...and then there were two!

Jiang Hua Yi Yu!

"Children growing up learning two or more languages simultaneously can do so without difficulty. They learn at an early age about the arbitrary relation between words and their referents." (Reynolds, 1990)

It's true! Compared to the rate at which I pick up Chinese words, I think DN's learning curve is really a learning totem pole. I am humbled. -_-

He spends his days with PF's parents who only speak Chinese and Hokkien so it's no wonder that he understands English and Chinese and a smattering of Hokkien.

In Chinese, he understands when we say...

• Qu chuan xue (Go wear your shoes)
• Qu diu diao (Throw this away)
• Tui qu ku ku gu gu de fang jian (Push it into Aunt's room)
• Er duo / bi zi zai na li? (Where's your nose / ear?)
• Tang tang he shui (Lie down and drink your water)
• ...
  

And he knows what these are...

• Gou (dog)
• Mao (cat)
• Pai shou (clap hands)
• Xiao xiao (smile)
• Deng (light/lamp)
  
• ...
  

And now, we think he knows how to read Chinese too. (haha) Today, he dug into the pile of newspapers, tossed aside all the copies of The Straits Times, found a copy of the Chinese papers and brought them to his grandpa! Together with his reading glasses! LOL.

This he definitely DID NOT get from me because I am the sad monolingual one who told one of my student's parents during Parent's Day that her son was going to retire (tui siu) if he did not buck up and start studying. (I was supposed to say "tui bu" - "lag behind".) I knew something was wrong when Mrs X tried to stifle a snort.

Humph.