Learning Chinese

A few days ago, I started to see a wonderful progress in JD. You see, I was brought up in 3 languages, Mandarin, English and Malay. I know all these 3 languages well, both reading and writing. I enjoy knowing the different languages and my knowledge of these 3 languages have come in very handy. Quite often at work, I would be call upon to translate documents or be a translator to overseas guests.

A few years ago, I even got a chance to appear on a foreign TV simply because I knew how to speak Mandarin, hee!

But I seldom speak any other languages to JD apart from English. The reason is because my hubby speaks only English and over the years I got used to it and English became my first language.

9 months ago, I made a big change. I started speaking to Chloe in Mandarin from the day she was born. JD didn't like the sound of the language at first. Infact, he hated it. He would quite often turned around and said "Talk properly mommy" when I speak to him in Mandarin.

But I persisted. My husband even encouraged me to speak more Mandarin to JD and Chloe.

3 days ago, as I was putting Chloe to bed, JD turned around and said "恺仪，再见！" (See you again, Chloe)

I thought I was hearing stuff. But when I asked him to repeat again he said "恺仪，再见！" (See you again, Chloe)

That was a WOW moment for me. I felt so happy knowing that he has been listening and he said it without me telling him to. I was so glad. So happy. Yes! My efforts are just starting to bear fruit. I should keep going and not give up.

And tonight, he said "妹妹，晚安！" (goodnight sister) as I put Chloe into her cot.

Oh, I feel so happy knowing that he has been paying attention and learning at the same time.

And my dad, JD's waigong would be happy to know that he can count "一，二，三，四， 五" all by himself. No doubt we have a long way till he counts to 100 in Mandarin, but it is a working progress.

So, I am feeling a bit more positive of JD picking up another language. Because for a while I really thought that I have left it a bit late.

And I need to keep going and not give up.

On other hand, JD's sister, Miss C has been enjoying her music session with some of the chinese music CD my dad brought over.

At the same time, I am trying to learn the full lyrics of 小星星 (Twinkle twinkle little stars)

Haha, my life as a mom has just gotten even more exciting!

Here's just a short video of Chloe enjoying her music session!