提昇就讀IS孩子對中文的興趣

gatochat

Wow!  This is such an interesting thread!

My son has only just started Y1 so I will need to see how he is with his English and Chinese development.  I can't get much info out of my son at the moment.  Sometimes he'd tell me he didn't have Chinese class when he actually had.  All he's told me is that he plays there!

My mum (who's almost always around) speaks Cantonese to my children, so I hope this will provide enough Chinese for my son.  I still have a 18 months old daughter and I'm planning to send her to local kindy, like my son, to pick up some Chinese.  My only worry is that since I now work part-time and will spend less time with my daughter, hence less English exposure.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see what will happen.  She speaks mainly English (or rather, mainly English words) now, and I don't think she can differentiates the 3 languages she's exposed to at the moment.

annie40

當初自己對孩子學中文，沒有甚麼期望，畢竟學校𥚃的中國人是很少。只是每夜睡前的中文故事閱讀，培養了孩子對中國民間故事和神話的濃厚興趣，個人經驗是如家長有能力講解得明白，又引發了孩子的好奇心，不妨継續推薦他們認識中國歷史，名人，名著等，這些全是讓中國人引以自豪的文化遺產，雖然曰常接受西方教育，但在香港的華人社會𥚃，依然有不少共鳴和互動的機會，拿捏合度，便可把中文教育溶合於生活中，效益更彰。

總的來說，孩子是有良好環境和誘因學好中文的，家長把握時機來灌溉，路途便容易得多了。

jolalee

FattyDaddy 發表於 14-9-16 14:54
There is a difference between learning a language and learning a culture, e.g. it is possible to be  ...

I get what you mean FattyDaddy, in terms of getting more than what was bargained for. 四大名著, even the washed down versions, has some pretty difficult text that can stumble even grown ups. If it is forced upon the kids instead of them initiating the quest, it could work against you. Thank you for pointing that out because a parent just asked me for its publishers.

I emphasized that it is best to read through the materials beforehand so that the reading aloud session is not hindered by stumbling words or unclear meanings. I had taken some courses on reading aloud to children, so i made the reading quite lively for my child. Drama in the voice always helps, and always stop before the child has enough ;) (Finishing a book or not is not an issue)

Various Chinese materials & medium were used in our household, but to my surprise 西遊記 really caught on. Perhaps because my son is a monkey king himself and he can identify quite well with 孫悟空's mischief and pride. He also loved Doraemon and a very simple toddler 繪本 series illustrated by a Japanese lady. I find the common denominator here, as the language professor i mentioned at the beginning of this thread has taught me, is COMPELLING input.

As long as it is comprehensive (understandable) enough for the individual child, all materials can be used to raise interests. Of course, we do need to filter it so to prevent violence or ill moral teachings. Anyhow my son is not interested in 周星馳 yet, to my relieve   It's just a matter of trial and error. 我是歌手 - out, 馬航客機新聞 - in... you just never know....

jolalee

gatochat 發表於 14-9-16 20:28
Wow!  This is such an interesting thread!

My son has only just started Y1 so I will need to see how ...

I always admire families who can provide dual language environment for the children (as in one language per family member). In my family i need to take up both the language education of English and Chinese, because my husband is basically a mute and grandparents are too far away (plus i need to do damage control caused by the helper's broken English).

Given your daughter has a elder sibling, i am sure her English will be fine. She has her brother speaking Eng to her and grandma speaking Chi to her, so you have both bases covered. If sibling priority is more or less a guarantee into the same IS, then just relax and let her absorb languages naturally.

As for Chinese, from what i've learned in this forum, it is best to keep it up with your son or his school life (in English) will take over within primary age.

victoryu19

My son seems to be very interested in learning Mandarin these days.  Whenever he hears something in Mandarin, he gets very excited.

annie40

昨夜重看電影-三國。外子提醒當年是女兒約九歲時在中國的戲院看的，看完后孩子十分興奮，十分自豪是中華文化的博大精深。我想這些文化接觸，可以牽動孩子的民族感情，在學習熱誠上便事半功倍了。

共勉之。

jolalee

回覆 victoryu19 的帖子

That's great to know Victor! Do you think Etonhouse is part of the reason? Do they each Mando there? Are you giving him extra lessons outside?
At the moment I am focusing on canto at home, and he is picking it up well. I am getting him some canto play dates as well (I actually don't have many friends with kids who speak canto in the neighborhood, so I actually have to find them online LOL). I mainly leave the Mando to school & extra classes. He is willing to speak it, just that his Mando is now laced with canto accent (I guess because of the heavy drilling of canto i'm giving him), but I'm hoping the canto will help him as a scarfolding to Mando in the long run.

Chinese is not an easy task for IS kids whose main learning and playground language is English, especially since there is Canto + Mando, and many parents has to struggle with Traditional & Simplified text as well. 大家努力！

gatochat

jolalee 發表於 14-9-17 02:20
I always admire families who can provide dual language environment for the children (as in one langu ...

Wow, I'm not sure how do you do both languages at home.  Doesn't you son get confused?  I work half day and I only get a an hr or so for my daughter after work, before I go and pick my son up from school.  I am unsure about speaking only Canto at home as I'm worried my daughter won't get enough exposure of English.   My mum looks after my daughter when I'm at work so she gets plenty of Canto.

I've tried speaking to my son in Canto lately.  He understood me but really struggled to reply in Canto and he seemed really lost for words.  However, it looks like he has no problem when it comes to conversing with my mum (Canto) and Mandarin with my hubby (tho he occasionally uses out of tune Canto, thinking is Mandarin lol) .  My hubby thinks my son has already associated me = English and I shouldn't push him.  My hubby is Malaysian and speaks Mandarin to his parents/sis-in-law, Hokkien to his eldest bro, Malaysian English to his twin/youngest bro, normal English to his other sis-in-law (she is Korean) and Canto to me.  Yes, my hubby actually swap lang constantly when he's chatting with his family.  I don't know how he does it but I have finally got used to it now.   

