Hi everyone, it’s time for our first book review 🙂 These are the books Ro currently loves as an 18-month old bilingual baby. We as parents love these too, but out of all of the many, many books in our house, these are the ones he requests most often. Chinese books Sourcing Chinese board booksContinue reading “18 month Toddler Chinese/English Book Review”
Tag Archives: language learning
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!”
Journey to the West – Chapter 6.5
As the Immortal Master was running back and forth, the Plum Mountain brothers came up and surround him, saying: “Brother, did you catch the Great Sage?” The Immortal Master laughed and said, “Just now that monkey turned himself into a shrine to deceive me. Just as I was about to hit his windows and kickContinue reading “Journey to the West – Chapter 6.5”
Journey to the West – Chapter 6.4
The Immortal Master and the Great Sage battled for over three hundred rounds with no victor. The Immortal Master mustered his powers and, with a shake of his body, grew to ten thousand fathoms1 in height. His two hands raised the three-prong double-edged glaive like the peak of Hua Mountain. His youthful face bore sharpContinue reading “Journey to the West – Chapter 6.4”
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!”
Journey to the West – Chapter 5.5
The Steward of Order, in accordance with the edict, completed a detailed investigation and returned to report: “The one who wreaked havoc in Heaven is none other than the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven.” He gave a full recounting of the incidents. The Jade Emperor was furious. He commanded the Four Heavenly Kings, together withContinue reading “Journey to the West – Chapter 5.5”
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!”
Journey to the West – Chapter 5.3
Look at them all, their hands going slack, their heads drooping, their eyes closing. One by one they all fell asleep. The Great Sage took his choice of delicacies and tidbits went into the hallway. He settled down next to the urns of wine and ate and drank himself silly. After a while he was full and very drunk.
Alphabet Animals
When a culture encounters something new in a new place, such as during colonization, war, or mass migration, words tend to be borrowed quickly and wholesale so people can communicate new concepts. Animal words are a great example of this. Guess which of the following animal names you think are native to English. I’ve listed below the explanations for ones that are not.
Etymology Adventures 