- Oliver Tu- Authority of CHINESE Language Ecosysterm
- https://cebilingual.org/page/2/
- https://cebilingual.org/2015/10/31/dear-parents-of-toddlers-and-preschoolers/
- stages
- Stage 1 (priming): 0 to 4 years old. Difficulty level: moderate
- II. Stage 2 (Induction): ~ 4 to 8 years old. Difficult level: high
- III. Stage 3 (Consolidation): ~8 to 12-14 years old. Difficulty level: extremely high.
- IV. Stage 4 (maintenance): ~12-14 to 18 years old. Difficulty level: medium.
- stage 5 or dormant stage, with typically gradual regression in Chinese proficiency
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https://youtu.be/TudoQfzdK9Q
- Only speak to your child in Chinese
- Find playmates for your child- fob immigrant children (3 to 6 months they learn english) sunset at the park,
- Find a bigger sister
- Pay for a Nanny or tutor…
- Change all their media into chinese… IPAD youtube kids, only chinese channels – i swear by this.
- Find special interests, hobbies or interesting thing in Chinese. DIscussions, speciality classes, video game channels…
- Go to immersion school(their common tongue is still english- but instruction will be in Chinese- good for the induction phase)
- Finding the “right’ chinese school.. Low expectation… no pressure, fun based
- JOin the facebook group…
- Internet Cirrculum- lingobus, lingoace, wukong,
- IPAD apps- wukong shizi, ihuman, galaxykids
- Build a chinese LIbrary- buy the reading robot- Luka
- Buy a chinese reading Pen
- Chinese afterschool programs…
- Chinese cirrculum- Sage 500
- Chinese Karoke- still figuring this out
- https://www.deeege.com/products/deeege-6-in-1-chinese-karaoke-machines?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23899268132&gbraid=0AAAAAo6rtjo6id3zfEZqXen5onUr2NzAw&gclid=Cj0KCQjwof_QBhCgARIsADaMzOfAYQt60xvkxSdVJOmVthAmFcUV5VBVzJ55CtMBsjmwcpqgeQBJsWkaAjvdEALw_wcB
- bought machine- bought standalone unit- more accessible- plus the music library where I don’t have search for youtube
- Chinese book club…
- Play with them in Chinese- hide and seek, rock paper sissors, ice cream shop, kitchenette… whatever games
- Chinese church
- Chinese weekend school- Saturday or Sunday…
- So What is your situation? Parents who want their kids to learn Chinese?
- Non Speaking -Non Heritage Parents?
- Non Speaking Heritage Parents ?
- One Chinese Speaking Parent?
- Both Chinese Speaking Parents?
Oliver TU-
I was recently interviewed by a writer at《換日線》Crossing , an online publication by Taiwan’s 天下雜誌 regarding my work over the past 7 years or so promoting raising Chinese-English bilingual and biliterate children. The interviewer noted that my emphasis that CLE needs to provide meaningfulness and laughter/joy in the children’s lives if it were to succeed in its task did not quite come through in my blog (cebilingual.org). So, I hereby reiterate the same message, based on years of experience and observation.
The instruction needed to teach Chinese is pretty straight forward and well laid out. Certainly there are many different curriculum and textbooks, just as there are as many if not more curriculum and textbooks to teach English. But, by and large, they can all get students to similar places, if applied at sufficient pace and in sufficient quantity, particular if the goal is only around native 6th grade level.
The difficult part for most is the child’s psychological willingness and acceptance in engaging in such instruction, particularly toward the tween years. Too often we have heard from “ABC” parents that they regret loosing interest and willingness to learn Chinese in their youth. Well, it was not their fault. It was the way they were raised and the context of their Chinese instruction.
Since the Chinese language is neither necessary nor sufficient in the pursuit of the so called American dream, it is up to the parents to construct or deliver an ambience for the child, so that the Chinese language provides meaningfulness, joy, laughter, and often, the expression of love and passion, not of the romantic type but the various facets of this strong sentiment. (I coined these as Chinese Language Ecosystem or CLE a number of years ago.) These are the positive energy that children need, to want to continue to be on the receiving end of such language instruction, particularly between the second critical period between ~8 to 13. And this CLE is much much more difficult to deliver than the Chinese instruction per se, particularly in this era of instant connectivity and available online instruction.
Therefore, parents’ priorities for the child’s extracurricular (and sometimes schooling) choices play a big role in the creation of the CLE. Yes, if Chinese is important, but so many other things are even more important, then parents should not be surprised that the child’s Chinese proficiency lags behind the proficiency in other more important areas. After all, in an anglophone society, Chinese takes almost four times as long to learn than Spanish or other languages closely related to English.
What is also for certain is that it sure doesn’t take a music literate parent to raise a violin or piano virtuoso child (or coding, research, gymnastic, etc.). On the other hand, having a Chinese literate and proficient parent can be tremendously advantageous in raising a Chinese literate child. Both can be simultaneously achieved of course, but I set my priority on Chinese, as I look beyond to passing this cultural heritage down yet another generation, past that of my children.