I think I need to spend more time observing my son's Canto level and see how it goes.   Canto play dates might help too! After all, children learn best when they're having fun!

annie40

回覆 gatochat 的帖子

孩子有絶對能力在生活裡掌握四五樣以上的流利語言。他們的收發器的運作是：
兩位廣東話和英語極流利的孩子，當初認識時用英語相處，終身踫面時必定要講英語才感覺自然，強要他們一起只許講廣東話，感覺像做戲，做作，很不自然的。

因此孩子可以跟婆婆自然的說廣東話，換上平日說英語的媽媽，說起廣東話便結結巴巴了。孩子跟妳需要一段適應期，磨合期，joleen是成功例證了。

總之用甚麼語言跟誰人溝通，當事人很清楚，自動跳台，永不會錯。

木子兔媽媽

Yes. Language atmosphere is most important, or just simply say, 'you use a language and you can learn it'. Another key is prioritize, because there is always a main language for each of us to speak for our heart. We prioritize English = Cantonese then Mandarin. My hubby says English and I speak Cantonese since birth. School is once mandarin for a whole year when kids are 2. Now my elder daughter, aged 3.5, can go with 3 languages pretty ok, though she prefer English as mother tongue and we are ok with that.

jolalee

gatochat 發表於 14-9-27 21:55
Wow, I'm not sure how do you do both languages at home.  Doesn't you son get confused?  I work half ...

Yes gatochat, my story is kind of strange due to the lack of communicative members in the family. I am basically watching him full time when i am not freelancing, so i have the time to do both English and Chinese. For that 1 year when i had to do both (AM English / PM Canto), it was really tough, but i stuck to it and it worked. After he got into our target school, i was planning to continue with that method. Thanks to fellow parents here i made the correct decision to switch over completely to Canto, so that it is basically 家校各一語。That one year turned out to be a transition year, so that we are now comfortable to converse in either language. Of course i cannot give up English completely as i still need to do damage control with Filipino helper's bad grammar, plus i need to read to my son in English (and Chinese) every night. Sometimes we still do a bit of English conversations, such as when i need to scold him big time (i tend to keep Canto positive as it is harder to love Chinese), or when we have to discuss something technical / academic. Other then that, we do basically speak Canto.

I noted a few amusing observations about my son:
1) He began to dream in both English and Chinese (at least speak in his dream in both languages)
2) When he play by himself, he uses Chinese when playing with cars (thanks to Disney's "Cars" being shown in Chinese, and that turned out to be his favourite all time movie. I did the same for Disney's "Planes")
English is still his stronger language and i do hope to keep it that way, but am glad that he is taking up Canto comfortably now.

I think your hubby is the perfect example. He can switch around comfortably within family members, and i see that your son will be the same as well. It is great that he already has a fixed Canto & Mando speaking family member. As to yourself, i find that in the end (after the past 1/2 year of personal experience), if school entry is no longer an issue, speak to your child in the language you are THE most comfortable with. In the end, connection is the most important factor in a relationship, so connect with your son in ways that are most comfortable for yourself. Kids are versatile and do adapt quite well. Just make sure you both can connect in English for issues he is comfortable speaking in English with, as that will be his thinking language in the long run :)

gatochat

jolalee 發表於 14-9-27 23:49
Yes gatochat, my story is kind of strange due to the lack of communicative members in the family. I  ...

Thanks for your advice.  I think I need to make up my mind on which language I should use with my children.  The thing is, I work with children in an English environment for many years so I've associated English = Children.  When my son came along and we were living in London, I really struggled to speak Canto to him.  
I am also one of those "grew up in HK, went overseas when young and neither English nor Chinese is perfect."  My daily Canto is good, but when it comes to technical terms and especially when I'm annoyed or angry, I switch to English channel.  Guess I should just speak whatever comes to me naturally.  I will definitely try Canto version of 'Planes' too.  We watched the Chinese version at the cinema and he really enjoyed it!

annie40

torunpoland  哪齣<三國>?  發表於 昨天 23:56
xxxx
是吳宇森導演的三國和赤壁。

annie40

回覆 jolalee 的帖子

女兒發開口夢內容，也是多聲道，不難估計她在夢境𥚃見著誰，說英語時，一定同緊同學仔玩；講廣東話就多數有我份；講普通是上緊中文課，真系好「得意」。

torunpoland

應該是《赤壁》及《赤壁2之決戰天下》。三國的故事長得多啦！

licpd

回覆 annie40 的帖子

jolalee

九歲女孩看赤壁，而且是普通話，不會覺悶嗎？那很好哬！我兒子集中力麻麻地，現在cartoon電影節奏較慢的地方也說不看，希望大㸃兒好些吧！

仔仔昨晚告訴我，他喜歡説廣東話和英文⋯但普通話就⋯⋯

annie40

小女是甚麼也很喜歡學習的孩子，卻痛恨普通話。幸好九歳初遇上優秀的普通話老師，半年學習后已能聽，開拓對普通話的興趣。其過程就像你半年前不大確定孩子願意講廣東話，今天是做到了。

每位孩子總有一個學習的穴位，我們耐心等待，用心觀察，找對了，按進去。把他們渴求知識的脈絡打通，便像金庸小說的甚麼吸星大法，進步之快，蔚為奇觀。

jolalee

回覆 annie40 的帖子

謝謝你的鼔勵！我會按歩就班，繼續看準孩子的學習里程碑的。thank you again!