保持雙語學習需要大人加把勁!
去年十月在一個在家自學的討論會中，有家長提到如何幫助孩子保持雙語學習，以下是我當時的回應:
To keep my girls bilingual was my main reason not to send them to public school in US.
I live in Austin, Texas. My husband is a Texan. Our girls were born here.My husband has never taken any formal Chinese courses but just some conversational Chinese from talking to me and my parents.
Before our first girl was born, I decided that I want my children to love Chinese. Yes, it's a very high standard. Love Chinese so she or they ( before I knew how many children I would have) will appreciate the novels and Chinese poems I love. That was the basics I would like my kids to achieve. So, I strive to help them love the language with all I can.
I have been teaching cello in Austin area for more than 10 years. It makes me sad to see my students of both parents from Taiwan talking in English to their parents or feeling uncomfortable when their parents speak English with accents.
I also had a high school student who looked down on her Chinese heritage until when she faced her college applications and noticed the benefits to be fluent in Mandarin. So in the last year of high school, she agreed the first time in her life to visit her relatives in Taiwan. I don't want this to happen to my kids. I want my kids to experience the beauty of languages and love all languages, not one is more superior than the other.
Before my first girl turned 2 & a 1/2 yr-old, she did not know much English at all. My husband just fooled her the whole way through since his vocab could get by for that time.
My first daughter's Chinese was always stronger than her English until she went to a 2 mornings in a pre-school. Notice, ONLY two mornings a week, her English got first equal then surpass Chinese with almost no help from me. Because we LIVE in this environment of English.
In the meantime, I established our house- our daughter's learning environment, almost all in Chinese.
In the case of keeping English going in Taiwan, you can read the following while switching the learning aid for Chinese into English!!
1. We only have Chinese Satellite TV program, we don't have US cable. She loves 東森幼幼.She watched Teletubbies in Chinese, Miffy the bunny cartoons in Chinese, my favorite childhood cartoons in Chinese, like 小叮噹，白雪公主，小英的故事(skipping the part when her mother died) We play, eat, cook, speaking Chinese at home until daddy comes home from work.
2. Somehow this happened quite well that our older daughter had many bilingual friends in her preschool. So she was used to kids and adults switching languages and that it's natural (and cool!!) to learn more than one language WELL.
3. I made sure she has childhood friends who speak Chinese well: We met other families by sending our daughter to Chinese school (only every Sunday). Now she has best friends who are native Chinese speaker or English, both.
4. LOTS and LOTS of children's songs in Chinese!! Our older daughter listens to songs in Chinese and dances to them, acts to them since she was born!!!
5. LOTS and LOTS of traditional rhymes, poems, and stories. I started reading to our first one since she was born. I pointed to each character to her while I read since she could sit up.
Walls in our house were covered with simple Chinese characters paired with my horrible drawings. Because I want to make sure she establishes GRAPHIC MEMORY for learning to read Chinese.
6. Her book shelf has equal amount of books in Chinese and English. Some are in easier level, some are harder. They are for her, for me(Chinese), and her dad (English) to read aloud to her.
So, our older daughter did learn to write some simple Chinese characters first then some ㄅㄆㄇ then she learned to enjoy reading ㄅㄆㄇ by reading 巧連智magazines.
7. and the most important!! when she learns a new word, I make sure she knows it in both languages in their meaning and usage. She is used to spontaneous translation as well, since she had to translate for her Chinese grand parents when they visited US. She is now her dad's Chinese teacher. She decided which ㄅㄆㄇ he learns that day, as today, she showed him 大小中的筆劃練習
Last May, I decided to home school her formally when I received the notice from her elementary school. That was when I started her on phonics systematically. Yes, that was last May. Now, one year and five months later, she is reading Roald Dahl's books for leisure.
Practicing Chinese characters is not her favorite thing but she doesn't mind. Because she sees me writing in Chinese to my parents so she knows it's important to learn.
She does love to play "mad libs"(人物，地方和作什麼的字卡一一翻開作成小故事)， in Chinese with me. We have been doing lots of flashcards to ensure she reads more than she can write.
This year when we go back to Taiwan, I plan to purchase lots of easy reader in Chinese for her.
(Somebody recommended 小魯 and 小兵出版社 )
Because I know down the road, I have to provide more and more fun for her Chinese learning.
Our second girl is only 14 month-old. I am positive she will learn English earlier than her older sis. This is inevitable, because she already hears lots of fun conversations in English between her sis and their dad. At the same time, she has an older sister singing in Chinese and speaking Chinese to her besides me. So, so far so good.
This September after spending a month in Paris, our older girl requested to take French. We now hire a French woman as her tutor. This teacher is an artist and very very experienced language teacher. They sing, draw and paint using French. We are so lucky to have her. Our daughter does not get confused with French phonic or the use of spelling so far.
Maybe Language learning happened to be my older daughter's forte, or maybe, the early childhood language stimulation in her environment opened that door for her. Who knows?!
As parents, we set the environment, observe their inclinations, help them with what they do the best and balance them with the things they need more help or inspiration.
Of course, by no means do I promote it as the perfect, the only way to educate language to your child. But as how hard it is to maintain a true bilingual family in US, it is working quite sweetly for us.
