Do you speak mandarin to your toddler at home?
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Actually u can try speaking to her in mandarin already. I start speaking mandarin to my girl ever since she is born, partly also because my english is not that fantastic also.
But when she reach playgroup, she start talking in English to me. English is actually much more easier to pick up than mandarin. So normally of my friends can speak mandarin, I will encourage them to speak mandarin. Because once they g to schooling age, they will expose to english most of the time.
If i remember correctly, they say kids are able to take up to 5 language at age 2 onwards. -
DoraTan
Before the age of 3, the child is like a sponge. They absorb very fast esp language. This is the time to teach them multiple languages.
You can try reading to her simple chinese story books or sing simple chinese songs to her.
Jus like english, mandarin need alot of reading to beef up the knowledge of language. Reading is the best.
Though my kids are from mandarin speaking family, but when comes to reading (认字)and 造句, my kids are still weak bcos we emphaise too much on english enrichment when they are young as i thought we are mandarin speaking family. So it does not mean that mandarin speaking wil naturally b strong academically in chinese. My kids stil need spend equal amt of time in reading and writing both english and mandarin to be gd academically. -
thanks all for your golden advice
as my kid was a late speaker, i concentrated on english first.
Now i shall converse as much as possible in mandarin to her.
Yes, reading is the best way to improve language. I cant agree more! -
Dh and I spoke dialect to dd when she was young.
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starlight1968sg:
Dh and I spoke dialect to dd when she was young.
A few more decades down the road , dialects wil restricted to just the old people.
Nowsaday, the kids are not taught to speak dialect.
If i dont want them to know our conversation, i wil jus speak hokkien w my DH.
DH and i never teach our kids dialects. We speak only dialect to our parents. My parents only know how to speak dialects as they r not educated. My kids seldom visit their grandparents and they dont communicate w them as well. -
Yes, we do speak mandarin to the kids at homes (albeit not often). Only during intentional periods, i.e. ‘come and have your dinner! How do you say dinner in Chinese?’ things like that.
One good way is to get them to watch more Chinese programmes… I have a lot of Malay friends who picked up the language purely from watching our many Chinese soaps! -
I learned my 成语 from watching hongkong swordfighting drama.
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My SIL speaks Mandarin to her toddler while the husband uses English.
The husband’s parents do not speak Mandarin, so the toddler has a lot of English exposure during weekdays.
Come weekends, he gets to hear us speaking Mandarin at MIL’s place. -
My DS does not speak Chinese at home despite the fact that we do speak mandarin at home. He will reply in English whenever we speak to him in chinese. The ultimate thing is he told us he doesn't like chinese. :faint:
This got me very worried and I signed him up for chinese enrichment to make him have interest.
After a few lessons, now he tells me he likes chinese and starts to speak Chinese at times. 
However, his chinese accent sounds strange, like Ang Mo speaking chinese. Is there anyway to make him speak properly?
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