My new daughter is 6. She speaks Mandarin. I speak a little, but not enough (yet) for everyday conversation. I am confident that she will have no problem learning English, what with being in elementary school where nothing else is spoken, and living in a home where nothing else is spoken, but I would like her to keep her Mandarin and maybe even improve it some (since she speaks like a country girl).
So the question is: how many hours per week will be enough that she doesn’t forget how to speak Chinese?
Well, kids are different from adults in their language abilities and everything, but I can tell you it’s very easy to forget languages you’re not working on. I worked so hard on my Japanese, and now I’ve forgotten nearly all my kanji and a whole lot of my grammar, and it’s only been a year or so.
Can’t you find any Chinese babysitters? Or else check in your area for Chinese schools. I’ve heard of lots of cases where bilingual children are sent to a school on Saturdays for a few hours to continue education, but in a different language.
It’s worth the effort. Your daughter will thank you when she reaches adulthood and can still speak Mandarin.
I doubt anything you do as a non-fluent speaker can really help, short of going mandarin-immersion and only speaking that in your home. My friend with a sister that came from Vietnam around that age says his sister doesn’t remember any Vietnamese, even though her parents speak a little Vietnamese and encouraged her to hold on to her culture.
Your best bet is to look into bilingual schools or after school language/culture programs (it’s pretty common for the children of immigrants to attend a after school programs to maintain their language) or maybe convincing the teacher of an adult-level language class to let you two take the classes together. You might also look in to Mandarin summer/day camps and the like.
Is there an active Chinese community in Denver? If so, then I would suggest getting involved with some community activities (even if it is just a weekly playgroup) so that she continues to speak Mandarin in a variety of social settings.
The problem with retaining a 2nd language (and this is true even for children who have a native speaker as a parent) is that without the impetus of “forced” interaction with a larger community, production levels drop radically…although perception levels remain relatively high.
Basically, once she learns to speak English (which will happen fairly rapidly) and realizes that everyone she interacts with only speaks English her Mandarin skills will drop. However, interaction with people who only speak Mandarin will “force” here to keep her production levels up. You know the old adage about the brain being a muscle, well language works the same way.
BTW, I have an MA in Linguistics and studied bilingualism for awhile so I’m not just blowing smoke.
Being a first generation immigrant from Taiwan, I’d second the Chinese school bit. From what you’re saying, it sounds like you don’t really have any relatives near you that speak much in the way of Mandarin, so your best bet is to see if there are any Chinese schools near you. I have no idea what the situation is like in Denver, but I just did a quick google of “denver chinese school” and it looks like there’s at least one. Typically these things cost around $100-$200 a year, and are an immersive environment for learning Chinese.
Echoing an earlier post, my parents having sent me to one for most of my life helped me to maintain what speaking ability I had of Mandarin, though my lack of effort has screwed me on the reading and writing.
So, if I may, a few questions: 1) Did your parents speak Mandarin in the home? 2) How much time per week did you spend in Chinese school? 3) How many years are we talking about here?
Another option in some Chinese communities are the Saturday schools available for the purpose of teaching - and refreshing - written and oral language skills. The classes last about 4 hours.
I’m not sure of a definitive answer to your original question but I do know that my mom didn’t speak her native language for 40 years and it “came back” very quickly (hours) when she did finally meet someone fluent in the language. On the other hand, the French I learned in school is - alas - mostly gone. Nothing like the early wiring.
A lot of good replies. You haven’t said how large your local Chinese community is and what options you have for maintaining her skills, but I’ll add a few things picked up from seeing quite a few people in this position…
[ul]The main thing you need to keep up with is having your daughter *speak * Mandarin routinely to compose her own thoughts. The kids I’ve seen in this situation often retain the ability to understand spoken Mandarin for quite a while, but once it becomes frustrating and embarassing to express themselves in Mandarin the battle is pretty much over.
To this end, books, tapes etc. will be of limited usefulness by themselves. Even attending a Chinese school will fail if it’s mostly sitting and listening to the teacher explain grammar and doing character-writing exercises. It *must * include *a lot * of participative conversation.[/ul]
[ul]Almost as important is to maintain a positive view in her mind of being able to speak Mandarin. For now she’ll mostly see it as an impediment - something that makes her different and holds her back. And if she doesn’t see a value to it, even attending Chinese school will seem like a useless chore that she doesn’t see other kids having to do.
I would suggest trying very hard to find something that makes her feel special for speaking Chinese. One idea might be to take up an activity where Chinese is spoken and let her be your “little translator”. Ever considered taking up MahJongg or Go?[/ul]
[ul]Finally, I would say that the next few years are key. If she stops using Mandarin now, she’ll pretty much forget it all. However, there seems to be a “magic age” - which I’ll SWAG at around 11 years old - where if they’re still fluent by that time it will pretty much stay with them. It may become rusty from disuse, but they’ll be able to brush it back up later when they need to.[/ul]
Anyway, best of luck to you and congratulations on your new daughter!
I believe that your post is correct, but this last assertion just HAPPENS to be true. I am in the edubiz and I see a lot of folks who are “experts.” They know 150 ways to teach something, but they can’t teach…many in the bilingual biz. xo C.
I would submit that my post is correct because of the last assertion. Otherwise it would have been an “I don’t know but here is my opinion” type of answer that is generally frowned upon in GQ.
BTW, I taught English to international students for three years here and to immigrants for a year here.
So, if I may, a few questions: 1) Did your parents speak Mandarin in the home? 2) How much time per week did you spend in Chinese school? 3) How many years are we talking about here?
Chinese school over here was 2 hours a week, not too much. I went to it for about 11 years, but I didn’t exactly put in a lot of effort, so I didn’t learn too much out of it. My brother on the other hand, a much more studious guy than I, has been going to it for about 9 years now and is pretty good with the reading and writing and such. Our parents do speak it in the house, and so both of us have pretty good speaking ability; at the very least the combination of Chinese school and our 'rents have kept our vocabulary and fluency up through the years.