Less Chinese woes, please!

I was sorting out Kai's P2 books one day late last year or early this year when he said he wasn’t looking forward to P3 coz of exams. So later I told him that he had to start speaking more Mandarin or he would fail his Chinese oral exam! 你想不及格吗？He said 不要 with this sad face. 阿娘暗笑到不行 :p

Some time during the circuit breaker, I started reading Chinese passages or short stories to Kai in the afternoon, and later got him to read as well. 

Recently, I started speaking only Mandarin to them at bedtime three times a week. I also pretend that I couldn't understand English so they must speak Mandarin to me.

The first evening I did that, I happened to lie down with Yang first. It was Yu's turn next. When I was with Yu, Kai was trying to chat with Yang. Suddenly, Kai asked, "Are you crying?" Yang was quietly lying on his bed facing down and towards the window. But Kai saw tears on his face when he went over. I got up to check on Yang who then burst into loud sobs!

Turned out that he was afraid I wouldn't understand him forever!

My poor baby!

Now they are used to Chinese nights three times a week. Kai tries and sometimes he asks Yang for a word. But more recently, he always uses English here and there to trick me into responding to him - 哦……你懂我的英语！Grrr.... 

Yang decided he would not speak at all! Of course, that doesn't pan out most of the time - my kids can't shut up! In fact, last night, Yang told me two Chinese stories he learnt in school - he hasn't done that for a while so I was very happy to hear his little stories again!

Yu tries to use Mandarin but he usually lapses back into English until I remind him. But I must say that he has a good chance to use more of the language coz he spends the most time in a local preschool!

Watching 大圣归来 last Saturday

I watched it with Kai before. Today, Yang said he wanted to watch it again - he could even tell me a couple of funny parts in the show. Yu didn't like it much - he is still more restless than his brothers.

We're still watching Paw Patrols and Peppa Pig in Chinese after lunch on weekends. Sometimes if we have more time, we watch some Mandopop or 诗歌朗读 on Youtube. I even got Kai and Yang to sing karaoke with me - 蜗牛与黄鹂鸟！

Every little bit helps. I'm also trying to speak Mandarin to them more. But time is running out for Kai who will have exams next year. I told him that if he doesn't buck up by end of July, he can say hello to Chinese tuition! No choice - I know first hand that languages get harder to learn with age. 

This week, I decided to go into drills and went through word lists with Kai. We started with 100 words. He could read about 90%. When we got to 250 words from another list, he could read about 80%. Still not bad. In fact, he seemed quite ok with this exercise. I think knowing that he could read that many words helped boost his confidence a little :) Will continue with this but I think I'll pull out the old Chinese flashcards for Yang when he gets to primary school next year!