The whole world is learning ABC, why should I let my two-year-old daughter learn Chinese?

A few years ago, I was interning in China and accompanied a dozen Canadian students to visit China. There was a Chinese child among them, let’s call her Little C. Little C immigrated to Canada with his parents when he was three years old. He can only say hello and thank you in Chinese. She is very curious about China and asks me some dumbfounding questions from time to time. For example, does China have Internet access in rural areas? When we visited a historical building, the children were all interested in the stone calligraphy on the wall. Because Little C was the only Chinese face among the children in the same class, a white classmate asked Little C excitedly: \”What do these words on the wall mean? You must know it!\” I silently observed Little C, with pink and phoenix eyes and delicate black hair. Hair, two shallow dimples when smiling. If she were wearing Hanfu, she would look like a beautiful lady from an ancient painting who could recite poems and compose rhymes. At this time, my imagination was interrupted: Little C shrugged helplessly and said to his classmates, \”How did I know that I can\’t even write Chinese characters?\” Later, I went to study in the United States and met many Chinese children like Little C. This year is my seventh year living in the United States. My daughter is two years old. We are also facing the same problem that Little C may face: As my daughter grows older, she comes into contact with more and more American children in libraries, early education classes and kindergartens. The more children are exposed to English, the more frequently they are exposed to English. Without stable Chinese input, the focus of their daughter’s mother tongue will increasingly deviate toward English. So we speak Chinese at a fixed time every day and participate in Chinese parent-child activities. We will celebrate every traditional Chinese festival and spend at least an hour every day reading Chinese picture books together. There are few Chinese picture books in the United States. They either have outdated content and difficult to pronounce language, or the translations are inaccurate. My daughter’s hundreds of Chinese picture books were all brought from China in piles by my relatives and friends at the risk of losing friends. The whole world is learning ABC, why should I put so much effort into letting my daughter learn Chinese? Chinese is the language of the world. From a utilitarian point of view, learning more languages ​​means more possibilities. Americans have always been ridiculed by the world as an \”English-speaking people\”, but these past few years have been completely different. Chinese is the language of the future, which is generally recognized by many Americans. In the immersion Chinese kindergarten I visited in New York (immersion school, which teaches all in Chinese and aims to make children proficient in Chinese listening, speaking, reading and writing, as fluent as their native language), nearly half were white children. In the past two years, because I often take Su Bao to participate in parent-child activities, I have come into contact with many American mothers. I found that the higher the income and education level of American families, the more they value their children’s ability to master foreign languages ​​and understand the world. And more and more American families are beginning to believe that if their children can only choose one foreign language, it must be Chinese. Of course, Chinese and English are both languages ​​of the world, and each is important. There is no need to choose one or the other. Culture can build children’s self-identity. When studying abroad, I met many children like Little C in the previous article. They came to the United States with their parents at a very young age, and were full of unfamiliarity and slightly embarrassing curiosity about their parent culture. They were asked by their parents to attend Chinese classes on weekends, but as soon as they walked out of the classroom after school, the children\’s communication language immediately changed.The engraving became Chinese. I also have some friends like this. After I got to know them better, I realized their troubles: in the eyes of the Chinese, they are Americans, and in the eyes of the Americans, they are Chinese. In the end, they don’t know how to define themselves. . I remember that an English early childhood education institution once came to me and was very proud to say that their students were better at English than Chinese and could communicate exclusively in English at home without speaking Chinese. I thought about it carefully and found this to be quite sad. I have shared many methods of English enlightenment on my official account, but I never think that it is worth celebrating that Chinese children are fluent in English than their mother tongue (Chinese). Cultural background is an element in building human self-identity, and it is also a kind of protection of self-identity. Maybe one day my daughter will define herself by other cultural backgrounds, that\’s an option. But at least she won\’t say that I am awkwardly stuck between two cultures. The Chinese cultural enlightenment I hope to gain has never had the opportunity to be exposed to it. This kind of self-identity is many times more important than the utilitarian purpose mentioned above. Language is the carrier of cultural inheritance. When I was a student, I went camping with my classmates in Acadia National Park in the eastern United States. It was mid-autumn, and it was already very cold in Maine in October. In the evening, a group of people roasted marshmallows around the campfire and drank beer. Several boys used their mobile phones to search for radio stations, and somehow they found a domestic radio station. The radio station was playing Li Bai\’s \”Guan Shan Yue\”: The bright moon rises above the Tianshan Mountains, among the vast sea of ​​clouds. The wind blows tens of thousands of miles across Yumen Pass. At that time, the autumn insects were rustling, the cold moon was high, the bonfire was crackling, and the waves were constantly beating on the cliff. Everyone sat around under the starry sky in a foreign country, silently sharing a common sentiment. Now that I think about it, I realize that that feeling is actually a cultural connection. The carrier of this cultural connection is our language, which is rich in historical heritage, and our common understanding of language. Yes, English cannot explain the beauty of ink paintings, square characters, traditional festivals, Tang poetry and Song rhyme, and the twenty-four solar terms. No matter how elegant the English language is, it is difficult to translate the artistic conception of \”the moon is setting, crows are crying, the sky is covered with frost\” and \”the chess pieces are being knocked and the lanterns are falling\”. I remember a Chinese teacher once said, why do I ask you to memorize ancient poems? Maybe you still can\’t fully understand the profound meaning of a certain poem. However, as people’s experience increases, the profound meaning of poems will also grow with them. When I memorized these poems when I was young, they became a part of me like friends. At a certain moment in your future life, you will hear \”Where is the Rimu Village Gate\” in a foreign country, and you will suddenly understand its full meaning. You will feel that you are really lucky to have such a poem as your companion in life. But the premise is that you have to read it and memorize it. I work hard because I hope my children can be so lucky. My daughter is two years old. When we go out, she will say to me in the back seat: Mom, I want to listen to the Three Character Classic. When American friends came to the house, she would turn on her story machine to listen to them Chinese children\’s songs, and then explain to them seriously and slightly proudly: It\’s Chinese. During this time, she also began to read the Republic of China textbooks on the bookshelf. \”Enlightenment of Rhythm\” and \”Thousand Character Essay\”, studying them upside down, looking fascinated by the square characters. Two years old, an age that doesn’t require deep understanding. I don’t know what my daughter’s Chinese proficiency will be in the future, but every time the little girl recites “clouds to rain, snow to wind, evening sunshine to clear sky” in a decent way, my heart will be illuminated with happiness. .