i have been speaking to my daughter in mandarin, her father speaks to her in English and my mil speaks to her in Cantonese. She goes to Spanish playgroup once a week. She just started going to kindergarten in September and last night she told me she didn’t want to go to kindergarten, but she didnt tell me why. I called her teacher and was told that she could not seems to understand cantonese very well, but responds to Mandarin. My mil doesnt talk much, I guess that’s why her Cantonese is weakest. I was advise to speak to my daughter in cantonese. She is doing well in mandarin and English, I dont want to undo what we did for her multilingual exposure, yet I think she needs to fit in the new environment.
Any similar experience?
Please advise what to do. Thanks.
Don’t worry, once your child get used to the environment, she’ll pick up Cantonese very soon. It’s because she is surrounded by children who speak Cantonese. She will learn it in a few months time. The only thing is, you don’t want her to be afraid of Cantonese. If she has no negative feeling about the language, she’ll learn it through her peers. One suggestion is, you can plan some play dates with her best Chinese friend ( who speaks Cantonese, of course ). This way, her only choice is to speak Cantonese!
I was spoken to in English for the fisth 6 years of my life, and started school in Spanish at the age of 6, it took a couple of weeks maybe a month to get used to it, but from then on I had no problems.Do what you think best for your child.
thanks, decided to keep the multilingual environment at home. MIL keeps talking and talking a lot to her these days. I think she’ll be just fine. Thanks for all replies.