People always ask me if I speak Chinese with her. "No," I tell them. "Why not?" I'm always asked. Well, thanks for asking. I once worked with a little 5-year-old girl back home in New Mexico. She was sweet and wonderful, but I couldn't understand a word she said. Ever. She had a Chinese last name, so I asked her what language they spoke at home, was it English or Chinese? "Oh, we speak English at home," she assured me. I had my doubts.
Then I met her father. He was speaking the same language as his daughter, whatever it was. I caught some words here and there, so I agree that it was supposed to be English. But he was pretty much unintelligible, as was his daughter.
What a shame! He could have taught her Chinese in the home, and then had her learn English at day-camp and in Kindergarten from native English speakers. She could have been highly functional in two languages instead of half-functional in one! Whatever... the next summer she spoke perfect English, so no long-term linguistic harm done.
But I'd rather Penny learn Chinese from native Chinese people rather than me.
I took her to the preschool her friends attend. It's a 45-minute class that kids attend with a parent, it's in a fancy department store, and it's pretty expensive. But it's clean, well supervised, and her friends attend. So I gave it a try.
Penny had fun. There were other kids around, and they sang some songs and danced. What's not to love? But I kind of hated it. The class was dual-lingual, so one teacher spoke Chinese and the other English, one after the other. Sort of. I had to concentrate on what the teacher was saying before I understood: "Rolling your hands." Oh, okay. (It helped that she was rolling her hands as she said this.) Then they introduced the animal of the day, a crow. Although, when I say crow, it doesn't have two syllables.
Penny had a nice time, and I considered sending her there, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I didn't want to pay money for Penny to learn crappy English and maybe a smidge of Chinese. If I was going to pay for a preschool (or heck, if I was going to send my baby away to any class at all), I wanted it to be Chinese immersion. For me at this point, that's the only reason I want a preschool at all.
So I've started looking in the community, rather than in the fancy department store. These days, though, every single preschool advertises itself as bilingual or dual-lingual. I stopped by called "South Station Dual-language Preschool." I figured this would be a fancier one, since it had "Dual-language" in the name. But I still stopped by to check it out. There were 30 students at desks crammed into a room the size of Naomi's bedroom. The teachers were friendly, but I could tell they didn't speak a lick of English, beyond maybe, "Hallo, how are you?" But if you want to run a preschool these days, you have to market it as bilingual. So I'm sure everyone in the class was able to say, "Hallo, how are you?" And that technically makes it bilingual. ;)
I'm still doing some comparison shopping, but I've found a school I kind of like. It's bilingual, but as I've said, they all are. The building is old but not falling down. The kids have room to play. The principal speaks very decent English. But best of all, the teachers, while wonderful, capable, and kind, seem to speak no English beyond, "Hallo, how are you?" "Stand up," and "Want to go pee-pee?" The kids don't speak any English, and the teachers don't push the issue.
We may have found our school.
2 comments:
Here's a linguist's perspective on the situation: I can not wanting Penny in a bilingual school since she is still learning English. It really won't cause linguistic problems with her English in the long run (like you saw with the girl in your camp). But it might slow down her Chinese acquisition right now if she could rely on English at the preschool.
Also, bilingual schools are really good for students who want to learn literacy in both languages, especially if the students come from families who don't emphasize literacy in the native language at home. But, since you are going to emphasize literacy in English I'm sure, and since this is just preschool (so I'm assuming she's not learning literacy yet), these benefits aren't really that important in your choice of schools.
So, good job finding something that works for your situation and needs!
Does her Aiyi speak to her in Chinese? I'm sure that helps. I know someone who went to a chinese preschool and kindergarten when they lived in taiwan but then returned home and lost all her language....
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