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CITY GUIDES
Family Guide
Shanghai 2009
Streets Ahead
Kids learning Chinese as asecond language
Family Guide Thursday, 09 July 2009 07:07 Written by Daisy Wakefield
Here’s a news flash: Chinese is areally hard language to learn. For aforeigner to become proficient, ittakes a huge amount of motivationand effort, and not a small amountof linguistic aptitude. And if youhave anything working against theendeavor (like being tone deaf… or
over 40… or from Arkansas…), then it’s even more of an uphill battle.
But for children, the language gap is a much shorter distance to bridge. Theyounger the child, the less his brain has been cemented into a certainlanguage and set of sounds. Even with multiple languages, a young child isable to distinguish between them, as long as the surroundings and sourcesof the languages are consistent. A toddler living in a multilingualenvironment may start talking later than his peers, but will be able to sortthrough the languages and speak each without confusion when he doesstart talking.
Here’s a news flash: Chinese is a really hard language to learn. For aforeigner to become proficient, it takes a huge amount of motivation andeffort, and not a small amount of linguistic aptitude. And if you haveanything working against the endeavor (like being tone deaf… or over 40…or from Arkansas…), then it’s even more of an uphill battle.
But for children, the language gap is a much shorter distance to bridge. Theyounger the child, the less his brain has been cemented into a certainlanguage and set of sounds. Even with multiple languages, a young child isable to distinguish between them, as long as the surroundings and sourcesof the languages are consistent. A toddler living in a multilingualenvironment may start talking later than his peers, but will be able to sortthrough the languages and speak each without confusion when he doesstart talking.
So – by all means, when living in China, have the kids learn Chinese. It’s alanguage spoken by a quarter of the people in the world, and is only goingto become more in demand as China rises in the world.
But be realistic: unless your child is attending Chinese school or speaksChinese with a primary caregiver, he is not going to speak at a native level.And if your child gets half an hour a day of Mandarin in international school,but no other interaction in Chinese, then his level will be pretty elementary.Supplementing Chinese with other activities will not only help his language,but allow him to engage with the culture. Pretty soon, he’ll be giving youlessons.
-- When hiring an Ayi, if possible choose one that speaks standardPutonghua (Mandarin), rather than one with a thick provincial accent.
-- Enroll in Chinese speaking interest classes, like music, art, or sports. Thechildren’s palaces around town have weekend classes.
-- Encourage friendships with local kids in your neighborhood. Peerinteraction is the most natural and stimulating way to learn language.
-- Hire local university students from Jiao Tong or Shanghai InternationalStudies University to tutor the kids, i.e. come and play with and read to thekids in Chinese.
-- Buy some kid’s DVDs from local shops that feature their favoritecharacters, whether the Teletubbies, Thomas the Tank Engine, or Disneymovies, and show it in Chinese.
Children’s palaces
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