Ungroup

It is becoming very trendy to teach Chinese to children of non-Chinese heritage these days.  As stated in this article,  parents’ aim would be “to make their babies competitive in the global economy”.  How many of those will really speak fluent Chinese when they become adults? My guess is not many.  And even less will ever write it.  Mastering a language is an long term commitment,  both for the parents and for the learner, and in the long run resources like a good native educator, time, money, or just enough motivation can push down Chinese in the list of educational priorities. But even if that’s to be the case, there are many positives about being exposed to Chinese as a toddler.  A few I identified:

- Chinese is a very different language from Indo-European languages like English, German or Spanish.  That makes it very difficult to learn when you are an adult.  All children around the world seem to learn their mother tongue at about the same age.  That seems to point to the fact that no language is too difficult to learn if you start early enough.

- Chinese dialects are tonal languages.  Basically, this means that the same word said in different tones changes meanings.  By learning Chinese, you are training your ear.  That can later be useful either for learning music or for learning any other tonal language without the great difficulty usually faced by westerners.

- Learning from a Chinese native is exposing a child to a very different culture and behavior.  Hopefully, he/she will have an easier time understanding different behaviors in the future.

Does it sound appealing?  Before you start looking for a new sitter, consider the following:

- There are many dialects spoken in China. And they are quite different between them, to the point of not being understood by speakers of another dialect.  The one you probably want your little one to learn is standard Mandarin, spoken by nearly one billion individuals, pushed as the official lingua franca in China.  It is important to make sure that the person you select to teach your child masters standard Mandarin.  Having attended university can be a good guarantee.  Still I recommend to double check credentials or test the language with a trusty third party if you want to make sure.

- Cantonese, the prestige dialect of Canton,  might be an interesting alternative, it is spoken in Hong Kong and Macau mainly, and also around the world in many Chinese communities. It has 6 different tones, which makes it more difficult to learn as an adult. It seems that Cantonese natives have an easier time learning Mandarin than the other way around.  Before you think this is nonsense consider the fact that, at least in my experience, speaking English doesn’t get you a job (it might ban you from getting one not to speak it, but that’s different) but speaking for instance Hungarian can indeed get you a job, by itself.  The rarer the better.  And Cantonese is natively spoken by as many people as Italian is.   Wu, spoken in the Shanghai area,  and Min, around Taiwan, are the following main dialects.

- Saturday classes probably won’t do.  At least not on their own.  Studies indicate that children need to be exposed to a different language about one third of their waking hours to become actively bilingual.  Less hours of immersion should lead to a slower acquisition and probably a not so great level.  If a minimum of hours cannot be committed, my advice would be to do something else less demanding than a language.

再见 (zài jiàn)