Are you a bilingual?
I have met quite a few friends who can speak two or more foreign languages very well in NYC. However,there seems to be few “ABC” (“American Born Chinese”) who became a bilingual in Chinese and English. I encountered an ABC guy recently. He asked me how to improve his Cantonese. Honestly speaking, his spoken Cantonese is broken and childish. Like many ABC, he can not read and write Chinese characters at all.
I felt a pity for him, because at this time more and more Americans are learning Chinese(Mandarin). I think there are lots of factors that explain this phenomenon, such as parents and society’s attitude on kids speaking Chinese. Kids might feel unhappy or unnecessary to learn Chinese. The guy’s parents only speak Cantonese at home, and he has some friends speaking Cantonese. But he is used to speaking to English even people speak Cantonese to him. He said he feels more comfortable when he speak English. I guess it should be a struggle for him to speak Cantonese. Without knowing the reasons, he wants to speak Cantonese better now. I recommended he to watch some Hongkong TV or movies and to listen to Cantonese songs first. I still believe that high motivation is the best teacher. How to learn comes the second.
At the same time, I found that raising a bilingual or trilingual child is not easy, although I am going to try it in the near future. If you are a successful bilingual, share your experience with me.
