Submitted by omelet2000 on July 28, 2008 - 2:49am.
My sister is Chinese and her husband is Vietnamese. Since neither of them knew each other's language, they communicate in English. My mother lived with them for about 8 years and made it a point to teach my neice Chinese from a very early age, so she grew up bilingual. Sometimes she would translate Chinese for her dad, just to keep him in the loop. Before she was school-age, her preferred language seemed to be Chinese. But after she's gone to school where most of her friends are English-speaking, she preferred English more and more.
My neice is 10 years old now, and my mother hasn't lived with them for a couple of years. She has noticed that my neice's Chinese has regressed a lot. It's pretty much 'use it or lose it'.
I'm Chinese and my wife is Caucasian. It'll be a hurdle to teach our baby Chinese since my own Chinese is just moderate. I'm counting on my mother for help in that regard!
Re: bilingual toddlers
My sister is Chinese and her husband is Vietnamese. Since neither of them knew each other's language, they communicate in English. My mother lived with them for about 8 years and made it a point to teach my neice Chinese from a very early age, so she grew up bilingual. Sometimes she would translate Chinese for her dad, just to keep him in the loop. Before she was school-age, her preferred language seemed to be Chinese. But after she's gone to school where most of her friends are English-speaking, she preferred English more and more.
My neice is 10 years old now, and my mother hasn't lived with them for a couple of years. She has noticed that my neice's Chinese has regressed a lot. It's pretty much 'use it or lose it'.
I'm Chinese and my wife is Caucasian. It'll be a hurdle to teach our baby Chinese since my own Chinese is just moderate. I'm counting on my mother for help in that regard!