Happily lost (and how many times do I mention ‘cake’ in this entry?)
This morning, I brought the girls to a playgroup in my friend Mia’s house.
Remember the ‘cake-tasting event’? Turns out I’d better go dig out my ears because not only was there no cake, I was also supposed to bring something. Which I didn’t, of course, because I seriously thought Mia had baked a room full of cake and I’d even missed breakfast, anticipating 72 different types of cake.
What the hell happened to the cake? Mia is Taiwanese Chinese and Mandarin is her first language. I’m Malaysian Chinese and English is mine. Could she have said pot luck and somehow my ears caught “cake-tasting event”? So bizarre I’m still reeling from having been expecting cake all morning and not receiving any.
Or my diet has finally gone to my head.
ANYWAY, we still had a wonderful time. I may have lost my mind over the missing cake but gained three new friends, all of them Chinese ladies from various parts of the world. And boy can they speak the Mandarin. I was the only non-Mandarin speaking Chinese there (besides my two girls), and felt rather small and stupid and unpatriotic even, but they were always gracious enough to translate, perhaps because I looked lost. Believe me, I tried not to look too lost too much, smiling through chunks of conversation I did catch as not to make my new friends think even less of me, this useless Chinese woman who can’t even speak the language of her ancestors.
It was…cosy, to be ‘among my own’, if only for a while. That’s what being away from home does to you, really. It’s like what Adeline observed. Somehow, there is something perhaps at a very basic level in all of us that gravitates towards our own ‘kind’, even when we’ve never really done so in the past (I don’t have any Taiwanese or China Chinese primarily-Mandarin-speaking friends back home).
The kids don’t really care of course. Despite not being able to understand a lick of Mandarin, Rae and Sky had the time of their lives (Mia has clearly gone overboard with the toys for her 17-month old daughter) playing with the others (with whom the mommies seem to speak only Mandarin - their dads are mostly American Caucasians).
“Ni yau suey tsiao ma?” I asked Skyler as I strapped her down in the car when it was time to go. That’s “Do you want to sleep?” in Mandarin.
She looked at me for a moment, and promptly started bawling.
Mommy has finally gone off the deep end.
Anyone know any subliminal Mandarin-learning CDs I can play during bedtime?
Posted in Imperfect America, Imperfect Mom
August 30th, 2006 at 7:19 am
I went for Mandarin tuition classes when I was four till I was about 16. I spoke the language even without going for the classes. I was a wonder really as my family does not speak the language at home. My mum said that I knew how to speak and understand it after watching many many Singapore production Mandarin serials.
So..what I’m saying is…Mandarin TV shows help a lot. I know that in Canada there is such thing as a Chinese pay TV but I’m not too sure whether they have it in US. But I’m sure they do. Go subscribe to it. Rae and Sky can not only learn Mandarin but also Cantonese.
I learnt my Cantonese from watching TVB serials. It works I tell you…
Oh…I know that in Vancouver, there is a school for children of Chinese descent to learn Mandarin and the Chinese culture. I’m sure there is one school like this where you are. If you really want your kids to learn Mandarin i.e. to read, write, speak and understand….they must go for classes, watch lots of TV and practice it at home.
Good luck!
August 30th, 2006 at 9:17 am
Start with songs. Simple nursery rhymes and children songs in Mandarin. I’m sure you can get these CDs in the US. Then sing and sing and sing!
That was how I learned how to speak, according to my mom. I knew how to sing before I could speak, according to her too.
unemployed M’sian grad.