Learn to Speak Chinese

If you haven't figured it out by now, I am a terrible Chinese speaker. In fact, my mother is fond of telling other people that, of her four daughters, my Mandarin is the worst.

I was raised in a home where Chinese, Taiwanese, and English were spoken interchangeably. Through a combination of rebellion, shame at being different, and laziness, I wound up speaking English and only retained a smattering of Chinese. The latter comes out very mangled with bad syntax and an occasional Southern accent slipping in. Craig claims he can speak better Chinese than I.

Like it or not, I have raised Andrew to speak English. He knows bits and pieces of domestic Chinese - "time to eat," "brush your teeth." However, teaching him Chinese was a very conscious effort on my part that seldom seemed to happen. What a loss.

On the other hand, with William, I find myself speaking about 70% Chinese and 30% English. What little Chinese I've retained has mostly sufficed. After all, I don't need to - I can't - converse about politics with an 8 month-old child. Our conversations mostly run the range of "Let's go downstairs," "Put your arm into your jacket," or "Did you make a poop? I can smell something."

Because William hails from a solely Chinese-speaking environment, I'm hoping that hearing Chinese from me will make his transition easier. Oddly enough, there is not much of a conscious effort this time around; most of the words just slip out. Sometimes they're mispronounced, but at least it's something.