Teaching Chinese

So it's back to the drawing board with Claire's Chinese progress again, after the husband vetoed the idea of Chinese enrichment.

I have to admit that the idea of Chinese enrichment was a bit extra on my part, as I don't consider Claire's Chinese to be that bad. At the very least, I am very sure she is not a potato, though the increasing amount of English she uses worries me a little. However, she does get daily exposure to the language, so it is not that bad. Also, for some very weird and unfathomable reason she has a slight Cantonese accent - considering that she has NO exposure to Cantonese, that is indeed very strange.

But recently, with the change in school environment and probably natural development, Claire's spoken Chinese has taken a bit of a beating. From an almost totally Chinese class, she has switched to a school with an international population who mainly use English as a common communication tool, and she is at the age where she is communicating more with her friends, so I guess it is inevitable. She forgets simple terms and resorts to mixing English in to make herself understood. Oh well.

I haven't been the most hardworking at her Chinese either, though I have two different sets of Chinese readers, plus miscellaneous Chinese storybooks. I suppose I could have been a little more disciplined and more regular at Chinese, sob sob.

Anyway I don't think it's too late, for now I will try to work out a regular schedule to rotate English and Chinese. Unfortunately even with the amount of English exposure she has her English is still appalling, but that is for another post. =( But the bottom line is that I don't think I can stop supervising her English.

Must say that I'm a little ashamed of myself for letting her Chinese fall to shreds. =(

Good thing is, she likes the latest set of Chinese storybooks I bought her, so she's willing to listen to the stories.