As a Caucasian adoptive parent I felt, and still feel, it is very important that my daughter, age 3 from China, learn not only the language but the culture of being Chinese. So we found a family to provide day care three-days a week. They are a multi-generational household with a grandmother who speaks no english and a son my daughter’s age and a daughter a few years older. When I pick her up sometimes only the grandmother is there which makes for a strange conversation that’s half mime and half very repetitive speech spoken very slowly for my benefit.

We couldn’t be happier. It’s providing a foundation for her to continue with Sat school when she’s old enough. My efforts are at learning mandarin are slow but I use my limited mandarin with my daughter and she answers my questions in English. In fact she went through a phase that whenever I tried to use Mandarin she would look at me and just say “no, daddy”.

I’m told her Chinese is good, even if it is spoken with an American accent. Of course I don’t know how much of that is accurate or people just being polite because they know we want her to have this connection that only language and culture can provide. Hopefully we’ll be able to continue to provide her this immersive Chinese langauge and culture experience. I’m trying to find opportunities to work in Singapore, Taiwan or Mainland but the job market in Aisa isn’t exactly thriving for Caucasian non-Chinese speaking middle managers…. Oh well.

ChinesePod, private tutors and hours practicing characters will have to suffice for me for now because I’m afraid If I don’t continue my Chinese studies my daughter will abandon them during the critical pre-teen/teen-age years when most kids just want to be like every other kid in their class. We’ll see what happens but my hope is that things have changed enough over the last 20 years that learning a second language as a kid is cool and not something that sets them apart in a negative way. Thanks again for the post and the great blog.

As a Caucasian adoptive parent I felt, and still feel, it is very important that my daughter, age 3 from China, learn not only the language but the culture of being Chinese. So we found a family to provide day care three-days a week. They are a multi-generational household with a grandmother who speaks no english and a son my daughter’s age and a daughter a few years older. When I pick her up sometimes only the grandmother is there which makes for a strange conversation that’s half mime and half very repetitive speech spoken very slowly for my benefit.

We couldn’t be happier. It’s providing a foundation for her to continue with Sat school when she’s old enough. My efforts are at learning mandarin are slow but I use my limited mandarin with my daughter and she answers my questions in English. In fact she went through a phase that whenever I tried to use Mandarin she would look at me and just say “no, daddy”.

I’m told her Chinese is good, even if it is spoken with an American accent. Of course I don’t know how much of that is accurate or people just being polite because they know we want her to have this connection that only language and culture can provide. Hopefully we’ll be able to continue to provide her this immersive Chinese langauge and culture experience. I’m trying to find opportunities to work in Singapore, Taiwan or Mainland but the job market in Aisa isn’t exactly thriving for Caucasian non-Chinese speaking middle managers…. Oh well.

ChinesePod, private tutors and hours practicing characters will have to suffice for me for now because I’m afraid If I don’t continue my Chinese studies my daughter will abandon them during the critical pre-teen/teen-age years when most kids just want to be like every other kid in their class. We’ll see what happens but my hope is that things have changed enough over the last 20 years that learning a second language as a kid is cool and not something that sets them apart in a negative way. Thanks again for the post and the great blog.