Yikes. Summer kinda passed by us and it’s time to write down our progress so far before it all floats out of my brain.
Really I want to talk about Thumpers Chinese going forward.
So quickly: by end of summer 2018
Astroboy
Started going through Reading 123 in earnest, and moved up to some books in Happy Reading 456. I would peg his level at about 3rd grade reading, though with actual comprehension probably lower.
He is not doing anything else. I’m leaving the handwriting to this school year.
I don’t have much to say about Astroboy partly because I’ve gone through it once. Less anxiety on whether or not they can achieve high reading level by age 10. I do also know I will do things a bit differently with him because he learns differently and is good at different things from his sister. Plus I’m getting lazier and lazier.
Thumper
Officially moved into upper elementary books, books with elaborate storylines and more maturity level. In fact, she doesn’t really like picking up her brother’s books. Though she will when the story is compelling. She actually told me that she noticed those books are not as interesting as before. We’re not reading many Chinese books in general. I think in the last 6 months we’ve only done Harry Potter 5 and first 2 books of 修煉 series.
Writing-wise we’re making more consistent progress now that I’ve found what works for me – a combo of Kangxuan, composition, narration, and Anki spelling. She’s not writing long still but she remembers more characters because we’re consistent.
Compared with other kids I know our writing isn’t all there. But I realized last year I didn’t really care enough. Or rather, her ability to speak and read well will always be of a higher priority to me. Granted, my wish is for her to be able to write good blog posts in Chinese, but at this point with competing English interests, it’s taking a bad burner.
Chinese in upper elementary
Last year I wrote this post on Chinese after 3rd grade; I’ve gained a deeper understanding this past year.
Right after her first summer camp in years, a teenager suddenly showed up in our household. She likes to, wants to, deliberately tries to, speak English, to me. Sometimes, she knows the Chinese words, and deliberately speaks English to me because that is a way to rebel. How do I know that? Because I ask her how to say it in Chinese and she gives me the “but I don’t want to do what you ask of me” look.
I get now why we want to get them to enjoy reading Chinese at a high level before 6th grade! I just cannot imagine having to fight with her about Chinese on top of all the other things we are renegotiating. If I had to fight with Thumper now on “speak chinese” or “read chinese” I will definitely lose.
Another thing is not having enough time. We’ve settled into violin as an extracurricular and that takes 1.5-2 hours a day. Add a kid who sleeps from 8:30-7:30 and a mom who needs her own nap and downtime and we don’t have much time in general.
Last year I talked about how I needed to start Thumper on Classical Chinese stories. We tried but failed. Now I understand I needed to start these a bit early, probably introduce her to them in audio format in 2nd grade as soon as she learns to read. (Guess i need to go find them for Astroboy now). This summer I realized I didn’t do my normal listening/speaking before reading routine for classical Chinese. I didn’t expose her so she would be interested in these Chinese stories. So new plan of attack is to watch more Chinese historical dramas.
I realized the last 2 years I had a hard time mentally adjusting to this switch to English dominance. It is still hard, but it is finally easier for me to not feel guilty when we’re focused on English. I’m finally more ready this year and have adjusted our schedule so that Chinese is an extracurricular item on our workplan. My new plan is if we get reading and writing down thats great if not that’s okay too. So on busy days, we will just not study Chinese.
Instead I need to shift our focus from reading Chinese to listening and watching Chinese. As I watch other kids around me slowly switch to English, I realized ultimately my goal is a Thumper and Astroboy who can converse in Chinese well. And to reach that goal, given the limited time we have, I need to switch to watching newscast, travel shows, online learning channels, radio, etc.
As Mandarin Mama has said multiple times, the first step in the bilingual journey is knowing exactly what you want. Because the Internet and FB posts dissuade you and sends you down FOMO paths.
Anyways, so Chinese in Upper Elementary. It’s looking like:
- Listening – More newscasts, historical dramas 古裝劇, travel, educational shows, Chinese TV
- Speaking – Yearly trips to Taiwan?
- Reading – Attempt at more assigned literature while providing fun books to read
- Writing – Kangxuan for grammar and narration. Writing projects like her Taiwan Travel Diary.
We actually did not go to Taiwan except for 2 week trips for funerals before elementary years. After elementary, it’s been once every 3 years. And now I’m doing once every 1-1.5 years.
I know this is quite different for a lot of people who tend to do the immersion early. If learning Chinese were a recipe, then it’s all about adding whatever is missing. For us, we did not have trouble getting a full Chinese environment up to age 6. There was our Chinese speaking nanny, me, and yearly weeks at my mom. But it’s actually gotten harder and harder as the children needed more advanced vocabulary that they don’t encounter often with my resources here.
So my advice, if you’re in the same boat as me, is to go yearly to Taiwan/Chinese and immerse for at least 6 weeks between 1st and 6th grade. You start seeing real sustained results after 5 weeks, and more of that “brain switch to speaking Chinese” after 6 weeks. At least this has been the my experience and several people I’ve talked to.
I’m not sure I’ve written anything super helpful. More than anything this was a vent of the teenager in my house and how this sudden appearance has thrown me into a loop. I now have to figure out a new way to approach Chinese learning in light of this.
The two biggest impediment is time and rebellion against Chinese reading. I have a few books at the upper elementary level. But it’s slim picking when I try not to buy Chinese version of English books.
Anyways, the year has only started. There’s my plan, and then my lazy bum…..so we’ll see what actually gets done.
