language policy at home,please share!

YYFUNG

We are using English merely as we develop herself as a native English speaker. That means English is her mother tongue.
At the same time, her granny and grandpa uses Cantonese as the only lanuage since her birth.

We teacher her alphabets, and all things we buy and show to her are in English. We do not show her any chinese character.

By this policy, she is now 27 months and her first language is really English, i.e. thinks and speaks in this language.
Also she can understand Cantonese and verbally say some simple words so that my daughter and her granny & Grandpa can understand each other.

We will only take Chinese as a second lanuage and even as a foreign language for her.

It is my case.
Maria

Ruby1219

I agree with with you that once joining the real int'l school, the kids will learn english in a native and proficient way. I planned to put my kid in int'l school all to the way from kindy to high school. Therefore, I spoke to him in English before he was 3 so that he can get admission by int'l kindy. But once he got into it, I changed the channel into Cantonese. Of course there will be difficulty in the beginning of the change. BUt now he's 8 and he can speak fluently in English and Cantonese and Mandarin. He joined GSIS this April and started to learn German as well. I did have worry about his German as his classmates learned German one year earlier than him, but his teacher said he's so far very good in German as he has the real interest. The teacher even said he will become one of the best in class very soon in the German subject.

So, I think it's not a must to duck-feed the kids so many languages in the very early years.

RUby

meipo28

原帖由 Ruby1219 於 08-11-4 00:36 發表
I agree with with you that once joining the real int'l school, the kids will learn english in a native and proficient way. I planned to put my kid in int'l school all to the way from kindy to high sch ...

May I know which int'l kinder did your kid join?

sillybabyq

My son is 34months old and studing in ESF K1 now, my husband and I talk to him in english and he doesn't know Cantonese at all.

After he admitted into ESF ,I want to switch our language to Cantonese~~however it seems quite not easy coz my son just ignore us if talk to him in Cantonese.

What's your methods to do this? any suggestions??

many thanks~~

原帖由 Ruby1219 於 08-11-4 00:36 發表
I agree with with you that once joining the real int'l school, the kids will learn english in a native and proficient way. I planned to put my kid in int'l school all to the way from kindy to high sch ...

Ruby1219

My son studied at Anfield International Kindergarten

Ruby

Ruby1219

I did not have any special method. I think patience and persistence are the keys. Not only you, you can ask your family and friends to talk to your kid in Cantonese too. It takes time but you would finally succeed.

Ruby

sillybabyq

thank you

but will u speak englisg after cantonese to let him know what u r talking about?? did ur kid shows resistance once u speak cantonese or just go away? my son act like this this so i switch back to english immediately,haha

原帖由 Ruby1219 於 08-11-4 18:33 發表
I did not have any special method. I think patience and persistence are the keys. Not only you, you can ask your family and friends to talk to your kid in Cantonese too. It takes time but you would fi ...

babyoush

原帖由 Ruby1219 於 08-11-4 00:36 發表
I agree with with you that once joining the real int'l school, the kids will learn english in a native and proficient way. I planned to put my kid in int'l school all to the way from kindy to high sch ...

I have 2 daughters, they are almost 3 and 4 yrs old. I got the same approach with you, but I am thinking should I change back to Cantonese now or wait until they enter P1. Since they are studying in Woodland, there is no primary school for Woodland itself and we target ESF, I am so worry about entering P1. If I change back to Cantonese, do you think they will have less chance to be accepted by ESF primary??

502

We mainly (or even entirely) talked to our younger son in Cantonese - our native language before he attended the ESF interview.  No problem at all.

BTW, he went to Small World Christian Kindergarten and he is with ESF primary now.

原帖由 babyoush 於 08-11-4 19:58 發表


I have 2 daughters, they are almost 3 and 4 yrs old. I got the same approach with you, but I am thinking should I change back to Cantonese now or wait until they enter P1. Since they are studying in ...

Ruby1219

I would first try to explain that in more, simplier Cantonese that he can understand, or just translate the key words in English. Also, since our relatives and friends mostly speak Cantonese to him, especially his cousins, so it's easier for him to accept and adapt to Cantonese.

Also, since my son is a rather timid boy, he dares not ignore me ! Haha.

Ruby

Ruby1219

I'm a working mom, and my helper can only speak English. So, actually my son spent most of his days speaking English. Also, he watched English TV and English books. So, I have no concern about his English and I would rather supplement him with Cantonese.

It really depends on your situation.

Ruby

meipo28

502 and sillybabyq,

Sorry, just side track a bit.  Even if my kid can speak fluent English but Cantonese is our native language, so I think our family belongs to cat 2 (pls correct me if I am wrong). Does it mean the chance to be admitted into ESF kindy is very slim?  My target is the ESF kindy at Sheung Wan.

Likewise for Small World Christian, do they have any preference to English / non Cantonese speaking family?  



