How I Fell into Teaching My Kids Mandarin (and Learn to Love It)
Last year I fell into Chinese* fandom via random YouTube algorithm. I ended up chatting with fellow fans online (many of them overseas Chinese with varying degrees of fluency), when I came to a sudden realization:
If I don't teach my kids Chinese culture, nobody else will.
Prior to this, I was resigned to River and Brooks** growing up as Asian Americans who are only Asians in the broadest brushstrokes of the term. We're not a traditional Chinese family, I'm not fluent in Mandarin, and my husband can’t even write his own Chinese name. It's an uphill battle teaching them Bahasa Indonesia; how much harder would teaching them Mandarin be?
( In a way, I see the language as secondary to the culture. )
* It was a Chinese supernatural show that's so bad it cycles back to being great. All the budget goes into the two main characters and the opening theme song, and nothing else.
** Their online handles, not their rl names
*** River knows me well enough to know that complaining is useless.
If I don't teach my kids Chinese culture, nobody else will.
Prior to this, I was resigned to River and Brooks** growing up as Asian Americans who are only Asians in the broadest brushstrokes of the term. We're not a traditional Chinese family, I'm not fluent in Mandarin, and my husband can’t even write his own Chinese name. It's an uphill battle teaching them Bahasa Indonesia; how much harder would teaching them Mandarin be?
( In a way, I see the language as secondary to the culture. )
* It was a Chinese supernatural show that's so bad it cycles back to being great. All the budget goes into the two main characters and the opening theme song, and nothing else.
** Their online handles, not their rl names
*** River knows me well enough to know that complaining is useless.