(I have lots to update, but I’ll just do a short post because I have lots to do at work)

Zara doesn’t speak Chinese, or rather nobody speaks to Zara in Chinese so she has not picked up any Chinese. I tried to do what Shiaulin has taught me, to repeat each English phrase I say to her in chinese so she learns to associate the two. However, after a few attempts, I got lazy. It’s tiring when you have to talk to the kid and repeating everything (already, lots of repetition in English to get a massage across).

Then I tried speaking to her just in Chinese, but she’ll say, “Don’t Want” when she hear non-English words coming out from me.
Me : Mummy 和你讲华语好吗 (Mummy speaks to you in Chinese ok?)
Zara : Don’t want
Sometimes she even says : 不要 (Chinese: Don’t want). Don’t know if she really know what it means.

However, she likes this particular Chinese song which I sing (only the chorus) to her quite frequently. Here is her singing this together with me (I must say for someone who doesn’t speak Chinese, her pronunciation is quite good).

Click here to listen to her sing.

我是一只小小小小鸟 – Translated based on my best knowledge
我是一只小小小小鸟
Wo shi yi zhi xiao xiao xiao xiao niao (I’m just a little bird)
想要飞呀飞却飞呀飞不高
Xiang yao fei ya fei que fei ye fei bu gao (Even when I attempt to fly, I can never fly too high)
我寻寻觅觅寻寻觅觅一个温暖的怀抱
Wo xun xun mi mi xun xun mi mi yi ge wen nuan de huai bao (I’d been searching for a warm embrace)
这样的要求算不算太高
Zhe yang de yao qiu suan bu suan tai gao (Is this a very difficult request?)

(The song sung by the original singer can be found here)