Because we came back to Taiwan when my son was of one and a half age, we kept speaking English to him. But the conversations between me and my wife was mainly Mandarin. I guess my son was confused by those coexisting languages, so he spoke late.
Recently we surveyed from the book and knew that each parent should only speak one language to prevent from the kids getting confused. After an evaluation by a doctor who eagerly wanted to make some money out of suggesting our son to attend treatment class from his diagnosing him being seriously retarded in socializing and speaking, we took advices from another doctor who had more experiences with bi-lingual children and started to let him contact kids of similar ages. My wife also restricted her languages to speak only Mandarin, while I started to speak only English both to my wife and to my son.
One month has passed since the evaluation, and my son has somehow picked up many words and sentences. It was so amazing. The interesting part is when it comes to terminologies, such as "ostrich", "flower", he would choose to say them in English, but sentences such as "Look, my hands are washed clean" would be said in Mandarin. "我的手洗乾淨了, 你看"
Because my wife stays with him all the day, his Mandarin is starting to get even better than his English. Now we are worried that he might stop to make progresses in learning English. Guess I have to work harder on that part when I come home.
No comments:
Post a Comment