents speaking to them in a language other than their native language was harmful; they speak English as well as me, who grew up with native English speaking parents.

Edited October 5, 2009 at 12:26 PM by fanglu
clarification

[baining tang]

Hi, what about trying ML@H, Main Language at home approach. We are teaching our boys Mandarin but neither of us is fluent so we don't have a choice but to all learn it together as a family which has been great for us. If we could though speak Mandarin at home and give them a good foundation before going to school then we could help our kids with their English work when they are home from school. I think that would be great. Plus you will get much better with Chinese. Although you want to be close to your son so you should find times to talk to him in your mother tongue also I think. You know ultimately I think many parts of the world have this same issue and their kids just learn everything they are exposed to. Hey are you the guy with the comics? If you are they are great!