Bilingual Q&A 9 arrangements in Cantonese, English and Mandarin
Q: I met a Chinese mother who speaks Cantonese. Her two children are 4 and 5 years old. The childโs father is Australian, so she usually speaks Cantonese and English at home. Children usually speak English to their father, and English and Cantonese (mostly Cantonese) to their mother. She wanted to teach them Mandarin, but she didnโt know where to start. The suggestions on the Internet all said that they should watch TV for their children, but the children said they couldnโt understand it, so the mother must change it to English or Cantonese. Want to ask your opinion?
A: It is a good choice to speak English to my father, whose native language is English, and to speak Cantonese to my mother, whose native language is Cantonese. If a child can master these two languages โโwell, he is already quite successful.Language is part of a person. Real example: My mother tongue is Mandarin (Mandarin). My son and I have only spoken Mandarin (Mandarin) since he was a child. We moved to Hong Kong when he was 6 years old, and he quickly learned fluent Cantonese in school. One day I tried to talk to him in Cantonese and he said, "Mom, you speak Cantonese as if you are not my mother anymore."
If a Cantonese-speaking mother wants to teach her children Mandarin, it is feasible:What parents need to do is to continuously strive for opportunities for their children to "listen" to Mandarin. This "continuity and frequency" is very important. Because children learn quickly and forget quickly, they must persist until they are about 11 or 12 years old.Suggested method:
---"manyListening to stories in Mandarin is ideal. Nowadays, many picture books/storybooks are available online as "audiobooks" for readers to "listen to". There are also many children's books that come with reading pens, which can encourage children to read word by word, paragraph by paragraph or page by page at their own speed. , to achieve the purpose of listening more, and even imitate the pronunciation, tone and intonation of Mandarin.---ใWatch "age-appropriate" Mandarin movies, cartoons,Children's TV shows. It may be a little difficult at first, but if your children want to watch it, they will gradually accept it. Sometimes they love a movie and ask to watch it many times. When children focus on watching the program itself, they are "naturally receiving" Mandarin, and the effect is particularly good. No matter how good the Mandarin is in videos or programs that do not attract children, children will naturally stop watching them.--"listen,Singing childrenโs songs and songs in Mandarin is also worth encouraging.โ-ใChoose extracurricular activities where teachers teach in Mandarin, such as various sports classes, art classes, dance classes, cooking classes, etc.---ใIf your financial ability permits, choose to travel to Taiwan and China during the holidays to allow your children to be completely "immersed" in the Mandarin environment. This is the most ideal opportunity to learn and apply it.
The above suggestions are nothing more than to expand the opportunities for children to naturally listen to (input) Mandarin, starting from the listening stage."Don't be in a hurry" to force your child to speak Mandarin. Because if children donโt hear enough, forcing them to speak Mandarin will easily make them feel rejection and frustration, which is counterproductive. wait for themAfter hearing a certain level of familiarity, it will come naturally, and when needed, they will unexpectedly use Mandarin to express themselves.
Comparison between Cantonese and Mandarin:
โโThe aspect of "listening":Cantonese and Mandarin are very close in grammar, so people who speak Mandarin need to understand Cantonese, or people who speak Cantonese need to understand Mandarin. Generally speaking, as long as you listen "regularly and continuously" for a period of time, you can understand it quickly ( Unless he personally rejects it).
โโThe aspect of "speaking": It is not that easy. The difficulty lies in the many differences in pronunciation and intonation between the two. It is generally more difficult for adults to master it. It is often difficult to reach the level of the native language even with no amount of practice. Sometimes the words spoken seem to be fluent, but the native speakers feel that they are "not quite" authentic as soon as they hear it.But for children, they have an absolute advantage. They can speak correctly whatever they hear, and there will be no difficulties for adults at all. This is why everyone knows that learning a language requires striving to learn it "when they are young". .
**Multi-lingual family situation
In some families, parents have their own mother tongue, and neither of them speaks the language of the place of residence (such as English). How to deal with this?
The mother and father's mother tongue, whether they are the same or not, is not the local language (such as English). As long as their children attend local schools, they will learn the local/English language and writing. There is usually no need to worry, unless the children have learning disabilities. .
If the mother and father's mother tongue is not only not English, but two languagesLanguages โโwith different language families are a bit complicated.Although children have the ability to learn two different languages โโโโof their parents, children also have 24 hours a day. They have to allocate their time other than schooling, sleeping and other necessary activities in life to the learning of two languages โโโโand characters, which requires some sacrifice for the child. play time. If parents insist on communicating with their children in their own mother tongue until they are 11 or 12 years old, the child can maintain the spoken language of these two mother tongues. As for reading and writing, it is best not to be too demanding unless both parents and children are happy. Among them, because both reading and writing require a lot of time, it is not easy to improve "reading and writing" to the level of native language.
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