Shaling's English Language Learner teacher gave us a heads up on a church in Springfield those holds "Chinese School" on Sunday afternoons. She encouraged us to find a way for Shaling to expand her language knowledge in her native tongue. After emailing the church, we were invited to stop by on a Sunday afternoon to find out more about the program.
Brock & Shaling stopped by there yesterday. Shaling interacted with several people of her Chinese heritage. After talking to her in Mandarin, they informed Brock that Shaling is too advanced to obtain any benefit from their program. In fact, they informed him that she is able to write Chinese characters and use Chinese words that would be rare for a child of her age to know.
We've been told by many people that she is bright, starting with the caregivers at her orphanage, continuing with our guide Connie in China, etc. It's apparent by how quickly she learning English that she is bright as well. However, this was pretty amazing to be told by native Chinese speakers that her Chinese mastery is far above even their expectations.
Shaling is slowly coming out of the honeymoon period and/or becoming comfortable enough that she is testing just how much power she has over decisions we make. She repeatedly told us "Shaling, no eat" when we went to the Godfather's Buffet following church yesterday. She made it clear that she wanted us to go to a Chinese restaurant. We think we've been taking her to Chinese restaurants too often. The list of foods she is willing to eat has actually decreased, rather than increased.
We put a slice of pizza and 5 meatballs on her plate. I knew she would like the meatballs, but probably not the pizza. We just wanted her to try it. She was refusing to eat any of it. "Shaling, no eat!" Brock told her she had to have 3 bites of each (the pizza & the meatballs). She sat there stubbornly and let the tears flow. We chose not to make a scene and just continued eating. Brock eventually reminded her that:
No eat.
No tv.
No DSi.
No bicycle.
She still sat there, so we continued eating and talking. When Brock got up to go get another plate of food, Shaling stood up and walked over to another table, refusing to even sit at our table. After sternly telling her twice to sit down to no avail, I got up and firmly put her in her seat...oh, was she livid! As I walked back over to my seat, she popped right back up. I turned and glared at her, commanding her to sit down, which she quickly did, but shed some more tears.
After Preston, Brock, & I were done eating, we starting to grab our jackets to go. At this point, Shaling decided she'd go ahead and eat. She quickly ate all 5 meatballs, showing us the thumbs up sign and telling us they were good. However, after one bite of pizza, we got a thumbs down sign and a look of disgust. Figuring she'd had 6 bites, even if they weren't the exact 6 bites we requested, we told her she didn't have to eat anymore. She tumbled into the bathroom, where I followed. She was again her smiling, happy self. When we came out, she grabbed another plate and walked up to the buffet, but ultimately decided nothing looked appealing to her.
Last Monday, Brock & I both noticed a couple of loose teeth in Shaling's mouth. One in particular looked as if it might fall out THAT day. She wouldn't let us touch it or go anywhere near it. Brock tried to explain that concept of the tooth fairy to her. However, she looked at him like he was nuts and then asked me, "Mom, Dad - tooth, pillow, money?" I think she was stunned to hear me confirm such nonsense.
That tooth finally fell out on it's own. Yesterday. I was surprised it took so long. So, the tooth fairy came for the tooth and left $2 under Shaling's pillow. I'm impressed with the tooth fairy's flying skills that she was able to navigate through that wind & thunderstorm that hit last night. Shaling found the money during the night and came into our room to show it to me...still seeming quite confused as to how that worked.
This blog began as a place to share Shaling's journey from rice in China to popcorn in Illinois. However, it has evolved to include all sorts of happenings in the Reynolds family.
Even though her Chinese is advanced for now, it would still be to her benefit to be enrolled in Chinese school to MAINTAIN what she has. Our daughter was four at adoption and lost her Chinese within about six months because she was no longer exposed to it (she spoke Cantonese and a lot of local dialect that could not be duplicated stateside). Even though your daughter is older, she can still lose her first language as it's replaced with English. I know of an adult Korean who was nine at adoption and though she has taken Korean as an adult, she has never been able to (re)master the language she was once so fluent in.
ReplyDeleteWe are in the process of adopting two seven year old boys from Shenzhen and we're hoping that since they both speak Mandarin (and will have each other) that maybe we'll have a better chance at helping them to be bilingual. We do Rosetta Stone Mandarin in our homeschool and hope that exposure will also help them to maintain at least some of their language.
Karyn,
ReplyDeleteIt was our intention to enroll her anyway in an effort to maintain what she knows, but the school discouraged us...insisting she wouldn't benefit.
We've followed enough other families journeys with older children and watched the "Wo Ai Ni, Mommy" documentary, so we realize she is going to lose her Mandarin if we don't do something.
We would really like her to be able to maintain it and will explore other options.
Amy, Check with James Wang. He likes to be seen as an uncle to the older adoptees to help them maintain their Chinese and some of their culture. You might see if he and his wife would be willing
ReplyDeleteThanks, Shannon. She's been around James several times...we've had him over for supper even. He was hoping the Chinese class would work out as well. He is thinking about starting up his once a week Mandarin classes for adoptive families again.
ReplyDeleteShannon, James came over yesterday and we talked to him about it. He also confirmed that this particular Chinese school is way too basic to do Shaling any good. You may already know this, but there are two kinds of Chinese characters -- traditional & simplified. Most kids her age wouldn't even be familiar with the traditional, but she knows them very well.
ReplyDelete