Speak English
July 2nd, 2008 by Shooi
One of the things that I really want Bryan to learn at school is to communicate in English. Everyone at home speaks to him in Mandarin. I speak English to him but he usually ignores me until I repeat in Mandarin.
I will be enrolling him in a Chinese national school, so I know speaking Mandarin will not be a problem for him. And I heard enough about the standard of spoken English at the national school, so it may be just up to me to make sure that his spoken English will not be a problem. But how, if he refuse to speak English to me….
But in the last few weeks, he is beginning to speak more English to me.
It started with just basic, “yes, no, I don’t want.”
Now, he is beginning to say the whole sentences.
“Mummy I finish already. I want some more.”
“Mummy I want to read story book.”
And his pronunciation is definitely improving.
He is beginning to say “McDonalds” instead of “nenenno.”
“Queensbay mall” instead of “Ah-mo-mol.”
He’ll tell me -
“I want to go Queensbay Mall.”
“I want to go McDonalds eat burger.”
Last Sunday, at the butterfly farm, I asked him, “Bryan, are you scared.” He answered, “Yes, I want to cry.” 
Ya….when I feel scared, I wanna cry too. Very honest answer.
I am having the other problem, I want my children to converse in Cantonese. They refuse to speak Cantonese, only want to speak English.
My babysitter speak to them in Mandarin & Hokkien but they reply in English. Babysitter blurr.
Haiz…I have the same problem like Michelle.
hahahahah so bad of me but i find the last setence is so cute!
Shooi, we too speak mandarin at home. now qiqi is in a english speaking kindi, she really picks up a lot english now.
haiiiii… I’m facing just the opposite of you! Hope I wish Sean can converse in Mandarin to me, instead he speaks English & BM more nowadays… me too.. wish to send Sean to Chinese National School, hope that he can pick up Mandarin well.