My Cantonese isn't that good and sometimes I will add some English in a sentence when I talked to my baby (9 months old in 2 weeks). I am now confused...should I talk to him in English or Cantonese or if I mix the language, would he get confused? Will this affect his language learning skill? Hm...my Phillipino's maid speaks English, my mom speaks Mandarin to him, and I don't want to confuse my baby and afraid he can't absorb all the languages/meaning at this stage...any suggestion?
My sister who lives in Singapore has 2 daughters, her eldest daughter actually has to listen to few languages, Cantonese, English, Mandarin, Malaysian, Hak Ga and one more native language. I think because of that, she has speaking problem...she can't speak a proper sentence even though she is now almost 4 years old. Sigh, I don't hope my son has difficulty in learning our language in the future.
Any mom/dad has this experience?
Am I too early to worry about this?
jlie
hello~!my son is a mix boy(23months)~we also talk to him Cantonese~sometime English,this is no problom,because children is vary smart ,they can recieve all languages~ :-P
I live in Canada and my husband can only speak english.
I try to speak Cantonese first but she seems has speech problem and now I switch to full english. She is 4 now and she starts to learn Chinese in chinese class but refuse to speak Chinese to me as her mind is set to be in english.
It is hard to say whether kids can pick it up if you speak different languages but it is always good not to have more than 2. besides, it is always good to say thing completely in Cantonese or English. Dont ever mix half Chinese and half English.
I have a friend she has 3 kids, only the older one pick up Chinese while the other 2 dont. They all speak English athought they are all from HK, but since the older one mix with other Chinese friends and she asked to study Chinese when she was older. Now she can speak, write and speak fluent Chinese.
It is always depends on your kids abilility and willingness to learn other language.
xother,
I used to live in Toronto and I also know a lot of kids who hate and refuse to learn Chinese (since they were born in Canada). They think they don't need to communicate in Cantonese or write in Chinese, so parents have a hard time teaching them.
I plan to stay in HK for few years and let my boy practice more Chinese before we return to Canada.
My friend who lives in Singapore. She has 4 kids from 12 yrs to 4 yrs, all of them can fluent speak Cantonese, English, Mandarin, Malaysian & Fukienese.
She taught me that don't speak bi-language to your baby from same person.
In her case, the parents both speak English to the kids. The maid speaks Malaysian. The Grandpa speaks Mandarin, the grandma speaks Fukienese. Her hubby's parents speak Cantonese to them.
Don't worry they are confuse. Kids absord multi-language very quick before 2 years old. My baby is 7 mths now. I try to use my friends method. I do hope it work.
Just like to share my 'experience' on this. I was also told (and read) that a child will be confused if the same person speaks to him in different languages. Hence , because htere is only the maid in the house with my son all the time, we decided that I will speak to him in English and his dad will speak to him in cantonese. This went on fine, in fact he is doing quite well in English until only a month or two ago I realise this is not a good strategy in HK. Reason is the interviews for K! admissions to many kinders here are principally held by cantonese teachers whom some just snubbed at me when I requested if they can ask my son in English...I dont blame them cos at hte end of hte day, my son if being accepted into these schools will eventually be taught in cantonese and perhaps a 30 mins english. (of course this does not matter if you intend to send your child to pure english kinders but i think these will be those truely international ones and quite pricey). So I am now working hard trying to switch him over to cantonese to help him get along in the 'real' world of cantonese...eg he jsut started nursery this month and the "helpers' in school who are responsible in bringing them to toilets, wash hand etc does not 'communicate' well with him...at hte moment. Note I am not saying you should speak cantonese instead...but just to share with you my experience. I guess if you have other members living in with your kid, then it is ok to have different people speaking to him/her in different languages without any problems of them getting confused. You know they are like a sponge and v. clever!
Just to share my experience.
One of my security guard he has a son brought up in Thailand and only speak in Thai before 3yrs. then he brought him back to HK for kindergarten, then he totally forgot all his Thai and speak Cantonese only.
Yes, kids absorb fast before 6yrs but they also forget fast. I think friends, TV and parent has influence a lot on how the kids accept the language.
Yes, many Chinese in Canada refuse to learn Chinese as they think it is not useful, but since China is become so powerful and I think kids has changed their view and many school in Canada has introduced Chinese which they can choose either French or Chinese as a subject.
Although my daughter speak english only, she also know some chinese as I watch chinese tv sometimes and since more chinese product on the market, she may eventually wants to learn when she is older. I can see the chinese class are quite full in Vancouver.
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