Hi from Taiwan
Jan 23, 2018 17:44:30 GMT 9
Post by Hsin-Yu on Jan 23, 2018 17:44:30 GMT 9
Hi everyone,
I stumbled upon this forum while searching for tips on raising a bilingual child. I am Taiwanese-born but spent years of my childhood in the US so I consider myself a native speaker of both Mandarin and English. My husband is Malaysian but has spent the majority of his life outside of Malaysia, predominantly in the US, so he is most fluent and eloquent in English. Between the two of us we have a number of languages--English, Mandarin, Malay, Cantonese, Japanese, Taiwanese Hokkien and Danish (we lived in Denmark for a number of years and only just moved to Taiwan).
Right now the majority language where we live is Mandarin, and my husband and I, having grown up multilingual and know very well the advantages of being so, are determined to raise our daughter to be at least bilingual, if not multilingual. My daughter is now three years old and since her birth we have been interacting with her exclusively in English. (My husband and I also speak to each other in only English, though when we are outside we must talk to others in Mandarin, sometimes in front of our daughter.) She has been attending a local preschool for three months now, and while it was challenging when she first started, not being able to speak or understand any Mandarin, we are quite astonished at the rate at which she has picked up Mandarin, and it is already starting to feel like her Mandarin will overtake English as her preferred language if we are not vigilant! We still only speak and read English to her, but she now sometimes chooses to respond in Mandarin. Hopefully this is only a phase (a desire to show off her newly acquired language, perhaps?). We do not have plans or the means to send her to international school here, so moving forward we understand that we have no choice but to spend extra time and effort on English language exercises (reading and writing) and keeping her motivated to continue using English.
We have indeed encountered people who do not understand why we insist on speaking English exclusively (e.g. her teachers at preschool were slightly frustrated with us in the beginning and were concerned that she couldn't fit in), but I'm freshly encouraged after reading all the experiences that are being shared here, and I'm looking forward to the years ahead!
I stumbled upon this forum while searching for tips on raising a bilingual child. I am Taiwanese-born but spent years of my childhood in the US so I consider myself a native speaker of both Mandarin and English. My husband is Malaysian but has spent the majority of his life outside of Malaysia, predominantly in the US, so he is most fluent and eloquent in English. Between the two of us we have a number of languages--English, Mandarin, Malay, Cantonese, Japanese, Taiwanese Hokkien and Danish (we lived in Denmark for a number of years and only just moved to Taiwan).
Right now the majority language where we live is Mandarin, and my husband and I, having grown up multilingual and know very well the advantages of being so, are determined to raise our daughter to be at least bilingual, if not multilingual. My daughter is now three years old and since her birth we have been interacting with her exclusively in English. (My husband and I also speak to each other in only English, though when we are outside we must talk to others in Mandarin, sometimes in front of our daughter.) She has been attending a local preschool for three months now, and while it was challenging when she first started, not being able to speak or understand any Mandarin, we are quite astonished at the rate at which she has picked up Mandarin, and it is already starting to feel like her Mandarin will overtake English as her preferred language if we are not vigilant! We still only speak and read English to her, but she now sometimes chooses to respond in Mandarin. Hopefully this is only a phase (a desire to show off her newly acquired language, perhaps?). We do not have plans or the means to send her to international school here, so moving forward we understand that we have no choice but to spend extra time and effort on English language exercises (reading and writing) and keeping her motivated to continue using English.
We have indeed encountered people who do not understand why we insist on speaking English exclusively (e.g. her teachers at preschool were slightly frustrated with us in the beginning and were concerned that she couldn't fit in), but I'm freshly encouraged after reading all the experiences that are being shared here, and I'm looking forward to the years ahead!
Her preschool teachers tell me that she's pretty much fluent in Mandarin by now (6 months since starting), can clearly express herself in detail, and even argue with/boss around the other kids in Mandarin... 
