hello
i want to share my experience as well as seek advice from all of you here.
my home speaks english becasue my wife isn't a local nor native english speaker also. so we speak english to my son since he was born.
he is 2.5 years old now but he still talk english in single or double words mode only like "eat, drink, hurt, dirty hand, wash etc..." he still can't talk english in a proper sentence yet. when he was 2 yr old, we decided to put him to k1 international stream becox we tot it would help him or better establish his english as base language but it didnt turn out to be the ideal case.
i m kind of worry now becox i know kid at his age (if cantonese speaker) already could express or speak in proper cantonese phases or sentences. should i start to teach or switch to talk to him in cantonese instead? this coming Sept he will be in N1 and i have already enrolled him for a typical english and chinese class only. With his current english and chinese language abilities, i m very worry he can't cope with the new enironment at school.
Still have some half years to go,,, what should i do now to help him to catch up either his english or cantonese? any advice will be greatly appreciated
原帖由 rose-mag 於 10-1-5 06:24 發表
Confusion in the beginning is normal and bilingual kids always talk later develop language slower than those only handle one single language. But, it is not absolute to every kid. I live in US and my ...
totally agree with you, that is why we don't plan on letting him learn more than Cantonese and English at this stage. If no one is going to practice with him, no means letting him learn more than that and giving him extra burden.
Same as adult, if they are not going to use that language in their daily life, they will just forget about it later in life, so why giving the little ones extra burden when they should be what kids should be, enjoy and play around all the time when they don't have to worry about a single thing in life?
原帖由 rose-mag 於 10-1-5 06:24 發表
Confusion in the beginning is normal and bilingual kids always talk later develop language slower than those only handle one single language. But, it is not absolute to every kid. I live in US and my ...
Confusion in the beginning is normal and bilingual kids always talk later develop language slower than those only handle one single language. But, it is not absolute to every kid. I live in US and my husband knows little Cantonese. So, my husband talks to my kids in English and I talk to them in Cantonese. The key is consistence. Our pediatric doctor told us that if one person communicates with them in one language, the kids can learn even though it may slows down their development. Do not use mixed language. Before my son went to daycare, he talked purely Cantonese. Now, he's more towards to English as all the kids and teachers in school speak in English.
My daughter speaks good English and Cantonese. She started talking early and I believe that it's because girl usually develop language skills earlier than boy and she has a sibling to copy. To raise a bilingual kid is not easy, I'm just at the beginning. I have seen some kids good at 2+ languages but lost the 2nd or 3rd language when they grow up, either they have not used it regularly or just been distracted on other interesting things. So, even though kids have good start on learning 2 languages, it matters if they can keep up with both.
I want to say there are different ways to raise / educate your child. Since most of the couple in HK right now only got one child. Everything is in a test basis. Method 1 works for your kid but might not work on mind. Anyways, I’m just sharing my experience and I think there are no right or wrong. One thing I do agree 5月媽媽 say ”所有幼兒教材, 基本要求是必定有家長或懂使用教材的人仕陪同小孩玩。” and since I’m a working mother, I can’t afford to be with my kid all the time. So, I had to find the other way to educate my child. But something I want to clarify, I didn’t let my son to watch the TV all the time. He only got 15-30mins when he below 1 (since most of time he’s eating or sleeping). And he goes to nursery when he’s 2 and now he’s studying in a full day kindergarten, so actually, he didn’t had much time to watch TV.
I think they would confuse. My 2 year old boy start talking in "human language" a little later than those kids that only deal with one language.
In my case, we live in US. We talk in Cantonese at home, but most of the TV kid educational program we let him watch (not too much, but still have about 10-15 minutes a day) are in English. When other HK BK mom said their kid already talking, my son still talking to me in baby language. He is very talkative now ... in Cantonese sentence, but with lot of word in English. I think he has no problem to understand Cantonese, but only 80% of English coz he is not going to school and deal with English speaking people too much yet.