Foreign language

Mulan and Miya are bilingual.  I speak to them in English; Mama speaks to them in Mandarin Chinese.

But learning a language as a native speaker is different from learning as a foreigner.  It would be good for the girls to also learn a foreign language.

In term 4, the girls started learning New Zealand Sign Language through HASCA.  It is being offered again in term 1, and we were strongly considering continuing it as the girls' foreign language.

But after a few back and forths, we decided that instead of Sign Language the girls would learn Cantonese Chinese as their foreign language.  So, for the past several weeks the girls have been having weekly formal Cantonese lessons.

On the plus side for NZ Sign Language, it is one of New Zealand's official languages.  But we also found a couple of big minuses -- (a) it seems that there are lots of different sign languages around the world, so NZ Sign Language would only be for local New Zealand use, and (b) we (currently) don't know anyone in our daily life who uses it, so (currently) it would only be used in the classroom.  We feel, then, that the girls learnt enough in term 4 that should they ever need to know it in future they will already have a sense of what to do.

Cantonese, however, is much more practically useful for us.  It is Mama's second native language, and in everyday life she uses it with some of her friends and family.  Mulan and Miya would be able to connect much better with the extended family, and also it would allow them to fit in better whenever we return to Guangzhou.

The obvious other plus for Cantonese is that Mama is the teacher, so lessons are free!

Meanwhile, I have restarted formal Mandarin lessons (also with Mama).  I learnt for a year full time back in 2008/9, and since then I have sort-of made do with partly understanding bits in everyday life.  But we thought I should return to weekly lessons.  It is painful, but for the best.