(You’ll probably be able to relate to this more if you know Chinese)<\/p>\n
After more than 4 months in a Chinese school, how is Zara doing in her Chinese? I would say she’s doing well, but her Chinese is probably at the level of a 5year old native speaker. I’ll quote some examples later. <\/p>\n
What language do they speak in school? She told me when she’s in her class, she and her friends speak in Mandarin; but once outside the class, they will start conversing in English. Her school has many English speaking kids, so this is good, as she still gets to speak English while improving her Chinese. However, the down side is, she started mixing 2 languages in her speech, unconciously. <\/p>\n
She told the teacher, an Indian, from the maths centre, “Teacher, I got \u4e00\u767e\u5206for my maths in school.”<\/span> She repeated a few times and couldn’t comprehends why the teacher didn’t understand her, not knowing she said, \u4e00\u767e\u5206 instead of one hundred.<\/p>\n So to make her concious of only speaking 1 language at a time, I implemented a system for her and her (carpool) friend, James, in the car. Each day, they are to speak only 1 language, either English or Chinese, fully, on our journey home. On an English day, should they or even myself accidentally use any Chinese words, we’ll have to pay a RM0.10 fine, and vice versa. <\/p>\n Initially, we collected a lot of fines, but after a while, I saw them making a concious effort to speak only 1 language. This helps to improve their Chinese proficiency too, because on Chinese day, they’ll try very hard to find the word they need to describe something.<\/p>\n Here are some “Chinese Day” conversation taken on our journey home.<\/p>\n Zara : \u4eca\u5929\uff0c\u6709\u4e2a\u7537\u5b69\u5b50…err.. muak muak \u6211\u7684\u670b\u53cbOhana. [Today, there’s a boy who muak muak my friend Ohana]<\/span> (obviously she doesn’t know how to say kiss in Chinese) She was playing this hand game with James. I asked James if he likes Chocolate cake.
\nMe : \u4eca\u5929, \u6709\u4e2a\u7537\u5b69\u5b50\u543b\u6211\u7684\u670b\u53cb [Today, there’s a boy who kissed my friend]<\/span> (corrected her)
\nZara : (repeated) \u543b\u6211\u7684\u670b\u53cb [Kissed my friend]<\/span>
\nMe : Ohana\u662f\u9a6c\u6765\u4eba\u5417?[Is Ohana a Malay?]<\/span>
\nZara : \u4e0d\u662f, \u5979\u662f\u4e2d\u6587. [No, she’s Chinese language]<\/span> o.O” (She’s supposed to say \u534e\u4ebaor\u4e2d\u56fd\u4ebathe words for Chinese people)<\/p>\n
\nZara : \u516c\u9e21, \u6bcd\u9e21, \u5c0f\u9e21, kay-poh-jee [rooster, hen, chick, kay poh jee]<\/span>
\nMe : kay-poh-jee \u4e0d\u662f\u4e2d\u6587\u6765\u7684\uff0ckay-poh-jee\u4e2d\u6587\u662f\u516b\u5366 [kay poh jee (nosy) is not Mandarin, kay poh jee in Mandarin is \u516b\u5366]<\/span>
\nJames : \u554a\u6211\u77e5\u9053, Bak-gua [Oh, I know, Bak-gua (BBQ pork slices in Hokkien)]<\/span> o.O”<\/p>\n
\nJames : \u6211\u4e0d\u559c\u6b22, \u56e0\u4e3a\u90a3\u4e2a\u86cb\u7cd5\u5f88….\u6211\u4e0d\u4f1a\u8bb2\u90a3\u4e2a\u5b57, \u6211\u53ef\u4ee5\u8bb2\u82f1\u6587\u5417? [I don’t like, because the cake is very …. I don’t know how to say the word, can I speak English?]<\/span>
\nMe : OK<\/span>
\nJames : Very strong<\/span> (concentrated)
\nZara : \u54e6\u6211\u77e5\u9053\u90a3\u4e2a\u5b57, “\u5f88\u6709\u529b”. [oh, I know the word, it’s very strong (in strength).] <\/span> o.O” She doesn’t know how to say the word \u6d53 (the Chinese word for concentrated).<\/p>\n