Thanks.

502

I don't know if SWCK has any selection policy.  I would say Cantonese speaking families only contributed 1/3 of my son's class.  (Some Chinese speaking families were Manadrin speaking instead!)

Regarding the ESF primary interview  policy, I would say the competition in the HK side should not be as keen as those in Kln or NT.  We had no worry at all.

原帖由 meipo28 於 08-11-5 10:33 發表
502 and sillybabyq,

Sorry, just side track a bit.  Even if my kid can speak fluent English but Cantonese is our native language, so I think our family belongs to cat 2 (pls correct me if I am wrong). ...

meipo28

原帖由 502 於 08-11-5 11:22 發表
I don't know if SWCK has any selection policy.  I would say Cantonese speaking families only contributed 1/3 of my son's class.  (Some Chinese speaking families were Manadrin speaking instead!)

Regar ...

Tks.  Then I am much relieved.

babyoush

原帖由 Ruby1219 於 08-11-4 22:32 發表
I'm a working mom, and my helper can only speak English. So, actually my son spent most of his days speaking English. Also, he watched English TV and English books. So, I have no concern about his Eng ...

Actually my case is similar with yours, my helper speaks English only and they read English books too. But one thing that different is my daughters stay in my parents' home in the daytime with their cousins, who mainly speak Cantonese and are not so good in English. That's why I worry about their English more than Cantonese. Really don't know how to decide.

babyoush

原帖由 502 於 08-11-5 11:22 發表
I don't know if SWCK has any selection policy.  I would say Cantonese speaking families only contributed 1/3 of my son's class.  (Some Chinese speaking families were Manadrin speaking instead!)

Regar ...

Though the competition was said to be less keen than Kowloon and NT side, I am still so worry about them before they really being accepted by the school. May be I am too nervous.

Ruby1219

If that's your case...If I were you, I would speak to her in English until she gets into the IS I like. Then, decide whether to switch back to Cantonese after that, base on the situation by then. Cos seems that she would have enough exposure to Cantonese everyday with her peers (which is very important).

Ruby

babyoush

原帖由 Ruby1219 於 08-11-5 23:32 發表
If that's your case...If I were you, I would speak to her in English until she gets into the IS I like. Then, decide whether to switch back to Cantonese after that, base on the situation by then. Cos  ...

Maybe I really need to wait until they go to P1. Their school is going to have a meeting between parents and teachers, I think I will ask the teachers for some advice too. Thank you so much for your comment.

isak

幼兒學多國語言患失語症 (21:48)

2007年10月26日

重慶一名6歲幼兒被父母訓練學習英、法及日三門語言，由於未能確定母語，突患了失語症。
張青是渝中區一家外語培訓機構的英語老師，丈夫是一家外資銀行的英語兼法語翻譯。2002年張青和丈夫明春 留學回來就生下女兒月月。從女兒開始咿咿呀呀說話時，張青就開始用英語和女兒對話，家裏放的全都是英語磁帶，就連晚上也讓女兒聽著英文搖籃曲入睡。3歲的時候，雖然吐詞不太清楚，但月月能用漢語和英語進行日常交流了。隨後，丈夫又教女兒法語，雖然比英語難，但月月還是學得很快，一年時間，月月和爸爸就能進行簡單的日常對話了。4歲時，月月就能和媽媽說英語，和爸爸說法語，和小朋友們說普通話了。
到六歲時，月月又學會了日語。這時起，月月經常說一句話裏又有英語又有普通話，有時還夾一些法語和日語發音。但月月學校老師反映，因月月一句話裏有多國語言，同學們都嘲笑她。
張青回憶說，1個月前她像往常一樣開車去學校接月月，可女兒上車就哭著說：「同學都說我是外星人」。接下來的幾天裏，月月變得不願意和人說話，一回家就跑進臥室。家長問她到底發生了什麼事，她什麼也不說，只會哭。
張青和丈夫曾多次和月月溝通，但月月卻只言不發，情急之下，兩人帶著月月到兒童醫院心理科檢查。經過檢查，醫生告訴張青，月月得了「失語症」。原因就在於她這麼小的年齡大腦就輸入了多種語言，以至於她在這種雜亂的語言面前難以用一種純粹的語言方式來表達造成的。醫生說，好在發現比較早，只要通過一段時間的心理治療就能恢復。
據了解，失語症是由大腦皮層言語中樞受損或變性引起的言語功能障礙，表現為文字言語理解、表達上的功能缺陷或功能喪失。重醫心理科況主任提醒家長，患失語症的主要原因是沒有給月月定位什麼是母語。家長應告訴孩子漢語是母語，只有讓孩子明白了這個道理，就可慢慢解決「失語」問題。

[ 本帖最後由 isak 於 08-11-10 18:43 編輯 ]