How to combat sudden drop in exposure in the minority language?

[aldredian]

My son is turning 3 next year and will attend preschool for 4 days a week. I've specifically kept the 1 day a week at home with me so I can continue speaking Mandarin to him. Community language is English.

We have been doing OPOL and he's fluent in both Mandarin and English.

My question is, what are some tips and things I should prepare when my son goes to 4 days a week English preschool? What are tactics to increase his exposure as much as possible? Has anyone had successs with a partner that doesn't speak the minority language?

He has been at home till 2.5 years old so his Mandarin exposure, I'd argue, is higher than English for a while. Recently though, I've noticed that he's speaking more English during family time because I speak to my husband in English (he doesn't speak Mandarin). I still speak to my son in Mandarin even when I'm mid-conversation with my husband and I'd say, 95% of the time, my son does the same e.g. switches to Mandarin if he's speaking to me. He speaks to my parents in Mandarin 100% of the time and in-laws in English. He seems to know when to switch. When he's with me though, he's in Mandarin mode, even if we're attending English group activitiies e.g. I take him to a music toddler class that's in English but he seems to stay in Mandarin mode. I have heard him speaking to other kids at daycare in English so he seems to be settling fairly well at daycare.

My problem here is the drop in exposure is due to him going to preschool the majority of the time instead of with me or my mum as was the case till now. When he comes home, my husband will be around so it'll be English and Mandarin 50/50 when he comes home. Weekend is very much the same meaning his English exposure is going to suddenly shoot up with only 1 day a week of 100% Mandarin with me. I have contemplated maybe I take him out just by myself for the morning over the weekend to increase that 100% Mandarin input - but then my husband also wants more 1-on-1 time with him as we've noticed he's becoming increasingly attached to me (though I guess it's normal).

My biggest fear is English completely taking over and him refusing to speak to me in Mandarin. My parents did heritage language at home. I came to Australia at 6 so I feel like due to my formative early childhood years being in Taiwan, Mandarin was strongly established as my native tongue. My parents didn't have much trouble retaining it for us as a result. I just don't know how to navigate this when my husband doesn't speak Mandarin and my son being born and raised here in Australia.

I don't have a lot of friends where I can trade tips. They're either doing heritage language at home, or they've abandoned their efforts.

Any tips are appreciated!

 

[chrisb1984]

@aldredian You're doing great! (Almost) 3 years of teaching and your son is navigating bilingualism as well as he can be!

If I were you I would:

1) get more mandarin kids books for home.

1.1) maybe see about simple characters that he can recognize like 1-10 or other ideograms with few strokes.

2) cartoons in mandarin; switch his account profile to mandarin only.

3) mandarin kids songs in the car, in the bath, nursery rhymes that he can learn.

4) get your partner in board for basic language, have them try Rosetta Stone or duolingo, so they can say even simple sentences (even I love you! is a big one).

 

[aldredian]

@chrisb1984 Thank you!

1. Chinese books are not a problem. I'm constantly buying them and we read them as part of daily bedtime routine. Our local library also stocks them and that has been really helpful. We are constantly borrowing and reading new Chinese books to him.

1.1 We have been trying to guage if he's interested in learning to read. Recently, he has said to me he doesn't know how to read and needs help and we've asked if he's interested to learn. He said yes so generally, I've started pointing out characters to him as I read in hopes it will stick. At the moment, I feel like he's still not interested or not quite getting it. He is young still. It's the same for English. We have been singing songs around ZhuYin and lots of books about that but yeah. It hasn't really stuck or maybe it has but he's not demosntrating it. I guess we've been pretty easy on this. I don't want to push too hard when he's not ready yet. My mum told me she only got me to start reading around 3 or 4 so I guess I'm using that as my guide. The preschools we've enrolled him in also said most of the public schools don't want them to teach them how to read unless they show an interest. They want to teach them at kindy (so 5 or 6). A bit weird I reckon. I'm still going with going by his pace at the moment. These days, I'll often see him open up a book by himself, flip through it, pretend to read it e.g. it's like he's memorised the book, then turn his head to me and said, "I'm reading!" and I'm like, "That's great!"

1. Yep - we have been doing some cartoons in Chinese. Unfortunately, some of my efforts here have had a setback. He discovered Bluey is in English originally (and tbh, it's way better in its original language. The Aussieness just doesn't quite translate through) and then my MIL showed him Peppa Pig in English as well and now he doesn't want to watch it in Chinese =_=. I have started finding cartoons that are originally in Chinese to combat this.
2. I will probably amp up the Mandarin kids song. Some of his daily routine music is in Chinese e.g. brushing teeth and pack away song. In the car, it's a bit of a mish mash.

4 is probably the main thing. He's requested I speak to him in Mandarin more and I've started saying a bit more Mandarin to him to get him to pick up more. Generally, he does understand a bit. Common phrases my son says he understands and generally need no translation from my side. He can sometimes guess certain things through context as well as we've been together for quite a while and he's kind of picked up a few things just by listening to me speaking to my parents. I guess it's just not fast enough and he's constantly smashed at work so his time is limited as well. =/

 

[chrisb1984]

@aldredian Most kids develop pre-reading skills ages 3-6, so no worries. Pushing them to read or anything academic doesn't generally help. Setting the stage for reading definitely takes years but it is so so satisfying when they do start reading. The theory behind teaching reading in Chinese is definitely different from English so I'm not sure on timelines.

Bluey is a reasonable compromise. We've seen it so many times I'll probably switch to Spanish soon.

That's great your partner is invested! It takes a long time to learn a new language as an adult if you can't devote much time to it, but it will make a difference for your kiddo.

 

[johnnyhudson]

@aldredian So my kid was in daycare since he was 12 mo old. We live in Germany, his languages are German and English. I'm German, husband is from Canada. So from early on, his exposure to English was his dad and when me and my husband talk to each other. We have books in both languages at home and when we introduced television, we made sure to use mostly English shows. We've been to Canada only twice in the last 3 years due to Covid.

He's 5 now and his English is still fine! It's steadily progressing, despite husband working full time. We incorporate English whenever we can, but it's really fine! I would not worry too much, you are putting a lot of effort into it, actually more than we probably do. And you have your parents around as well, that totally helps. It's important for your child to see other people using the language and he switches perfectly between languages. That's a great sign and I would not worry too much about it.

 

[aldredian]

@johnnyhudson Thank you. That's reassuring.

I guess my fear is due to seeing the majority of my friends/classmates from similar backgrounds all losing their native tongue. And these days, I bump into plenty of parents with a similar setup and then their kids stop speaking their language by the time they hit school. It's just something I absolutely want to avoid. I guess I'll see how it goes next year and adjust as I go.

 

[johnnyhudson]

@aldredian At some point kids will make their own choices and if you live and learn the majority of the time in one language you will naturally gravitate towards that. You have to remember that you can't force anyone to speak a certain language, just encouragement

 

[pell]

@aldredian Try this for Chinese language resources. This lady has a lot of great ideas for raising a child in two or three languages

april wu

 

[fez]

@aldredian Just wanted to say we are in a similar boat. I also think my Mandarin is also more established than others because I moved to the US from Taiwan as three, so it was already my community language first.

Our kiddo is younger than yours, but my plan is doing playgroups and classes with other Mandarin speakers at least once a week, so that she’s also around peers who speak Mandarin. For my brother, who was US-born, that was the only way to get him to engage in Mandarin consistently as he got older—socializing with other kids. Otherwise, he understood it but responded to my parents in English (but spoke Mandarin with my grandparents and family because he understood that they wouldn’t understand him.)

 

[arinola_s]

@aldredian Following this!