Anya’s private chinese tutors
My parents are in town for a few days! And the kids have been enjoying their stay here!
Other than having them around to entertain and play with, my parents have sort of become Anya’s private mandarin teachers too! It’s great!
(Unlike me, my parents can write and speak mandarin real well!)
They occasionally spoke to her in mandarin, teaching her new sentences and words. She practised reading her Chinese characters from her school books too while they listened and told her the correct way to read them if she ever got them wrong.
AND.
Apparently, Anya actually knows A LOT of chinese! I mean, she recognises the chinese characters in her books and reads them pretty well!
My parents were surprised at how much she’s learned over such a short period of time.
And so were WE!
You see, so far we’ve heard Anya sing and say words in chinese. And although I think it’s great that she slowly is learning the language, I often (in the inside) question her knowledge when she tells me something in mandarin that I don’t know.
The thing is, I myself know VERY little of mandarin! And chinese characters look like unknown intermingled lines to me!
It was only when my parents saw how she recognised the chinese characters well that I realised how I’ve actually underestimated her.
And I felt so ashamed for not believing in her.
Anyway.
So this is what I’ve discovered and learned this week. To not underestimate my own child’s capability, simply because I myself am not ‘better’ at it.
Ah. I’m really glad though that I found out about this (ie. my tendency to not believe in my own kid’s capability) NOW, not later.
Because my sceptical attitude (which may come through the comments I make or even my facial expression) may dampen Anya’s spirit to learn new stuff in the long run.
And THAT is surely something I’d want to avoid!
…
Yes, Mommy needs to learn to change too.
