Hello. In case you missed it, we now have two kids, and that means one more datapoint. Bilingual parents know that raising younger kids bilingual is wayyy harder than with your oldest, because no matter how much the parents try to speak the target language at home, the older sibling will probably speak some EnglishContinue reading “The second Bilingual Baby?”
Tag Archives: bilingual
Learning to read is metal
Watching my kiddo learning to read has been crazy cool. The number of mental leaps required for reading that we now take for granted as adults is absolutely insane. It’s been 6 weeks since my last post. Here’s an update. Last time I posted that my son had started using the iHuman Chinese app toContinue reading “Learning to read is metal”
How I am teaching my 3 year old to read Chinese: iHuman Chinese (洪恩识字) App Review
Reading Chinese – and indeed the entire idea of memorizing thousands of characters – is often cited to be one of the most intimidating aspect of learning Chinese. However, I have always thought that learning to read Chinese should be easier than learning to read English for a child – there is no logic involved,Continue reading “How I am teaching my 3 year old to read Chinese: iHuman Chinese (洪恩识字) App Review”
The Cows on the Bus go Moo, Moo, Moo
Ro has started singing, and it wasn’t a gradual process. He has always loved listening to songs that we sing to him or play for him, both in Chinese and English, but the singing started with Baa Baa Black Sheep. They must sing this a lot at daycare because it wasn’t on our rotation atContinue reading “The Cows on the Bus go Moo, Moo, Moo”
21-Month Toddler Chinese/English Bilingual Book Review
It’s already time for another book review! We’re still loving many of the books from when Ro was 18 months, especially the CDs that come with 早安晚安 [Good Morning, Good Night] and 小雨滴 [Little Raindrop], but we have new favorites now too. I’ve heard many parents complain about having to read the same books over and over again,Continue reading “21-Month Toddler Chinese/English Bilingual Book Review”
Bus, no bus!
I was right about the language explosion. Ro is 19 months old and we are hitting that phase where more and more sounds are becoming available to him and he is starting to repeat words that we say. He is also starting to put together subject-verb phrases like 妈妈抱！(Pick me up, mama!) and 妈妈拜！(Bye mama!).Continue reading “Bus, no bus!”
Fourth word: 个!
Honestly, I’m not even sure how to explain this one. 个 is the most common measure word in Chinese, with a similar grammatical role as the word “piece” in a piece of cake or a piece of paper. Unlike piece, 个 can be used with most nouns. We use it with Ro when he’s alreadyContinue reading “Fourth word: 个!”
New word: Milk!
Baby Ro has just turned 1, and his babbling has become much more diversified in the last few weeks. We can only decipher one new word though: 奶 (milk), which he consistently says when he’s hungry. In the way of babies, he doubles this word into 奶奶 (paternal grandmother). However, it’s been six months sinceContinue reading “New word: Milk!”
Baba wins over dada
About 2 weeks after Baby Ro first started saying mama/妈妈, he also started saying baba/爸爸. I have seen some signs that he knows what mama and baba mean, but there are also definitely times when he says them to himself just for fun too. It’s interesting to see that he picked baba instead of dada,Continue reading “Baba wins over dada”
First word!
Baby Ro is nine months old. He has been babbling for a while now, but the other day he looked me straight in the face and said mama! I’d always heard that bilingual children can be late talkers, but mama is pretty much the same in Chinese and English, so it probably doesn’t matter. OnContinue reading “First word!”
Etymology Adventures 