Month 1 Chinese Immersion in Taipei

This Friday will mark the 6th week we’ve been in Taipei.

By about the 4th week I was starting to worry about the children’s Chinese.  They were, especially Thumper, still speaking Chinglish.  When we visited my cousin a few weeks ago and she was chatting with my aunt, she was slipping in English left and right.  Frankly, I was surprised by the sheer amount of words she seemed to have forgotten in Chinese.

In contrast with our last visit, we have not been watching a lot of cartoons.  The cartoon landscape has changed in the last three years.  Many of the higher quality show shown on Momo TV is no longer available.  The kids end up watching tons of Disney, which is not my favorite channel, and often the songs are in English.  I don’t allow them to watch 蠟筆小新 or similar cartoons, so there really aren’t a lot of choices.

Basically we stopped watching TV for a few weeks.

I had a talk with Fleur the other day about Thumper not speaking Chinese.

1. She is 9 now and it is taking longer and longer for her to switch or forget English; something to be expected.
2. The last time we were here, we only spent 1-2 hours nightly with native speakers.  We did not actually talk to that many people. So the reason the children aren’t switching isn’t because they are homeschooling in Taiwan and only talking to each other mostly.  Though having other children speaking Chinglish does make it easier to be lazy when you can’t find the word.
3. Last time, there was a lack of English.  Other than Thumper binge listening to audiobooks while she was down with the flu, and talking to Baba, we did not speak or hear English.  This time around, Fleur and I are speaking it to each other still.  They also hear it on TV and with each other.   Thumper is still studying English during homeschool.
4. We watched A LOT of TV, 2+ hours a day, three years ago.
5. It’s not apparent Astroboy is switching because he speaks mostly in Chinese already this time around.  Last time he wasn’t really speaking either language.

The TV and lack of English was, to me, the reason they finally switched after 6 weeks.  Because honestly the children did not spend all day talking to people other than me and the random adults we met during our daily travels.

I decided this week to go back to watching TV and trying my hardest to ONLY speak Chinese to Fleur.  I have to decide what to do about the learning English part.   We may have to really tone it down for a few more weeks.  Both adults are now giving the children the equivalent Chinese words whenever they speak Chinglish.   We probably also need to just go out more.   It provides opportunities for the children to converse with other adults.

Today, during the outdoor hiking class that we signed up for, I started hearing Thumper speaking more advanced Chinese words and phrases to the teacher.  Maybe there is still hope.  I will just have to turn a blind eye to Astroboy’s TV watching and cut down on him playing Reflex Math and Montessori Math on the iPad.

On a side note, Fleur’s youngest is just sprouting Chinese left and right.  Contrasting her with Thumper, my new theory is that kids do well with  minimal 6-8 weeks immersion a year till 6 or 7.  There is still hope when they’re that young in getting them to really learn the vocabulary and switch quickly and easily.   After 6 or 7, the brain starts fossilizing and the language starts sticking.  It may take longer for them to switch to Chinese, but it also takes longer for them to forget Chinese when they’re in the States.