Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Say What?

A little while back my friend asked me: "How are your children adjusting to a world where most others aren't speaking English? Have they noticed much, since their parents are speaking English?"
Thankfully we've moved to "Asia Light" as people like to call it and most people here speak English. So I'd say that language seems to be no issue for the kids so far. Their interaction with people is limited to those providing customer service or passing-by neighbors. And since everyone does their best to speak English, especially to little blond kids, they haven't noticed. At least Cade hasn't made any comments. (Unlike when we were in Oregon and he'd constantly ask me about the Spanish speaking people at the next table over.) Then again, Cade is very confident in his English speaking abilities and believes that everyone should be able to understand him.  
Elise sounds like she's babbling in Hindi or Mandarin most of the time as it is.When we were staying in the hotel apartment that had housekeeping services, Elise loved to see what the housekeepers were doing. She'd babble to them and give big smiles. One housekeeper said "My English not too good" and pointed at Elise. I said, "That's ok--her's isn't very good either." She is starting to talk more and she loves dancing to music-regardless of the language.
We've found the TV channels from the United States (Disney and Nick Jr.) so the cartoons are in English. One of Cade's favorite cartoons right now is Ni Hao Kai-lan. It's a Chinese cartoon similar to Dora that teaches Mandarin phrases. After Cade watches, he likes to use his new phrases to people. I sure hope he's not offending everyone with his cartoon-Chinese. He's excited about learning Mandarin at school in the fall. He's even started watching Asian TV with Daddy; but I can't tell if he likes it because it's in a different language or because he gets to watch TV with Daddy. He doesn't seem to care if the radio station is in a different language either. Thank you Ross for developing a fondness of Hindi music.
We are slightly concerned that the kids will have difficulty with spelling and grammar as they grow up. The "Queen's English" is bound to cause a few errors on a spelling test if we move back to the States. And the "Singlish" language is not well known for proper grammar. We are also trying to keep the children from adding 'lah' to the end of all their phrases. That might be a bit harder once they are in school and around more kids.
I'd love to answer more questions. Just let me know--lah!

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