I am also dying for new ideas. Thanks to this incredible forum!!!
I live in Austin, Texas. My husband is a Texan. Our girls were born here.My husband has never taken any formal Chinese courses but just some conversational Chinese from talking to me and my parents.
Before our first girl was born, I decided that I want my children to love Chinese. Yes, it's a very high standard. Love Chinese so she or they ( before I knew how many children I would have) will appreciate the novels and Chinese poems I love. That was the basics I would like my kids to achieve. So, I strive to help them love the language with all I can.
I have been teaching cello in Austin area for more than 10 years. It makes me sad to see my students of both parents from Taiwan talking in English to their parents or feeling uncomfortable when their parents speak English with accents.
I also had a high school student who looked down on her Chinese heritage until when she faced her college applications and noticed the benefits to be fluent in Mandarin. So in the last year of high school, she agreed the first time in her life to visit her relatives in Taiwan. I don't want this to happen to my kids. I want my kids to experience the beauty of languages and love all languages, not one is more superior than the other.
Before my first girl turned 2 & a 1/2 yr-old, she did not know much English at all. My husband just fooled her the whole way through since his vocab could get by for that time.
My first daughter's Chinese was always stronger than her English until she went to a 2 mornings in a pre-school. Notice, ONLY two mornings a week, her English got first equal then surpass Chinese with almost no help from me. Because we LIVE in this environment of English.
In the meantime, I established our house- our daughter's learning environment, almost all in Chinese.
In the case of keeping English going in Taiwan, you can read the following while switching the learning aid for Chinese into English!!
1. We only have Chinese Satellite TV program, we don't have US cable. She loves 東森幼幼.She watched Teletubbies in Chinese, Miffy the bunny cartoons in Chinese, my favorite childhood cartoons in Chinese, like 小叮噹，白雪公主，小英的故事(skipping the part when her mother died) We play, eat, cook, speaking Chinese at home until daddy comes home from work.
2. Somehow this happened quite well that our older daughter had many bilingual friends in her preschool. So she was used to kids and adults switching languages and that it's natural (and cool!!) to learn more than one language WELL.
3. I made sure she has childhood friends who speak Chinese well: We met other families by sending our daughter to Chinese school (only every Sunday). Now she has best friends who are native Chinese speaker or English, both.
4. LOTS and LOTS of children's songs in Chinese!! Our older daughter listens to songs in Chinese and dances to them, acts to them since she was born!!!
5. LOTS and LOTS of traditional rhymes, poems, and stories. I started reading to our first one since she was born. I pointed to each character to her while I read since she could sit up.
Walls in our house were covered with simple Chinese characters paired with my horrible drawings. Because I want to make sure she establishes GRAPHIC MEMORY for learning to read Chinese.
6. Her book shelf has equal amount of books in Chinese and English. Some are in easier level, some are harder. They are for her, for me(Chinese), and her dad (English) to read aloud to her.
So, our older daughter did learn to write some simple Chinese characters first then some ㄅㄆㄇ then she learned to enjoy reading ㄅㄆㄇ by reading 巧連智magazines.
7. and the most important!! when she learns a new word, I make sure she knows it in both languages in their meaning and usage. She is used to spontaneous translation as well, since she had to translate for her Chinese grand parents when they visited US. She is now her dad's Chinese teacher. She decided which ㄅㄆㄇ he learns that day, as today, she showed him 大小中的筆劃練習
Last May, I decided to home school her formally when I received the notice from her elementary school. That was when I started her on phonics systematically. Yes, that was last May. Now, one year and five months later, she is reading Roald Dahl's books for leisure.
Practicing Chinese characters is not her favorite thing but she doesn't mind. Because she sees me writing in Chinese to my parents so she knows it's important to learn.
She does love to play "mad libs"(人物，地方和作什麼的字卡一一翻開作成小故事)， in Chinese with me. We have been doing lots of flashcards to ensure she reads more than she can write.
This year when we go back to Taiwan, I plan to purchase lots of easy reader in Chinese for her.
(Somebody recommended 小魯 and 小兵出版社 )
Because I know down the road, I have to provide more and more fun for her Chinese learning.
Our second girl is only 14 month-old. I am positive she will learn English earlier than her older sis. This is inevitable, because she already hears lots of fun conversations in English between her sis and their dad. At the same time, she has an older sister singing in Chinese and speaking Chinese to her besides me. So, so far so good.
This September after spending a month in Paris, our older girl requested to take French. We now hire a French woman as her tutor. This teacher is an artist and very very experienced language teacher. They sing, draw and paint using French. We are so lucky to have her. Our daughter does not get confused with French phonic or the use of spelling so far.
Maybe Language learning happened to be my older daughter's forte, or maybe, the early childhood language stimulation in her environment opened that door for her. Who knows?!
As parents, we set the environment, observe their inclinations, help them with what they do the best and balance them with the things they need more help or inspiration.
Of course, by no means do I promote it as the perfect, the only way to educate language to your child. But as how hard it is to maintain a true bilingual family in US, it is working quite sweetly for us.
I am also dying for new ideas. Thanks to this incredible forum!!!
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因為再家自學一定是把這層關係管理清楚，所以我都常常強
很好笑吧!
有時候我發現我開始「逼」她學習像是我們小時候的方式，