While the rest of the nation is still grappling with the issue of the teaching of Science and Maths in English or Bahasa Malaysia (Malaysia’s national language), I am having a problem with my son’s slowly depleting Chinese!
We’ve been barely back for 2 weeks and he’s already using less and less Chinese. Although he still uses a bit of Chinese, I can imagine how easy it is for him to stick to English completely since:
- we speak English at home;
- we read English books to him;
- he’s watching his VCDs in English AND
- the new kindy (as with many of the kindergartens or preschools here) he’s enrolled in emphasizes English…
Although the principal mentioned that Chinese is used during the second half of the day, in reality, he listens, speaks and reads English for nearly 3 hours and has casual conversations (if any) in Chinese with the attending caregivers.
Since it took him nearly 3 months to finally pick up the courage (or vocabulary) to converse with his teachers, friends and neighbours in Chinese in China, I’d hate to see him lose this second language he has acquired.
Solution? I’m hoping to find a Chinese teacher who could come to our home twice a week for Chinese conversation, nursery rhymes, flashcards and reading. Keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll be able to find a lady as nice as his preschool teacher in China!
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Tags: education
Hola KittyCat! I’m holding a new book giveaway now. Do come check it out at my blog. Thanks!
Josette – I’ve got bookshelves toppling over so I won’t be sniffing at giveaways anytimes soon. Hope others will be keen